#32832: Chris Clarke — 07/25  at  05:20 PM
There were ways to get around the "cold" part of the "cold and heavy," even with Upper Paleolithic technology. Warming in fire (or against the skin) could have worked fine. Presumably women had access to abundant thin skins for "condoms" as well.

OK, it's handwaving, but it's fun handwaving.

#32834: PZ Myers — 07/25  at  05:27 PM
Yes, and with a windmill, an arrangement of leather belts and axles, and an eccentric cam made from an old handaxe, they could have made it vibrate, too.

It's really too bad nobody ever asked me to write scripts for the Flintstones.

#32836: Chris Clarke — 07/25  at  05:38 PM
"It's NEW!
It's IMPROVED!
It's the YABBA-DABBA-DILDO!"

#32837: ang6666 — 07/25  at  05:43 PM
I don't know ... have you never heard of playing with ice?? ;)

#32838: — 07/25  at  05:57 PM
I really could have gone my entire life without ever thinking of Fred Flintstone in a sexual context. Thank you, Chris, for that lovely image, that I won't ever be able to unthink.

#32840: Mrs. Coulter — 07/25  at  06:33 PM
Hmmm...I can just imagine a Stone Age woman moaning, "oh you're so hard..."

Actually, I think it's pretty interesting, because the default explanation for an object when archaeologists are not able to come up with an immediate and obvious household purpose (like bowls or cups, etc.), seems to be to label it as a religious fetish object (as opposed to sexual fetish). Really, so often, we just have no idea...

#32842: Nullifidian — 07/25  at  06:56 PM
Of course PZ would never have such a historical incongruity in his animated series, but I think a Flintstones vibrator would probably be something closer to one which is hooked up to a prehistoric treadmill run by dinosaur power.

#32846: ekzept — 07/25  at  07:48 PM
now i know what line of work to go into if i'm ever stuck in the deep dark past by a malfunctioning time machine.

wonder how they made it smooth enough.... lots of polishing, i s'ppose.

#32857: — 07/25  at  09:39 PM
Enough with the sex already! Occam teach us to pick the simplest explanation.

The reason that the long dong was knocked about and it's design is that we here have the first meeting gavel. The chairman had to bang something symbolically mighty on the stone table, and the live appendage smarted too much...

#32860: ekzept — 07/25  at  10:50 PM
speaking of how the earth moves for ya, western Montana just had a 5.6 earthquake:

2005/07/26 04:08 M 5.6 WESTERN MONTANA Z= 5km 45.40N 112.55W

#32861: Chris Clarke — 07/25  at  10:51 PM
a Flintstones vibrator would probably be something closer to one which is hooked up to a prehistoric treadmill run by dinosaur power.

Or Wilma would just pull that big ol' mastodon trunk in through the window.

#32864: — 07/25  at  11:56 PM
Hmmm... On second thought I think the design was based on an object the designer was used to handle a lot and knew would fit nicely in his hand.

#32866: — 07/26  at  12:33 AM
It is too elaborate and "expensive" to be a sex tool. Probably it was used in midnight ceremonies to promote fertility. You know, sex with the God of Fertility. All societies manufacture these things, many in size XXL.

#32867: Virge — 07/26  at  12:54 AM
This is reminding me of a conversation from Red Dwarf.

Lister: “Do you think Wilma Flintstones sexy? Maybe we’ve been in deep space too long, but every time I see her on that show that body drives me crazy. Is it me?”
Cat: “I think, in all probability, that Wilma Flintstone is the most desirable woman who ever lived.”
Lister: “That’s good. I thought I was going strange.”
Cat: “She’s incredible.”
Lister: “Whad’ya think of Betty?”
Cat: “Betty Rubble? Well….I would go with Betty….But I’d be thinking of Wilma.”
Lister: “This is crazy. Why are we talking about going to bed with Wilma Flintstone?”
Cat: “You’re right. We’re nuts. This is an insane conversation”
Lister: “She’d never leave Fred and we know it.”

#32873: — 07/26  at  06:44 AM
Caveman Porno:

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,350042,00.html

#32874: — 07/26  at  07:22 AM
I can see a stone-age tool-maker looking at his flint-knapper one day, and thinking, "You know, that looks just like my other tool," and just etching a few lines on it to improve the resemblance, and to make the lads snigger. Doesn't mean that it couldn't have been used for some other purpose later, though... you know, like sympathetic magic rituals and whatnot.

#32880: — 07/26  at  08:38 AM
If it was handled, I believe the size had not much to do with XXL but with practical size for flint flaking. But if it was XXL, these men were not too large.

#32888: — 07/26  at  12:00 PM
I don't know what planet you're from, Torbjorn, but most women I know would be comfortable with that size. Just because we can handle something bigger doesn't mean we really like it (and we usually don't).

And is that a line etched at the tip, or is it a natural formation of the rock??

Trackback: Eureka! Tracked on: Musing's musings (66.151.149.25) at 2005 07 26 13:51:14
Now we know why the Religious Reich is so up-in-arms about this whole evolution thing. Seems that our modern human ancestors liked a bit of kink now and again. From the BBC, via Pharyngula, comes the story of a 28,000-year-old

#32894: — 07/26  at  03:03 PM
"Personally, though, I think the interpretation of its use is stretching it a bit."

Enough with the double entendres already!

"and bedroom playthings don't typically double as shop tools."

You must have missed Slate's history of the vibrator:

http://www.slate.com/id/2121835/slideshow/2121919/entry/2121915/fs/0//

#32902: — 07/26  at  04:48 PM
lobsterlily,

On http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct2001/1002390703.Me.r.html
we find: "Jamison and Gebhard, (Journal for Sex Research 24: 177-183. 1988) used data from the Kinsey report to generate these numbers. ... Erect penis length 6.21 +/- 0.77 (mean +/- SEM: inches)" 'SEM' is a useless measure on variation here.

I also found on http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=2232:
"A good summary of recent data can be found at <censured to get pass Pharyngula censorship>:
There are additional links there to other studies as well. The average length of an erect penis (measured along the top) is 16.1 cm (6.34 in). 90% of measurements fall between 10 and 21 cm (4 and 8.25 in)." The reference site was down.

My guess is that we are close to the population size where we have a XXL size on clothes or not, depending on economics in business. But I can't argue since it's women who gets the business end of this...

#32903: — 07/26  at  04:51 PM
Interesting that Pharyngula has a censorship on sites there we can find biological data! Of course, the value of said data can be questioned...

#32904: PZ Myers — 07/26  at  04:57 PM
What's the site? I only block spammers.

#32907: — 07/26  at  05:26 PM
Let's see if I can make this a public commentary:

A v e r a g e - P e n i s.com http://www.a v e r a g e - p e n i s.com/

And I don't think this is too serious a complaint. In this case it was hard to find any sort of sensible data. Many data sets are from web questionaries or without references. My very own reference is a population of one, so it was not enough to measure variance on.

#32911: — 07/26  at  07:45 PM
Reminded me of the Inuit "Oosik." This is the penis bone of the walrus. Yes, they have those. So I did a search for "oosik sex." Came up with the following link (among others):

http://www.kowakivory.com/oosic_dildos.html

A more general search for say, "penis bone" (baculum) will reveal that many mammals have such.