Georgia O’Keefe’s
early twentieth century paintings of the Black Iris flower are more readily perceived as her metaphoric preoccupation with female
genitalia. It seems to me that the Nature worshipping era of the remote past would have instead perceived spirituality in her artworks. They would
have definitely been taken to denote the awesome fertility powers of the Mother Goddess. However, since Freudian interpretations of sexuality
impacted social knowledge, connotative associations appear to be grasped first in the global forum.
Remnant artifacts of Nature worship have been found from the Indus Valley civilization of ancient India dated thousands of years before
Christ. Several nations of the Asian
sub-continent, independent in present day, share
this common heritage. Excavations ongoing mainly in two countries, India and Pakistan, at Mohenjodaro,
Harappa and other places, have so far uncovered only a small percentage of the
buried cultural wealth. But, although the hieroglyphics of the time have not yet been deciphered,
surely the art forms discovered there can tell a story of the time! They could give us an inkling of the stark social
differences of mindset and value regarding gender, past to present.
Various objects made and used by the people have been
discovered. Many figurines of the artwork found have accentuated breasts and
pelvis. Does this mean women were objectified then as now? No, say
the fact-finders, the exaggerations are symbolic. They represent divinity, not humans - the cult of the Mother Goddess, the Earth Mother or Nature – and invoke attributes of bounty of the deity. Made of clay or
terracotta, they show kinship with Earth.
A website collecting historical information
about deities explains the point:
As significant and suggestive is her iconography -
the large breasts filled with milk, uncovered genital organs,
beautifully dressed hair and a good number of bangles on her wrists. This is
the iconic perception of the Being who bears, feeds, takes all calamities on
her head and covers the born one under her protective umbrella and, at the same
time, defines in the modeling of her form an absolute aesthetic beauty. As
suggest her bangles, the traditional emblem of marital state, besides a mother
she is also a consort. Thus, in her material manifestation, She represents,
with absolute motherhood, also the absolute womanhood. She causes life and
sustains it, and is also the cause of life, its inspiration and aspiration, and
the reason to live.
Social demarcations would thus have dual levels to span the
universe – the gods that live in the heavens, and humans on earth, descendent from them
or fallen, stripped of powers. A saying in India, that what is fine for the gods is not fine for mortals, reminds the humans of their ultimate fallibility. And that the all-powerful divine beings need to be worshipped for appeasement and blessings, because the humans are too
puny to manage on their own against harsh reality.
In this ancient Indian context, the female form has spiritual and religious significance. Because of the association with divine functions, women most likely enjoyed a high
position in society. Perhaps to be born female was to be blessed! It is a distinct possibility that matriarchy, which now exists in pockets around the country, was far more pervasive. A ritual originating in fertility rites that to this day
initiates Hindu image worship, is the ghot puja. It is an earthenware pot
filled with water and inscribed with a figure in vermilion, which symbolizes the
pregnant womb. It invokes the Mother Goddess. The traditional Indian
reverence for the mother figure may have its roots therein as well.
By the third millennium BCE, the people of Indus Valley had learned to
cast in metal. The bronze Dancing Girl is the
most famous amongst the human and animal artifacts found. The difference from the Mother Goddess is immediately
apparent - she lacks the physical exaggerations. Perhaps a little crude in face and limb technically, the
statuette nevertheless indicates the status of women of the time. A quote from
British archaeologist, Mortimer Wheeler, describes its form and feature:
There is her little Baluchi-style face with pouting
lips and insolent look in the eye. She's about fifteen years old I should
think, not more, but she stands there with bangles all the way up her arm and
nothing else on. A girl perfectly, for the moment, perfectly confident of
herself and the world. There's nothing like her, I think, in the world.
Indeed, attitude is immediately apparent in the
body language. The pose – the hand on hip, the cocked stance, the lifted chin,
the half-closed eyes, and the slanted look exude the impudence and comfort in skin
hard to find amongst women today. Some writers suggest that the figurine is transgender. It is interesting to think, in extension, that gender may not have always been the divisive social issue it is at present.
Identifying as female, in the image of the divine, may well have been totally
acceptable in society.
Her
nudity makes no difference to our appreciation of the artwork. Perhaps we
notice it only because we belong to a different era,
socialized into a different value system. Maybe in the early times, women were unused to suffering body issues! In remote regions of India, in tribes
isolated from the mainstream to preserve their ancient culture, nakedness is their way of life. Jarawa women, for instance, may be more
comfortable in the natural than many more civilized others might be
fully clothed!
During
the age of Nature worship, the people lived in awe of the environment. The power of the Goddess was perceived in every creation in the
environment, and they bowed in reverence. Their imagery has been in celebration of the Divine. Against the spiritual backdrop, it is no surprise that temple art - rock carvings and cave paintings - are pretty explicit on the bountiful attributes of Nature.
From there and then to here and now, how the perspective has changed! We expect that we control the environment today; hence we patronize the past. In the process, we tend to lose awareness of the sociocultural context of the age - and the artistic intent. Women, as a group, are habitually objectified. I remember overhearing some tourists a while ago. Eyes gleaming, the young men conversed raucously about the full figure displays of chicks in the temple artworks. It is not the fault of the artists but of particular sociocultural learning that perceptions of gender channel as they do.
