thelureofnoma.com and the interest in seclusion of girls at puberty

Seclusion of girls at puberty has been a topic which was discussed in Western literature for more than a century. Similarly, Palaeolithic Venuses have been a hot topic in many fields of study for a long time. Towards the end of 2010, connection between the two was brought together in a paper published in this website as it was deemed important to conceptual basis on which the blog site was founded[1]. Ideas and opinions can be forced upon people in a manner similar to selling merchandise. Like many fashion trends, the ideas so forced upon may disappear from our collective memory after their successful foray. However, a decent idea may slowly find its way through incessant scrutiny of interested people and bid it’s time to avoid such an untimely demise.  In a similar manner, if the view bringing together seclusion of girls at puberty and the Palaeolithic Venus figurines is strong enough to survive such a deep analysis, it would be treated as having some merit.

Over the last two years, ideas considered in this web space might have contributed to kindling of new interest in the topic of seclusion of girls at puberty. Of course, there has also been a Wikipedia page on this subject for a while now. Based on Wikipedia article, there is a Facebook community page on the topic as well. From the statistics covering the ninety days prior to the day this article was written, the Wiki page received about 15 page views a day.  According to Full wiki, based on the page views, this has become the fifty sixth ranking topic in Cultural Anthropology[2]. There has also been a recent book published based on the internet articles and sold on Amazon[3]. Importance of all of this is the awareness created among many people, enthusiastic about forgotten or dying cultural practices.

Even though some general interest in the above topics is visible from the foregoing discussion, scholars and researchers in relevant fields would perhaps be critical of the ideas expressed in these web pages as pseudo-scientific or not rigorously argued. Apart from a tolerant few with open minds, many, if they happen to see these pages, even wouldn’t pay much attention to the viewpoints therein. As practitioners of science, such stringent standards of theirs should be applauded. Science, through the mechanism of ‘natural selection’ picks the ‘fittest’ ideas. However, before the practices such as seclusion of girls at puberty fades away from our collective cultural memory, it is useful to look back at them to see new ideas which these dying rituals can bring to bear. Do we have evidence to completely reject connection between the prehistoric Venuses and puberty rituals? Assuming that these are connected, what do we see as its impact on our long-held views? Would there be a shamanistic aspect associated with these puberty rituals?  Why did our ancestors burden themselves with such taboos? Can there be any connection between the caves like Lascaux, Chauvet, Rouffignac and Perche Merele and the female puberty rituals? We only can speculate[4].



[1] We do not believe that the origin of religion should be relegated to our animal ancestry. To place it on an equal footing, in spirit not in logical rigor, similar to science we need to look for its origin in our human ingenuity.

[2] http://top-topics.thefullwiki.org/Cultural_anthropology (accessed 23/3/2012)

[3] Seclusion of Girls at Puberty (French Edition) [Paperback] by Frederic P. Miller (Editor), Agnes F. Vandome (Editor) and John McBrewster (Editor)

[4] A somewhat lengthy discussion on this topic and cave art is postponed to a future point in time.

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The website aims to show the possible origin of religion through a ‘uniquely’ human process which has links to the seclusion of girls at puberty. It also advocates the view that the Paleolithic Venus figurines are related to these puberty rites and hence, the prehistoric Venus figurines may carry a much larger meaning. Thus, Religion is something more than a throwback from our animal past.
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