Early Pornography and Its Evolution Through the Ages Essay Example

tools to sculpt stone, marble, and wood. Researchers have found numerous wood and stone figures of women. Almost all of them share the same traits of having full figures, large-breasts and pregnant bellies. The most recognizable of these figurines is the Venus of Willendorf. It is said to be one of the earliest, man-made depictions of the naked body. The statue is just 4-inches tall and was discovered in Austria on the banks of the Danube River. According to archaeologist Paul Mellars in Nature magazine, these figurines 'could be seen as bordering on the pornographic.' These Paleolithic Venus figurines were more than likely symbols of fertility or had some sort of religious value. They were not something meant for sexual excitement. Many others however venture to assume that early man used these figures while masturbating.

When you think Egypt, you think of pyramids, gold, pharos and mummies. Not sex or pornography, right? Personally, I’ve never heard of any Egyptian art that is sexual in nature. Apparently, I’m wrong and sexual imagery is quite common. Egyptian paintings just seemed to lack the strong sexual qualities that classical art of the Renaissance had. When investigating Egyptian tombs and temples, Archeologists discovered that the walls were covered with paintings and carved reliefs that depicted suggested sexuality in many forms. Most commonly is of husband and wife are depicted sitting side by side. French scholar Phillipe Derchain comments “the extremely common scene in mortuary art is of husband and wife sitting soberly next to each other in the presence of their family. This symbolizes their sexual union as a reality even after death.” Some Egyptologists have suggested that to maintain

decorum, a kind of visual code was commonly used in 'high' Egyptian art to express sexual or erotic messages. Erotic art wasn’t just limited to the tombs though. The really explicit artwork that was created was not deemed appropriate for temples and very few pieces still remain intact. The most sexually graphic or pornographic work of Egyptian art that remains today is called the Turin Erotic Papyrus. It is on display in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. The severely damaged papyrus scroll was painted around 1292-1075 B.C.E. The scroll is just over eight feet long and contains multiple sections. The section of graphic sexual images contains the same man having sexual relations with an attractive young woman. The woman, while virtually naked, is better dressed and more “attractive” than her partner. Is this a story about the gods in a coded message? One man’s dreams of being with the queen? Or a conception ritual or simply a piece of everyday erotica? Historian’s aren’t quite sure.

Jumping forward, the ancient Greeks and Romans were known to have created countless sculptures and frescos depicting hetero and homosexual sex, orgies, oral sex and much, much more. The largest collection of pornographic material during that time came from the city of Pompeii. While excavating the ancient city, archeologists found hundreds of sexual sculptures and frescoes. Most were on the walls of brothels and bathhouses, but surprisingly the common household also had its fair share as well. The most famous piece recovered from the ashes is of the mythical god Pan. The sculpture is of Pan, the half man-half goat having sex with a goat. When the piece was last

on display at the British museum it was kept out of the general public’s view and curtained off in an age restricted area. Paul Roberts, the museums senior curator, said “the statue may be unconventional today, but would not have raised eyebrows in Roman Pompeii. The Romans would see the god goat having sex with a goat, so it wouldn't have troubled them at all. Roberts continued 'It’s because the owners are cultured that they have the sculpture of Pan and the goat. They also have a sense of humor, because to a Roman that would have been humorous, not offensive.'

During the second century in South America, the Moche people of ancient Peru were said to be painting and sculpting sexual scenes with ceramics. It wasn’t until the 1980s when archaeologists began unearthing tombs that contained detailed murals, sculptures and ceramic pottery that had detailed scenes of sexual encounters. These Moche sculptures regularly show couples engaged in anal sex. The act of vaginal sex is almost rarely depicted, and archeologists know this because of the detailed the genitalia on the sculptures. Little is known about this ancient civilization, but the pieces that have been found, may in fact represent the most detailed account of sexual encounters that were left by ancient people.

In India round the end of the second century the Kama Sutra was being created. The Hindu people of that time are credited as being the first to have pornographic pictures printed as a book. Fearing that these early paper scripts would not survive history, the Hindu people decorated what are now the temples of Khajuraho with figurines of people having sex. This third-century

text is considered by some to be pornographic because of its explicit imagery. A lot of scholars tend to disagree because it is more of a lifestyle and relationship manual and is still enjoyed by many to this day.

Moving farther east the Japanese began a movement called Shunga in a woodblock print style format. One of the most iconic Shunga images was created by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. The print features a “satisfied” looking woman entangled with a few octopi. This famous work is said to have brought nudity, bestiality, and even the female orgasm to the forefront of fine Japanese art. The attraction of shunga, or “spring pictures,” is Its appeal to men and women. On one hand, you have a fine piece of art where men and women are partaking in sexual acts. On the other hand, you’ll have artwork that is comedic, because of its focus on an awkward situation that is funnier than arousing. These works produced during the 17th century and beyond were banned from Japanese museums or galleries for a substantial part of the 20th century. This early Japanese pornography was said to be passed around from friend to friend, and sometimes from parent to child. They were thought of as both an educational manual and a good luck charm. This good luck charm mentality went so far as to be illustrated inside the armor of some Japanese Samurai and other Chinese warriors. Shunga art is still alive and well to this day. It continues to inspire artists and spawned a newer style called Hentai. It has a lot of orgies, and monsters and bestiality. It isn’t drawn

or reproduced in a traditional style but, resembles more of the anime or manga styles enjoyed today.

Fast forwarding in time a bit, to France in 1830, Louis Daguerre created the first practical process of photography. There were others forms of photography before his, but these new Daguerreotype photographs had superior quality and detail when compared to other earlier methods. They were also more fade resistant. At this time, these all nude photographs had to be registered by the French government as academic works. Then they could be sold to school or studios. Soon, there were a lot of nude photographs that were being registered and marketed as painting and sculpting aides for artists. There were drawbacks to these early daguerreotypes photos however. The exposure rate of these new photos ranged from just a few minutes to over fifteen. Models now couldn’t move around. They had to stay posed and still for an enormous amount of time. Of course, a lot of these photographs seemed to vanish from art schools or studios. Some never made it in the first place. At the time one single picture could cost up to a week's salary, so the audience for these underground nudes pretty much consisted of other artists and the social elite. It was cheaper for the common man to hire a prostitute and experience sex acts than to own a picture of some in the 1800s. Sometime between 1841-1860 William Talbot created a new photographic negative/positive process. It was now possible to quickly expose a negative and create an almost limitless number of prints from it. This new photographic reproduction process made a huge marketplace for pornographic

pictures. Practically overnight, France became the worlds first center for printed pornographic material. Most of the pictures were said to be sold near train stations, by traveling salesmen and women in the streets. They were often sold in sets and exported internationally, mainly to England and the United States.

As time went on these pornographic images turned from a set of photographs into full on pornographic magazines. The earliest such magazine was called The Pearl Monthly Journal in the 1880s. There were others throughout the years, but none were ever as popular as Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Magazine from the 1950s. Because of the cost effectiveness printing a magazine offers, there were soon magazines for every type and fetish. Magazines were the primary medium in which pornography was consumed until the 1980s with the invention of the VCR. All though Pornographic moves had been enjoyed by many, this new technology paved the way for the average person to leave the seedy movie theater and allow them to sit in the privacy of their home. These new video cassettes created a larger pornographic market. It allowed companies to explore different genres and fetishes. With the 1980s winding to a close the Pornographic CD-ROM was starting to take off. Instead of popping in a tape and hitting play, you could interact a bit with the material and choose exactly what you were looking for quickly. They also offered a slim design for better concealment. They did lack in video quality and sales declined drastically with the internet became a household name.

The Internet became and still is the preferred source of pornography for people today. It allows the user to

view it with privacy and now offers the ability to interact with others. Technology has advanced so far with digital cameras, computers and phones. It allows someone the ability to watch or create pornography easily. Because of these technological advances big production companies have been losing money and voyeur pornography has been taking off. More than half of all new pornography that is available today is produced solely by amateurs using phones and small cameras.

The range of erotic or pornographic materials throughout history is vast and has adapted to each new medium. Be it sculpture, paintings, photography, video, or the internet. It suggests to me that sex is more important to humans that we probably originally thought. Human beings have been and will continue to be interested in images of sex will use whatever medium they have available to record and share those erotic adventures. I wonder what’s next…

References

1. https://www.livescience.com/9971-stone-age-carving-ancient-dildo.html
2. https://www.livescience.com/5502-men-agree-hot-women.html
3. https://www.livescience.com/2254-study-bisexuality-experimental-phase.html
4. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091201111202.htm
5. https://img.culturacolectiva.com/content/2017/03/Porn-History-ancient-sculpture-w636-h600.jpg
6. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/pompeii/9848658/Pompeii-exhibition-50-shades-of-Pompeii.html
7. https://www.museumofsex.com/
8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCjOJgPmK10
9. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FCFOEtZdtMoC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=1980s+pornography+history&source=bl&ots=ZX4SIhLJcn&sig=I1JWmI8w2DhP8vcoTZVY_2q9nrI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=718JVdS2IPKy7QbSwIHABg&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=1980s%20pornography%20history&f=false
10. Leighman, P. (2006). Pornography Film and Culture.
11. Berry, J. (2007). The Complete Pompeii Conard, N. J. Nature Magazine 459, 248–252 (2009).
12. Mellars, P. Nature Magazine 459, 176–177 (2009).
13. http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/07/news/adfg-pottery7
14. http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/dcrawford/weismantel.pdf
15. http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/eros_in_egypt.htm
16. http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2015/01/history-of-internet-porn/
17. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/prosecuting/overview.html
18. https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/314
19. https://www.ozy.com/flashback/how-pornography-saved-civilization/40480