The Afghan Queen: A True Story of an American Woman in Afghanistan (9 page)

“On the voyage back to Bilbao, they packed the salted cod in oak barrels from the forests east of Bilbao. Their books note that Bilbao is on the same latitude with the Grand Banks. They claim to have learned from Egyptians the art of potting fish, water fowl, and other foods preserved in salt, honey and herbs packed in clay-sealed pottery.

“Long before the seafaring Sumerians, Phoenicians and Greeks, Basques were using lode-stones and it was long before compasses were developed. Open ocean travel and trade were closely guarded secret skills. Basques were highly paid navigators on most early sea explorations.

“You are correct. Cod is fished off the Iberian Coast, but the quality and quantity of European coastal cod is inferior to the vast supply of cod fished off the Grand Banks.

“The most important trade from the beginning of humanity was the trade in mates. I’m speaking of mating privileges. From the time of the first European settlements and migrations, the need for mates was imperative. At that time perhaps 40,000 years-ago there are estimated to be only a few thousand humans on Earth.

“Exogamy, or mating outside the band-kinship group, was demanded by matriarchs early on. Since there were so few people available outside the kinship group, exogamous mating was difficult.

“Because of these mating limitations, mating between modern and Neanderthal humans may have occurred.” (Recent bone DNA suggests that 2% of current human DNA, including red hair, may be part of our Neanderthal legacy.)

While listening to this conversation, I said little, trying to concentrate on the road and beautiful countryside with its classic look of vineyards, grazing sheep and goats, and rocky mountainous landscape.

The woman anthropologist initiated a new round of discussion:

“Yes, my love, I agree with you about exogamy and mating limitations. Except for a few bone fragments, sparse data exists relating to actual mating practices. All we have at this point in time is some logical speculation.

“From our observations at Çatal Hüyük, we noted and photographed many wall reliefs of women, especially pregnant women. These depictions suggest that fertility was a central theme. While there were some statues of women, men, and children joined together, suggesting a family, we found no figures of men or children alone. Women were portrayed alone, but not men.

“Did you notice the emphasis on huge hips and breasts? Of course you did. How could anyone miss it? The obvious conclusion is a major emphasis on fertility. Compare the female frescoes and statues with the Venus of Willendorf. The similarity is unmistakable. Missing hands and feet suggest that figures such as these could be stuck into the ground or in food supplies.

Venus of Willendorf ca. 26,000 year old
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“Comparing the better known, much older, Venus of Willendorf with the lesser known Çatal Hüyük Seated Goddess, certain similarities are seen. The feet and hands in both are gone or intentionally left out. Not that those women actually looked like these Venuses, but it seems to be an idealized form.

“The Seated Goddess was found in a grain bin. Both appear to be fertility figures designed to increase the productivity of people and the Earth. Also, there are hints of fashion in the hair arrangement and bands around the breasts.”

Seated goddess on throne flanked by two lioness ca. 9,500 year old
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The discussion between the anthropologists-journalists got me thinking about discussions with Paul. Paul approached the subject of human communications from the viewpoint of economics, computer networking, and mating, his areas of expertise. Sex is an important part of my husband’s life, both physically and intellectually.

Paul’s viewpoint is that all communication is ultimately about mating and perpetuating ourselves in one form or another. The objective of all life is to survive and hopefully prosper. There are a number of ways the human animal communicates. Communication by touch and heat are two sensory modes, but there are also sound, sight, taste, and smell, as well as chemical messengers, such as hormones and pheromones.

There is, of course, hunger as well as magnetic and electrical communication. All forms of communication are essentially electromagnetic, signifying that all forms of communication are based on electron motion. Everything, from atoms to zebras and even stars and black holes appear to depend on electron transfer.

This is why people and most all things migrate. Migration, at least for people, primates, and herd animals, is driven by the environment. If an environment, such as a jungle or forest, offers plenty of everything, then everyone and everything will stay put, at least until scarcity sets in.

Paul and I talked about this so often and in so many different ways that these theories were indelibly etched in my memory.

I would eventually enter into the lively discussion my travel companions were having, and for which they were coaxing my input. I was intensely interested in their discussion at this point but initially felt at a loss to contribute. After a time, though, my thoughts turned to the most important issues in my life, namely my husband, sons, and family.

After all, it was sex, mating, and family that had motivated my enterprise in Afghanistan and on the Silk Road. I was journeying along the Silk Road to provide for my family, as well as to satisfy my need for adventure. It was my own personal walkabout.

Finally I broke my silence adding, “The Silk Road is also the Mating Road. It’s the drive for survival that gets us going anywhere. That’s why the three of us are traveling this road. You two travel for adventure, the stories you can sell, and academic success that will ultimately translate into income for you both. With adequate income, you may decide to have a family of your own.

“I’m here for similar reasons. My husband and I met on a rush hour train. We exchanged a smile, and that was all it took. The subway train was our Silk Road, our Mating Road. Why do we go on adventures, work, study, shop, or go after anything in life? I suggest that once we peel back the layers of culture and civilization, we reveal the Mating Road.

“That exchange of smiles on the train created a lasting family. Likely, there was a pheromone chemical hormone network created even before the smile. This started our juices flowing. I suspect you two set up a similar network. We are all on the Mating Road, like it or not, and, personally, I love it.”

The couple laughed and heartily agreed with my emotion-packed contribution. The wife replied:

“Lela, that’s absolutely brilliant. You provided a golden moment in anthropology with your insight. Certainly there can be no doubt that the sex urge, the mating drive, is the primary instinct, the dominant genetic push and shove for all life.

“Some cultural anthropologists are convinced that mental development in primates, especially in humans, proceeded from the conscious awareness of the sex drive as distinct from mating instincts. The increase and growing complexity of brain neurons may be the result of the sex drive focusing attention on finding mates as well as finding food, shelter and safety.

“More than likely, we learned to think about cooperating, planning, and hunting to get the meat, in order to get mating privileges. The first human mothers realized the connection between eating bloody meat and restoring lost iron from menstrual bleeding and childbirth.

“Eons ago women might have said, “If you want to mate, bring me meat.” Today, mates might say, “If you want some honey, come home with the money, a job.” The prospect of sex, like the prospect of death, focuses the mind wonderfully.”

From the back seat the husband added, “If you are suggesting that sex drives human intellect and brain development, I agree. But it’s not simple. Perhaps this explains why insulin, testosterone, estrogen, follicle stimulating hormone, oxytocin, and other hormones are chemically identical in most animals.

Vulture and Bull Horn Shrine at Çatal Hüyük (Cinderella’s Housework Dialectics)

“Hormones, plus species-specific pheromones, may account for both sex storms as well as brainstorms. It’s suspected that testosterone in both males and females can positively affect mental activity. Sex drive is high when ovulation and testosterone levels are high. At such times we usually think of sex and how to get more of it.”

The Vulture Shrine, is repeated many times at Çatal Hüyük. Dead bodies were left in the open for vultures to clean the bones. Cleaned bones were then buried under the bed-steads. Vultures were religious symbols, along with bull horns, both representing the cycles of life.

People migrated to Çatal Hüyük to trade, to worship at the site of the Great Mother, and especially to find mates. In a world with few people, Çatal Hüyük could accommodate 10,000 and 10,000 years ago it was probably the largest population center on Earth. To date, no earlier site was found with such a large variety of trade goods and artifacts.

Jericho, on the west bank of the Jordan River, is perhaps the oldest continually occupied human settlement on Earth. It was settled at least 12,000 years ago and 20 levels of settlement are documented. The site of Jericho is still inhabited and archaeological exploration continues. The ancient site of Çatal Hüyük was long ago deserted, but exploration continues beyond the eighteen excavated levels.

Both Çatal Hüyük and Jericho show evidence of grain cultivation. Crop culture is necessary to support more than a few hundred people. Even in abundant environments of forests, tribes-clans-bands of more than 200 people, excess population is forced to migrate to new hunting-gathering areas. This was certainly the case with the earliest migrations out of Africa.

Çatal Hüyük may have had a larger population than Jericho, 10,000 years ago, suggesting that more extensive crop growing and grain storage developed at Çatal Hüyük. The growth of large civilizations, 4,000 to 5,000 years ago along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is well documented by vast grain growing and extensive canal systems.

As important as growing vast grain crops is the ability to distribute and store food. A theocratic communal society grew up in Sumerian, Babylonian and other Tigris-Euphrates cultures. The basis of early civilizations was first bartering food for labor. Later as populations and grain cultivation expanded, war between neighboring settlements resulted in slave labor.

“I keep thinking of clichés such as getting horny or taking the bull by the horns,” added the husband. “Remember all the depictions of bull horns at Çatal Hüyük? Of all the wall reliefs, bull horns were a dominant theme. Then and now, we are hell bent and practically foaming at the mouth for the Mating Road.”

The wife continued on this theme, “True, long before the Silk Road there was a Mating Road. Early humans out of Africa probably followed the herds of horned ruminants. The herds were hunted for food, hides and bones. Herds of bison, aurochs, ibex, and other herding creatures followed grazing and water ways. It seems natural that our ancestors would migrate following the herds.

“Typically, we would expect them to hunt the old, weak and injured stragglers, rather than disrupt the main herd. This they could learn by observing the large cats, as they picked off the stragglers. The large cats were the main human competitors for meat.

“The big cats may have been our first teachers. Early humans may have learned to hunt by watching the large cats. It may be that the cats did not like the taste of human flesh. More likely, grazing herds provided an easier prey, with more meat for the effort. It’s all speculation.

“Eventually, early people learned to lead the herds, as do the Sami at the Arctic Circle. This is the supposition about the first modern humans migrating out of Northeast Africa, perhaps 100,000 years ago. The hot, dry climate forced our ancestors to follow the herds and that was an early mating road.

Bull’s Head Shrine
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“Over thousands of years, following herds and water ways, human generations would leap frog each other along the Mating Road. It was a road to survival, as well as the road to finding mates. This is why new generations were forced to leap frog prior settlements, to find mates.”

This Fertility Glyph
is thought to represent the uterine horns, with the male represented as a small star between the horns. Found in caves, on stones and pottery shards, this glyph appears to be a fertility symbol, perhaps even an artist’s signature.

Bull-jumping (Cinderella’s Housework Dialectics)

The wife continued:

“It may be that as our ancestors migrated out of Africa, they settled at Jericho as an early source of trade, food, water, and mates. Çatal Hüyük may have been a later settlement by some of the people living in Jericho. An important link for both settlements is that they shared similar burial rites. That is, both buried their dead under their dwellings.”