Polynesian dilukai and medieval shila-na-gig…

Dilukay from the Caroline Islands, Belau (Palau), 19th – early 20th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Ezekiel 23: 29
History culture. And it happened that when European travelers reached the islands of Polynesia and saw the local inhabitants, they were most struck by the shamelessness of the latter, because they practically did not know any clothes. A mother-of-pearl shell on a cord above the genital area - that was all the clothes of girls and women on some islands, described by idle sailors. And on some, the natives did not even have this, but walked around in the costumes of Adam and Eve. True, their bodies were completely covered with tattoos. Some fashionistas shaved their heads to increase the surface of the skin, decorated their palms with patterns and even ... tongue!

The 12th or 13th century Sheela na Gig in the Church of St Mary and St Andrew, Whittlesford
The Europeans saw many unusual things there, but perhaps most of all they were amazed by the dilukaias from the Palau Islands - wooden figures of young women that decorated the entrance to the chief's house or "men's house" - something like a club for men only, where women were forbidden to enter under penalty of death. So, they were depicted with their legs wide apart and the genital area in the form of a black triangle. The dilukaia's hands were on their hips, their neck was adorned with a red necklace, and on their hand was a bracelet of folded rings made of turtle shell. It is funny that when carving these figures, the craftsmen had to follow strict rules. Because breaking them could lead to the death of the carver or even the chief of the tribe.

Woman shaving her pubic hair. 12th-century relief, currently housed in the Museum of Ancient Art in the Sforza Castle in Milan
However, the most interesting thing is that it is unknown what exactly they were needed for. There is a legend (although in reality there are many and different ones) that a local guy named Atmatuyuk annoyed the residents of his village so much that they drove him away, forbidding him to return. And so that he could not violate the ban, they hung images of his sister Dilukay everywhere, so that he could not return, because he could not see his sister's genitals. It was taboo. Moreover, Christian missionaries were never able to eradicate this custom. But they managed to interpret it in their favor: according to them, the Dilukay figurines were used to shame women of bad behavior.

Sheila-na-gig. Clincham-sur-Orne, Notre-Dame Church, Calvados department in Normandy region, France
Now let's put it this way: it is clear that in Polynesia even something like this was possible, since they all walked around naked there. But how, I wonder, did things stand with such images in medieval Europe, where Christian culture and morality dominated? Why in medieval Europe? Because in earlier cultures of the same Egypt, Greece, Rome, images of various kinds of copulatory organs were not taboo. There is plenty of evidence of this in the form of images on the same Greek ceramic dishes. Which is not surprising, since they had their own culture and morality.
Thus, the same Greeks considered intimate relations between an adult man and a young boy to be quite socially approved. Although the same relations between two adult men were considered shameful and completely unacceptable. There are no such images. In pre-Columbian America, various sexual practices were also embodied in ceramics. But there is no cunnilingus there, although there is much more. So, apparently, there were certain social boundaries that the Indians did not cross.

Capital. The Collegiate Church of San Pedro de Cervatos is a Romanesque church in Cervatos (Cantabria, Spain). It was built around 1129

There too…

And this is also from there...
There are many erotic pictures in Persian, Indian and Japanese fine arts. Who hasn't heard, for example, of "Ananga Ranga" ("Peach Branches") or Japanese shunga? The latter were published in huge editions, and their authors were the most famous Japanese artists... And the reason for their prevalence is very simple: the Japanese have long lived in houses where complete privacy was absolutely impossible. So the Japanese tried to make sure that a random witness to a love scene would appreciate its... beauty and exclaim: "How beautiful your love is!" And this had to be learned.

Szyla-na-gig in the Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord in Drawsko Pomorskie, southern portal. It is one of two Roman Catholic parish churches belonging to the Drawsko Pomorskie Deanery, Koszalin-Kolobrzeg Diocese, Szczecin-Kamiento Metropolitan Area, located in Drawsko Pomorskie Voivodeship, Poland
But in Christian Europe there were plenty of dark rooms with locks, haylofts, and windmills where one could be quite alone and even with a certain comfort. True, the goals of gender communication were strictly prescribed by the church: only missionary position, the goal - the birth of children (and nothing more!), and the opinion that without orgasm there is no conception - which, by the way, is what the judges ask the heroine of the film "The Last Duel", where a case of rape of a married lady is heard, which ends with an impressive duel of "God's court".

Sheela na gig at Ballyfinboy Castle, County Tipperary. This site is under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland
But here's what's strange. If we look at the miniatures (and marginalia - drawings in the fields) of the manuscripts of that time, we will find there images of naked nature, and many ambiguous scenes, for example, there is an image of the collection of male copulatory organs growing on... a tree! It makes you want to get into a "time machine", go to the Middle Ages and ask there: "What does this mean!"

Sheela-na-gig in the Romanesque Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England
But the drawings are nothing. No Polynesian dilukai can compare with the stone sculptures that are found throughout Western Europe, as well as in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These are goggle-eyed female freaks, busy with stretching their huge vulvas in different directions with both hands. Such figurines are called sheela-na-gig. But they “decorate” the facades of not only secular buildings and column capitals, but also... churches. In Great Britain and Ireland, they are very easy to stumble upon, you just have to look closely. Such obscene figures in the decor of Catholic churches are especially surprising. Moreover, sheela-na-gig were carved from the 9th to the 16th centuries, that is, for quite a long time. For a long time, but no one has left us an explanation of why this was done at all and what meaning was put into them!
There are many hypotheses about these figures, but which of them is true is unknown. For example, there is an opinion that the sheela-na-gig figures were supposed to scare away evil spirits. That is why they were placed mainly above windows, doors and gates, so that evil spirits could not get through them. Perhaps, upon seeing this, they should have been ashamed, but it is impossible to say for sure whether this is so. Some put forward the idea that this is some powerful fertility deity of the past, and the early Christian church had to put up with his image due to his popularity among the common people. But in the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, the church did not put up with those who interfered with it, and then suddenly - here you go, admire ...
Irish figure specialist Anthony Weir and art historian Jim Jarman believe that the sheela-na-gig depicts one of the deadly sins - lust. But where are the other six? Why aren't these sins depicted in the same way? By the way, if we return to the marginalia in the manuscripts, we can also explain that demons and preaching animals were depicted by Protestants and Catholics specifically to ridicule their ideological opponents. But what about the pile of phallic and anal subjects that these folios are full of? And they are drawn without any logical connection with the text!
Moreover, in the same Europe archaeologists find pilgrimage icons: the shells of St. John of Campostela, and also flat figurines cast from metal in the form of phalluses on legs and with bells, and also the same vulva on legs and in a pilgrim hat with a rosary and a staff in her hands...

Sheela-na-gig in the Museum of St Michael's Church, North Gate, Oxford
We know about phallic cults in India, Egypt, Greece, Rome. They deified the penis (and sometimes the vagina, for example, they baked bread in its shape) and endowed these bodies with mystical properties. But Christianity in the Middle Ages destroyed all these pagan cults. Destroyed to the ground... Or maybe not quite, and eroticism flourished along with religious bigotry and hypocrisy, or perhaps they, as they say, "went hand in hand"? So, maybe these "walking penises and vulvas" are nothing more than comic souvenirs ridiculing pilgrims who tried to please God, but at the same time did not disdain the services of road whores? Who knows? Pilgrims looking for casual relationships in unfamiliar cities on the way to a sacred place. This is what medieval Christianity is like.

The water pipe of the Glücksburg house in Goslar…
There are even two drainpipes on the north-east and south-west facade of the Glücksburg house in Goslar (a city in Germany, a district center in the state of Lower Saxony), which were made in our time by the Scottish artist Laura March. Here is what she wrote about her work: “This decoration is a modern homage to a very famous Celtic goddess: often found outside churches in Southern Ireland. She is usually depicted with a mischievous grin, holding her vulva open. Some may say that it does have a cheeky shape, but in reality it simply reminds us of where we come from. The sacred gateway to birth and death. My version is a little less scary, but the meaning remains the same…”
Who knows, maybe this is exactly how it was in the past, and the masters from Spain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia simply copied this figurine after seeing it in Ireland or England.
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