The Moche

Wandering round the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino in Santiago yesterday, I'm startled by a room full of pottery and small sculptures of people engaged in various sexual activities.

"These are all about death and sex!" says our guide with a slightly disapproving tone in her voice.

"Death and non-procreative sex :-)!" says boyfriend number 2 correcting her, looking up at us having read the explanatory information in one of the display cases.

And indeed, it seems that before the Incas, there was a civilisation based in the same region called the Moche. The death of the Moche king was apparently marked by an orgy of sexual rituals, which is what the pottery and scultpures were depicting. Death was associated with non-procreative sex, so the rituals involved anal sex, oral sex, masturbation. Then, after all the non-procreative sex, finally there was vaginal sex to symbolise rebirth and life.

In many ways, it's an obvious idea to associate death with non-procreative sex, and live with procreative sex. But this suggests to me that gay guys in such a society would be outcasts, being associated with death given that gay sex is non-procreative. I've always thought that homophobia was associated with the modern religions, especially christianity, but if this interpretation is correct it suggest that some ancient cultures were homophobic too.

But did the Moche enjoy their rituals? On one of the exhibits depicting oral sex, I spotted the following explanation:

"The look of disgust on the woman's face suggests that she's not a willing participant."

So maybe guy-on-guy would have worked better? The gaydar chat rooms in London certainly never seem to be short of guys eager and willing to engage in that activity!