Back to All Events

February Program - Robert Ritzenthaler Chapter

  • Harrington Hall 845 Elmwood Avenue Oshkosh, WI, 54901 United States (map)

February 2018 Program

Location: Harrington Hall - UW-Oshkosh

Speaker: Adrienne Frie, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Laboratory Instructor, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Title: The Culture of Nature: Animal Depictions and Faunal Remains from Early Iron Age Slovenia

About: What do animals mean to us? What did they mean to people in the past? Why do we kill and eat them, but also worship and love them? This lecture explores prehistoric human-animal relationships in Early Iron Age Slovenia and will touch on the role of animals as food, labor, and pets, and animals in religion. The results presented here are based on examinations of artifacts depicting animals dating from 800 to 300 BCE, as well as studies of animal bones from Early Iron Age sites in the Dolenjska and Bela krajina regions of modern Slovenia. In the course of this lecture I will explore the differences between real, everyday relationships with animals evidenced by faunal remains from archaeological contexts, and idealized depictions of animals presented on high status artifacts associated with feasting and personal adornment. In particular I will discuss how the results of this research demonstrate that certain species were used to demonstrate high status within local societies, both in imagery and in animal sacrifice, and how the species that we consider important for displays of status, but also for use as pets and as symbols, differ radically from our modern relationships with animals. 

Monthly meetings and programs are generally scheduled for the second Tuesday of the month from September through May. All programs sponsored by the Ritzenthaler Chapter are free and open to the public. Please extend an invitation to attend to your friends.