The Discovery of Sex

“The Discovery of Sex,” discusses the discovery of the role of the male in reproduction and the association of women with plants in the Ice Age. In the Upper Paleolithic many barriers could have combined to obscure the connection between sexual intercourse and childbirth. Examples include pre-puberty sexual activity, prolonged breast-feeding, and the alignment of cycles in the birthrate with periods of relative leisure and abundance. Numeracy is also relevant, as explored in relation to the Gravettian sculpture, the “Lady of Laussel.” The early association of plants and women is suggested by the discovery that clothing worn by some of the Paleolithic “Venus” figurines was composed of plant-based textiles. This association is consistent with roles of women as described in ethnographic studies of modern hunter-gatherer societies, and has implications for the status of women in Paleolithic society. Sexual symbolism in parietal art is examined, including the Magdalenian transition in iconography.

Conflicting Interpretations of Artemidorus'sOneirocritica: Freud, Theodor Gomperz, F.S. Krauss and the Symbolic Language of Dreams

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud refers several times to Artemidorus’s dream book Oneirocritica dating back to the second century ce as a precursor of his own book. This article explores the meaning of this reference by analysing the interrelations between philological scholarship and emerging psychoanalysis in late nineteenth-century Vienna. Freud's own reading of Artemidorus’s text developed in a critical dialogue with the work of the Austrian philologist Theodor Gomperz and his student Friedrich S. Krauss, who produced the first modern German translation of the Oneirocritica. The symbolic method of the ancient dream books, adapted by Freud in later editions of The Interpretation of Dreams for sexual symbolism, did however also inspire dissenting interpretations within the early psychoanalytic movement. Freud's turn to sexual folklore and ethnography, embodied by Krauss's later studies, played a strategic role in these conflicts over dream interpretation.

The Goddess Kāmākhyā: Religio-political Implications in the Tribalisation Process

This article examines the cross-cultural influence that worked on the absorption process of the goddess Kāmākhyā (Assam) within the Brahmanic pantheon, through a correlation of textual and historical-religious pieces of evidence. 2 2 This article is an enlarged and revised version of a paper that I presented on 18 September 2015 during the sixth Coffee Break Conference (17–19 September) held at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies of ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome. In Assam, the cross-cultural interaction, between local tribes and Indo-Aryan speakers, began around 200 BCE–100 CE—when the Vedic culture had already changed from its earlier theological pattern. Therefore, after had been influenced by a long cross-cultural negotiation, the early medieval north-eastern purāṇas transformed the dakṣayajña myth, legitimising the temple of Kāmākhyā on Nīlācala as the greatest śākta pīṭha (seat of power), where the yoni (vulva) of Sat ī was preserved. In this way, the Purāṇas reconnected Nīlācala–Kāmākhyā not only to the sexual symbolism, but also to an ancient cremation ground and its death imaginary–a fact that the systematisation of the yoginī cult (ninth–eleventh century) into the Yoginī Kaula school corroborated. In this cross-cultural context, the early medieval Assamese dynasties emerged tied to the danger of liminal powers—linked to both the heterodox śākta-tantra sects and tribal traditions that were harnessed by the kings through the exoteric and esoteric rituals practised at Kāmākhyā.

Sexuality and sexual symbolism as processes of gendered identity formation

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to critically evaluate sexuality and sexual symbolism within the organisational culture of an accounting firm to explore how it is implicated in processes of gendering identities of employees within the firm.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a reflexive autoethnographical approach, including short vignettes, to analyse the inter‐relationships between gender, sexuality and power.FindingsBy exploring the symbolic role of artefacts, images, language, behaviours and buildings in creating and maintaining gendered relations, male sexual cultures and female sexual countercultures, the paper finds that sexual symbolism in this accounting firm entwines gendered power and domination, practice and resistance, in complex cultural codes and behaviours. It draws out implications for organisations and accounting research.Originality/valueThe paper extends current conceptualisation of gendered constructs in accounting to include sexuality; applies organisational and feminist theory to autoethnographical experience in accounting; and contributes a seldom‐seen insight into the organisational symbolism and culture of a small accounting firm, rather than the oft‐seen focus on large firms.