Thank you, Stephen. You are right: it’s a rich and endlessly fascinating topic!
After reading your comment, I thought that there are more than affectations. Actually, for me, your Venus of Willendorf (by the way, I saw it twice in Wien, remarkable experience) and my dancing Shíva would work for us like portals to archetypes, the connection to the “original” powers that they have been planned to imitate.
Therefore, they connect us to the bigger spheres of our own psyches. And as Campbell would say, I suppose, to the mysteries of life.
Looking forward to exchange ideas and experiences here with all of you,
Monica