Book Review: Playing with Things: Engaging with the Moche Sex Pots by Mary Weismantel
I first came across Weismantel’s work when researching our podcast on Moche sex pots in 2018. For those of you who don’t know, the Moche were a people living on the north coast of Peru in the first millennium CE, probably most famous for their ceramics which depict a wide range of sex acts between humans, skeletons, and animals. We talked about them on our podcast particularly for what these pots can tell us about their understandings of gender.
When I was looking into this topic way back in 2018, I found Weismantel’s article “Moche Sex Pots: Reproduction and Temporality in Ancient South America” an interesting discussion of why the Moche may have chosen to depict the types of sex they did, and so I was excited when UT Press got in touch to let us know she’d written a whole book on the pots – so below is a review of how I found it.
If I had to sum up Wiesmantel’s writing in one word, I’d say it was refreshing. As soon as I started reading her introduction, I loved her frankness about some of the disappointing realities of modern scholarship; she dives in with a critique of both archaeology’s unwillingness to engage with the “racy” material of the sex pots, and sexuality studies’ tendency to “trot [non-Western examples of sexuality] out of the closet for rhetorical purposes” without really engaging with them. As someone who often researchers in these spaces and wades through poorly-thought out, Western-centric analyses of Indigenous gender and sexuality, it was such a relief to know Weismantel was aware of these issues from the get-go. And while the bar may be low, I was also excited to read a book that explored Indigenous sexuality and gender where the author had a clear understanding of, and correctly used, terms like intersex, sex, and gender, rather than throwing them around in confused and inconsistent ways, as I’ve so often found in this area of study.
Refreshing also describes Weismantel’s style overall. This is an academic work – thoroughly researched, footnoted, and at times quite theoretical – but Weismantel’s style remains accessible, easy to understand, and rarely mired down in jargon. I often sit with a pile of non-fiction books on my bedside table that go unread because by the end of the day I don’t have the mental energy to engage with them – but I got through Weismantel’s work over several cosy evenings with a struggle.
Onto the content of the book itself – it’s broken down into a literature review, followed by several chapters about what Moche sex pots do – play jokes, make babies, give power, and hold water. From a queer history perspective, I found the chapter ‘Pots make babies’ particularly interesting. Weismantel explores the question that often comes up when talking about Moche sex pots – why do they show so many examples of anal sex between various figures, but so rarely show vaginal sex? In answer this, she makes a deliberate effort to eschew her own cultural understandings and expectations about sex and human relationships. Instead, she begins by looking at the pots themselves to see what activities or features the pot’s creators have chosen to focus on, and investigate why these may have been important in Moche culture. From a queer standpoint, this makes for a refreshing (there it is again!) look at sex and sexuality that – as Weismantel herself notes – doesn’t frame penetrative vaginal sex as the “norm” or centre the moment of conception, instead creating a wider view of life as formed and affected by a variety of human and non-human relationships.
And before I wrap up, I have to mention the photographs. In 2018, I had such a struggle to find clear photographs of the pots – which made trying to analyse them as pieces of visual culture very difficult. But here, the photos are clear, numerous, and taken from multiple angles! This book is honestly a game-changer in that regard.
As Weismantel does, I’ll end this review with a mention of the work of Peruvian artist Kukuli Velarde, whose artwork Plunder Me, Baby puts her own face onto pots reminiscent of those made by the Moche, labelled with the kind a racist and misogynist slurs she herself has faced due to her Indigenous ancestry. As Velarde explains of her works, “They all have my face for I had to become each of them to reclaim ownership…” I appreciated this ending to Weismantel’s book, a reminder of something that she acknowledges throughout the book, and that I think the fields of ethnography, archaeology, and anthropology often need to be reminded of - that Indigenous people continue to engage with objects such as the sex pots as their own cultural history, and to be affected by the way in which scholars choose to talk about them.
Indigenous veteran Clarence Silver as soon as stated, “When I served overseas I was a Canadian. When I came home I was an Indian.”[1] These two strains illustrate the Indigenous expertise in the Second World War. Indigenous troopers fought in all major battles Canada participated in, including D-Day, aspect by aspect with non-Indigenous soldiers. The distinction was in the state of affairs Indigenous soldiers came from and returned.
D-Day, 6 June 1944, was a pivotal day in the Second World War. When the Allied forces landed on five seashores in Normandy it signaled the beginning of the finish of Nazi Germany. Likewise, the conflict was pivotal for Indigenous peoples in the battle for Indigenous rights and equality. In each conditions, these experiences turned decisive influences in the course of history.
Reportedly there were three,090 Canadian Indigenous individuals in the Second World War. This quantity solely reflects a portion of those who served. Métis, Inuit, and Non-Status First Nations individuals have been excluded from the rely, along with Indigenous individuals who served in American Forces.[2] Amongst those who served and have been present on D-Day have been Francis William Godon, a Métis man in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, George Horse from Thunderchild First Nation who joined the Elite Sapper Battalion, and Tom Naphtahli “Little Chief” Settee with The Regina Rifle Regiment.
Francis Godon (on right) with two of his buddies at Shilo, Manitoba, simply earlier than going abroad, 1943. Picture from Francis Godon by way of The Memory Challenge.
The primary barrier Indigenous peoples faced was at enlistment. Indigenous peoples primarily served in the infantry, both on account of the quantity of manpower the infantry required and the entrance restrictions many Indigenous individuals could not cross in other branches of the army. Each the air pressure and the navy initially required enlistees to be white.[3] Additionally, meeting the instructional normal was a challenge for many Indigenous individuals. In Godon’s group, the white faculty wouldn’t admit Indigenous youngsters, and so Godon was rejected from the army 3 times earlier than he discovered a place in the army kitchens and ultimately labored his approach into the infantry.[4] It was only after making it into the infantry that the Indigenous expertise was just like the non-Indigenous expertise. Certainly, becoming a member of the army provided new freedoms to Indigenous peoples, most noticeably from the rampant discrimination confronted in Canadian society.
As such, Godon and Horse have been like many Canadian soldiers who didn’t see action previous to D-Day. Godon educated on the Isle of Wight earlier than boarding the ship taking him to Normandy, and Horse educated off the coast of Scotland. Each men knew that they have been coaching for an invasion, however the particulars beyond that have been minimal. Godon stated, “we knew we were going to the invasion, but we didn’t know where.”[5] The secrecy that surrounded the assault was properly guarded to take care of the factor of surprise. Horse stated, “The Germans thought we were going to cross at Dover to Calais but we landed… where they least expected us.”[6]
On D-Day over 155,000 British, American, and Canadian troops crossed the English Channel. On the ground, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade have been tasked with taking Juno Seashore. 14,000 Canadians landed on the seashore that day.[7] When the time got here, the males have been loaded onto ships and taken across the English Channel. Godon recalled a commanding officer saying, “you boys now, I guess you know what you’re getting into. Well, we’ve been waiting for this, we trained for this… I’m going to tell you something that’s not very good… most of you guys won’t be coming home.”[8] The officer’s warning proved truthful. During the Battle of Normandy, Canadians have been to endure the highest casualties in the British Military Group, 359 soldiers dying on D-Day alone, 33 of the 359 Indigenous.[9]
All three soldiers recall men falling on the seashore. Godon described making the seashore after leaping off the touchdown craft, operating for his life, and crawling off the seashore. He said, “So you had to keep going. Which was a hard thing to do because the beach was something like ketchup…That’s how blood red the beach was.”[10] Likewise, Sofa recalled, “I don’t know how I ever made it. Guys were dropping here and there; we kept running.”[11] In what was a very widespread expertise, the seashore was a battlefield that required velocity and resulted in the deaths of many. In this occasion, the sacrifice paid off. D-Day was finally successful. Settee stated, “Finally we got into town [Courseulles-sur-Mer] and started street fighting… We held that town there. We held it.”[12] By opening a further front, D-Day gave the western Allies the foothold they wanted to liberate France and finish the conflict in Europe on 8 Might 1945.
Tommy Prince (left), Canada’s most highly adorned First Nations soldier, and Tom Settee pose collectively during training. Image from Tom Sofa by way of The Memory Undertaking.
Like when enlisting, Indigenous veterans confronted distinctive challenges upon returning to Canada. Indigenous peoples weren’t Canadian citizens however wards of the state till 1960. The Department of Indian Affairs was tasked with caring for Indigenous peoples with the final objective to “do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the inhabitants of the Dominion…”[13] The objective was enfranchisement, which might permit for movement off reserves and the proper to vote, however would also remove an individual’s Indian Standing and access to Treaty Rights. Whereas it was not necessary to enfranchise to hitch the army, some Indian Brokers instructed it was a requirement. Those that did enfranchise have been evicted from their communities after the conflict as they have been not Standing Indians and have been subsequently not allowed to stay on reserves. For many who didn’t enfranchise, Indigenous veterans acquired no or lesser advantages in comparability to non-Indigenous veterans. This was as a result of the undeniable fact that many Indigenous veterans’ solely access to Veteran Affairs was via Indian Affairs, who have been paternalistic and continued to see Indigenous individuals as incapable of operating their very own lives.[14] As such, it took 21 years of preventing for Godon to obtain his pension after the warfare.[15] A further battle based mostly solely on Indigenousness.
On one hand, many Indigenous veterans fell into addictions after returning to Canada. As an example, Godon turned an alcoholic until his son helped him get sober.[16]
On the other, the army additionally taught Euro-Canadian discipline and management expertise that led to the information and political group required to improve communities and stand up to the Canadian authorities. This created a surge of organizations preventing for Indigenous rights and equality, led by Second World War veterans. Indigenous veterans’ leadership additionally grew on a group degree. Settee taught morals and discipline via boxing in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, helping many younger men off the streets by means of the sport. Certainly, the Tom Sofa Boxing Membership still exists in Prince Albert.[17]
Tom Sofa standing next to the portray he ready of Juno Seashore in 2010. Historica Canada.
Moreover, as a consequence of Indigenous involvement in the struggle, non-Indigenous help elevated. After preventing a struggle towards racism, Canadians have been discomforted by the remedy of Indigenous peoples in their own nation. Subsequently, with Indigenous management and non-Indigenous help, the government created the Particular Joint Committee of 1946-48, which would result in modifications in the Indian Act in 1951.[18]
D-Day was a pivotal day in the Second World War and the struggle towards Nazi Germany. Likewise, Indigenous participation in the conflict was pivotal in the battle for equality and rights in Canada for Indigenous peoples. Whereas D-Day was only the begin of the Battle of Normandy, the struggle was solely the start of a battle, persevering with an older warfare with the Canadian government to deal with Indigenous peoples as allies and sovereign nations as an alternative of wards, as that they had been prior to 1830.[19] Storming Juno Seashore required velocity and leaving the fallen behind however the struggle for Indigenous rights is far slower. It’s also a struggle in which stopping for the fallen is a necessity. In the strategy of reconciliation, the sacrifices will pay off, identical to the sacrifices of those that fell on Juno Seashore.
Shawkay Ottmann has a Main in History and a Minor in Style Design from Ryerson College. She is of combined heritage, her ancestors encapsulating the three I’s: Indigenous, Invader and Immigrant. She is Anishinaabe from Fishing Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, as well as British, German, Polish and Norwegian.
Additional Reading:
Davison, Janet Frances. “We Shall Remember: Canadian Indians and the World War II” Dissertation. Trent University. 1993.
Macdonald, John A. to L. Vankoughnet, January three 1887, Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada, Vol. 16, First Session of the Sixth Parliament, Session 1887 (No20B), p. 20B-37. Accessed February 2019. http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08052_20_16/502?r=0&s=1
Miller, J.R., Skyscrapers Cover the Heavens. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
I love stuff like this. Didn’t a tribe in Africa send America some cows after 9/11? Like this is holy and the most valuable thing we have. We hear your suffering and want to do anything in our power to help
It was not a potato famine. The famine didn’t happen because of the potato yeald failing. Ireland was actually producing more than enough food. However it was almost all land owned by Brittish landowners, who took all of the food out of the country to sell in UK. Potato was what the Irish farmers ate, because it was cheep and could be produced in worst parts of the land, where more profitable food couldn’t be grown. When there were no longer potatos, the decision for the farmers was to either starve and sent the food as rent to the landlords or loose their homes and then starve.
The Brittish goverment was unwilling to do anything for two reasons. First was the laissez-faire capitalistic ideology, that put the rights of property owners to make profits above human lives. Rent freeze was unthinkable and they even were unwilling to do proper relief efforts as free food would lower the cost of food. The second reason was distain for the Irish, and the thought that they were “breeding too much” and the famine was a natural way to trim down the population, aka genocidal reasoning.
This is why it’s important to stress it was not a potato famine. The potato blinght was all over Europe but only in Ireland there was a famine. The reasons behind it had nothing to do with potatos and everything to do with the Brittish.
Apparently what made Choctaw want to offer relief to Irish was the news about the Doolough Tragedy. Hundreds of starving people were gathered for inspection to verify they were entitled to recieve relief. The officials would for *some reason* not do that and instead left to a hunting lodge 19 kilometers away to spend the night and said to the starvqing people they would have to walk there by morning to be inspected. The weather conditions were terrible and many of them died completely needlessly during the walk thoroung day and night.
This apparently reminded the Choctaw of their own very recent (and much more explicit and bigger scale) experiences of ethnic clensing, where they were forcibly relocated. It was basically a death march and thousands of Choctaw died from the terrible conditions also completely needlessly.
In 2015 a memorial named Kindred Spirits was installed in Southern Ireland to commemorate the Chactow donation.
May 1st, 1946: The Pilbara strike, a strike by indigenous Australian pastoral workers for human rights, fair wages, and better working conditions, begins. It involved more than 800 workers walking off from their jobs and lasted for over three years.
Strikers were met with violence and unlawful arrest but ultimately won their demands. The 1946 Pilbara strike is remembered as the first and one of the longest industrial strikes by Aboriginal people since colonization.
the new canadian miniseries “Little Bird” sounds fascinating. has anyone else heard about it?
an older jewish woman named golda adopts a 5 year old native girl, thinking she’s an orphan and has no home. she raises her as a jew and names her esther. when esther is in her 20s, she finds out that she does in fact have family, and that she had been forcibly taken from them by the canadian government as one of the scoop children in the 60s. esther now wants to reconnect with her native heritage and family, while struggling with the judaism she was raised in.
golda has to come to terms with her own complicity in removing a native child from her family and culture. she’s a holocaust survivor: she knows more than most exactly what that means. how can she reconcile her own history of experiencing racial oppression and discrimination with her complicity in the oppression of inidigenous canadian people?
it was created by two jewish women, one of whom is also indigenous, and is being directed by two indigenous women.
Amado Garcia of the Acoma Pueblo, pictured here on May 17 1919, enlisted in the US Army on June 3, 1918 in Lamar, Colorado. In the First World War, Garcia was cited for bravery with the following:
“Advanced with two men three hundred yards in front of the lines through wire entanglements in order to attack an enemy machine gun.
In spite of strong resistance he succeeded in capturing the guns and returning to our lines.”
Garcia was rewarded with the Croix de Guerre with Gilt Star for his bravery.
I love stuff like this. Didn’t a tribe in Africa send America some cows after 9/11? Like this is holy and the most valuable thing we have. We hear your suffering and want to do anything in our power to help
It was not a potato famine. The famine didn’t happen because of the potato yeald failing. Ireland was actually producing more than enough food. However it was almost all land owned by Brittish landowners, who took all of the food out of the country to sell in UK. Potato was what the Irish farmers ate, because it was cheep and could be produced in worst parts of the land, where more profitable food couldn’t be grown. When there were no longer potatos, the decision for the farmers was to either starve and sent the food as rent to the landlords or loose their homes and then starve.
The Brittish goverment was unwilling to do anything for two reasons. First was the laissez-faire capitalistic ideology, that put the rights of property owners to make profits above human lives. Rent freeze was unthinkable and they even were unwilling to do proper relief efforts as free food would lower the cost of food. The second reason was distain for the Irish, and the thought that they were “breeding too much” and the famine was a natural way to trim down the population, aka genocidal reasoning.
This is why it’s important to stress it was not a potato famine. The potato blinght was all over Europe but only in Ireland there was a famine. The reasons behind it had nothing to do with potatos and everything to do with the Brittish.
Apparently what made Choctaw want to offer relief to Irish was the news about the Doolough Tragedy. Hundreds of starving people were gathered for inspection to verify they were entitled to recieve relief. The officials would for *some reason* not do that and instead left to a hunting lodge 19 kilometers away to spend the night and said to the starvqing people they would have to walk there by morning to be inspected. The weather conditions were terrible and many of them died completely needlessly during the walk thoroung day and night.
This apparently reminded the Choctaw of their own very recent (and much more explicit and bigger scale) experiences of ethnic clensing, where they were forcibly relocated. It was basically a death march and thousands of Choctaw died from the terrible conditions also completely needlessly.
In 2015 a memorial named Kindred Spirits was installed in Southern Ireland to commemorate the Chactow donation.
The Irish and native people of North America (like many other places around the world) suffered similar genocidal horrors by the same hands. Ireland served as the testing ground for the English colonial machine. The scalping that became a symbol of violence between England and American natives was an evolution from Ireland, where English invaders collected Irish heads in exchange for bounties. In the wider expanses of North America, carrying heads was impractical, and so native scalps were accepted instead. Indigenous religions and language were outlawed and punished in both Ireland and America.
Their experiences were not just similar. They were different phases of the same terror.
Since I haven’t seen any mention of it yet, except on twitter, i’d also like to remind everyone that not only is June LGBT pride month, but it’s also Indigenous History month!
Please take the time to support, uplift and remember your Native, First Nations, Aboriginal and otherwise Indigenous friends and family. We are here, we exist! We have a long and winding history that deserves to be heard and respected! The word ‘Indigenous’ is so wonderful, and so expansive, and includes so many different cultures under its arms. Go out, learn about our histories and our cultures. Talk to the Indigenous people around you! We’re everywhere!
And not only that, but also be sure to give extra support to LGBT indigenous voices in this community. We are a minority that is scarcely acknowledged, and in desperate need of it. Too many times have I gotten strange looks for being so openly Native and so openly a lesbian. It’s as if that combination is impossible for people to understand. Support our content, buy from our stores! Or at least just include us!
I’d like to wish a happy LGBT pride month, and a happy Indigenous History month to everyone, but especially us LGBT Native folks. This really is our month to be open about ourselves, and I sure intend to. ️
Indian Summer is noted as the “largest Native American gathering of its kind in the country” (https://www.indiansummer.org/). In our prior post, we noted that Milwaukee had its inaugural festival in September 1987. The pictured posters are from subsequent years of the festival and are included in the publicity materials within the collection (UWM Mss 250) along with materials that reference Education Day and the annual Winter Pow Wow at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.
Milwaukee’s Indian Summer Festival is on-going and continues to be an event that is significant in educating and engaging the public with the history and culture of Milwaukee’s indigenous communities. As always, we acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.
In September 1987, Milwaukee introduced its newest ethnic festival, Indian Summer. It included food, handcrafts, cultural displays, stage performances, competition pow-wow, a children’s area and more. The purpose of such a festival was to present the general public with a representative image of native peoples nationwide.
Per the organizers:
“We feel that the positive images received by the people attending a Native American festival would create a greater understanding and awareness of the unique and diverse cultures of Native Americans. This festival is being created for Indians and Non-Indians to share and enjoy the talent and excitement of the Native American Indian.”
The records for Indian Summer at UWM Archives (UWM Mss 250) range from 1985-2007 and includes administrative records, publicity materials, and photographs. The brochure and photographs in this post are from the inaugural festival on September 11, 12, 13 (Box 2, Folders 24 and 26).
Irene Mack: A look inside the UWM Women Artists Archive
The images in this post represent items found in the archive regarding the life and accomplishments of Irene Mack, a Menominee woman artist and Wisconsin native. These photos are taken from a recent addition to the UWM Women Artists Archive (UWM Mss 003, Box 2) which contains detailed oral histories of women artists and performers around the state of Wisconsin.
In her oral histories, Mack details her experiences growing up in northern Wisconsin, her time attending a residential school, and her adventures traveling across the U.S with the Mack Brother’s Show as a snake handler.
Mack was also an avid activist for the rights of indigenous people in the state of Wisconsin, and worked for UW-Milwaukee as a recruiter for indigenous students.
These photographs were found in a recent accession to the Roberto Hernandez Center Records (UWM Archival Collection 116, Accession 2019-018, Box 1).
Per the captions on the back of the first two photographs, they depict Vernon Bellecourt and Russell Means, leaders of the American Indian Movement, during their visit to UW-Milwaukee. The photographs are undated, but a search through the UWM Post reflects that both Means and Bellecourt were featured speakers during UWM’s 1981 Native American Week. Bellecourt conducted a seminar on “Racism and the American Indian,” and Means spoke about “The American Prison System.”
Information about the individual and the event in the last photograph of this series is unknown.
