Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia By M ...

we discuss. We make no overt claim as to whether these representations of female figures in display posture were the result of a complex pattern of diffusion or were repeatedly created at different times and places. Instead, we view our task as one of assembling as much relevant data as possible and presenting it in a clear and coherent fashion—including a careful accounting of the chronology and distribution of the various iconographical forms. We leave it to our readers to form their own opinion, if they wish to do so, about how to account for the uncanny resemblances which exist among so many different iterations of female figures in display posture.

Secondly, we adopt a nondogmatic stance concerning apotropaic and decorative functions of figural representations. We believe that it is impossible to fully enter the minds of the ancients and to perfectly comprehend why they chose to put women showing their genitals in places where they would surely be seen by many viewers. In choosing the terms that we employ herein, we mean merely to suggest that these are possible interpretations of the function of some of the images presented in this book. Indeed, we recognize that in some instances other aspects—including the whimsical and the erotic—may be operative.