Forensic anthropologist Danny Westcott and his colleague Deborah Cunningham study skeletal remains that span more than a million years of humankind. So, while they know there was not an obesity problem in ancient times, Westcott still points to the presence and popularity of Venus figurines. One of the world’s earliest examples of art, carved some 30,000 years ago, the Venus figurine portrays an obese woman as a sign of beauty and fertility.
“It’s highly unlikely you have an obesity problem in most past populations. It’s not unheard of given the Venus figures and how they accurately portray how obesity looks on a body,” Cunningham told Laboratory Equipment. “But maybe it was a status thing? Obesity was not widespread, then.”
Now, researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus believe they have solved the long-standing mystery of why and how Venus was created during a time when there were practically no models for such art—and the culprit may surprise you. Researchers Richard Johnson, MD, and co-authors hypothesize that the Venus figurines were actually created as an idealized body size at a time when food was scarce due to a drastic change in the climate.
Early modern humans entered Europe about 48,000 years ago during a warming period. They quickly became hunter-gatherers, dining on reindeer, horses, mammoths, berries, fish and nuts. But, the climactic warming period did not last. As temperatures plunges to 10 to 15 degrees Celsius, ice sheets advanced and a large portion of the population struggled to adjust.
According to the research team, it was during these desperate times that the obese Venus figurines first appeared. Measuring the statues' waist-to-hip and waist-to-shoulder ratios, the researchers discovered that those found closest to the glaciers were the most obese compared with those located further away.
For those that lived in proximity to glaciers and had a difficult time hunting game during the winter, obesity became a desired condition. Obesity meant the line of hunter-gatherers would continue, and it also meant a woman could carry a child through pregnancy. Thus, even if the figurines were first crafted to idealize obesity, they may have taken on a second life as a family heirloom of sorts to protect woman through pregnancy, birth and nursing.
"The figurines emerged as an ideological tool to help improve fertility and survival of the mother and newborns," Johnson said. "The aesthetics of art thus had a significant function in emphasizing health and survival to accommodate increasingly austere climatic conditions."
The research team recently published their findings in the journal Obesity. They said they were successful in finding evidence to support their theory by applying measurements and medical science to archaeological data and behavioral models of anthropology.
"These kinds of interdisciplinary approaches are gaining momentum in the sciences and hold great promise," Johnson said.
Photo: Example of a Venus figurine. Credit: CU Anschutz