2020 · Stone Age Venus figurines were totems of survival, not sex, study suggests Megan Marples, CNN Published 3:39 AM EST, Tue December 22, 2020 Link Copied! Ad Feedback Natural History. 2 déc. 2020 · In a new study, Johnson and fellow researchers offer an alternative explanation for mystery of the figurines' exaggerated physiques: the bodies are not swollen as symbols of sex, they say, but as symbols of survival.