Erotic pottery made by the Moche, the society that dominated Peru’s northern coast for 800 years until about A.D. 800. The invading Spanish were deeply shocked at the Moche’s sexual attitudes & set about stomping them out.
Mini thread
Mini thread
In 1590, Jesuit Jose de Acosta, a famous colonial-era churchmen, wrote that “virginity, which is viewed with esteem and honor by all men, is deprecated by those barbarians as something vile.”
“Except for the virgins consecrated to the Sun or the Inca, all other women are considered of less value when they are virgin, and thus whenever possible they give themselves to the first man they find”
books.google.co.uk/books?id=RS8pD…
books.google.co.uk/books?id=RS8pD…
In the 1570s, Viceroy Francisco de Toledo ordered any native Peruvians caught engaging in pre-martial sex, as sanctioned by the Church, to receive 100 lashes “to persuade these Indians to remove themselves from this custom so detrimental & pernicious.” johnwbailly.com/2019/04/12/sex…
Laws were passed that separated the sexes in public and sodomy was made a capital offence.
Much of the Moche’s erotic pottery was destroyed. What survived was eventually locked away from the public in museums, accessible only to an elite group of Peruvian scholars.
Today, exhibitions of the Moche’s pottery are the most popular tourist attractions in Peru. Historians still can’t agree on what the function of these pots was. Were they funeral offerings? Devotional? Simply ornamental? No one is quite sure.
*amongst* the most popular tourist attractions in Peru.
My apologies to Machu Picchu.
My apologies to Machu Picchu.
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