Sex, Myth, and Metaphor in Moche Pottery

Download or read book Sex, Myth, and Metaphor in Moche Pottery written by Andrew David Turner and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Moche culture (AD 1-800) of Peru's north coast produced a series of poorly understood ceramic vessels that graphically portray deities, humans, and other beings engaged in sexual activity. Analysis suggests that certain scenes involving a deity referred to as "Wrinkle Face" convey themes of agricultural fertility, mythic origins, regeneration, and the veneration of ancestors. Moche artists produced works in a richly metaphorical visual language that was broadly legible. The vessels present a model for the workings of a vital cosmos in which human reproduction played a central role, and broadly shared cosmological themes in the Andes were manipulated to suit Moche ideology.