The Nomadic Alternative – Page 103

firm-fruit-breasted women of the wandering hunters, these are

balloon-like steatopygous women, with draperies of flesh falling
over their kneecaps, breasts palpitating and tattooed, their
bellies tiered with horizontal rolls of fat that cry for GRAIN AND
MORE GRAIN. An Anatolian pottery image from Hacilar in Western
Turkey shows a bulging female in her ferocious aspect - a man-
devouring Valkyrie pressing a paramour to her breast as a cat plays
with a captive mouse. Between the thighs of the Great Goddess - and
under her armpits - horror of idolatry was born. Neolithic settle-
ment must have been revolting.

And the men revolted. Finding no place to live in this luxuriant
atmosphere, some withdrew with their flocks to the wilderness and
founded a new order of their own. Tiresome male exhibitionism
counteracted virulent femininity. God Almighty shook his fist at
the Great Goddess. The Great Goddess hissed back. But the stock-
breeders who returned to the wild places were as obsessed with
increase as the planters of the plains. Nomad and planter were
linked to a common past and continued to depend on each other
economically. The nomad removed the finest animals beyond the reach
of the settlements, but lost the grain he needed to see him through
the lean season. The farmer lost the valuable sources of protein
he needed for his health. Circumstances forced both to trade with
each other, but the uneasy mixture of hatred and dependence has
clouded their relationship ever since.

The city archive of Nippur in Mesopotamia has preserved a record
of the antagonism and uncomfortable compromise between shepherd
and farmer. "The Wooing of Inanna" is a document which dates from
the early 2nd millennium B.C., but reflects a situation more ancient.
Enkimdu is a divine farmer, the culture-hero of farmers, and Dumuzi
his shepherd counterpart. Both want to marry the goddess, Inanna,
the embodiment of civic virtue. Her brother and guardian, the Sun
God Utu, favours the shepherd. "His butter is good", he says; "his
milk is good; everything he touches is brilliant." But Inanna hates
milk, butter, animal fat and the coarse tufted woolen clothes that