Rethinking 'cattle cults' in early Egypt: Towards a prehistoric perspective on the Narmer Palette

The Narmer Palette occupies a key position in our understanding of the transition from Predynastic to Dynastic culture in Egypt. Previous interpretations have focused largely upon correspondences between its decorative content and later conventions of elite display. Here, the decoration of the palette is instead related to its form and functional attributes and their derivation from the Neolithic cultures of the Nile Valley, which are contrasted with those of southwest Asia and Europe. It is argued that the widespread adoption of a pastoral lifestyle during the fifth millennium BC was associated with new modes of bodily display and ritual, into which cattle and other animals were incorporated. These constituted an archive of cultural forms and practices which the makers of the Narmer Palette, and other Protodynastic monuments, drew form and transformed. Taking cattle as focus, the article begins with a consideration of interpretative problems relating to animal art and ritual in archaeology, and stresses the value of perspectives derived from the anthropology of pastoral societies

For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom

‘Freedom’ has been characterised as a ‘weird, Western concept’ of little relevance to a broader understanding of human societies. Accordingly, it is sometimes suggested that anthropology, and its sister discipline of archaeology, have had little to say about freedom. Drawing on a collaboration with the late David Graeber, and reflections on the anthropology of A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, I will argue to the contrary that an ethnography of freedom – with its main locus in the colonial milieu of 17th-century North America – lies close to the disciplinary foundations of anthropology, and also has something to say about the modern development of our supposedly weird, supposedly Western concept

Letter: Vicki Wengrow-Wilma Heide, November 16, 1970

Letter from Vicki Wengrow, NOW Director Jacksonville, to Wilma Heide, Chairwoman, Board of Directors - NOW, requesting a charter for a Jacksonville Florida chapter of National Organization of Women. Now Chapter charter process

Letter: Vicki Wengrow to Gerri Lipowitz, Pres. B\u27nai B\u27rith Women

Letter from Vicki Wengrow - Representative for Alliance for Ratification of the ERA to Gerri Lipkowitz, inviting B’nai B’rith Women of Jacksonville to participate in the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Local participation in state and national issues: Alliance for Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment / Jacksonville Coalition for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 1972-1975?

Letter: Vicki Wengrow to Ministerial Alliance Members

Letter from Vicki Wengrow - Representative for Alliance for Ratification of the ERA to Ministerial Alliance member care of Chaplain Ronald Mudd, President thanking them for their support for ERA. Local participation in state and national issues: Alliance for Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment / Jacksonville Coalition for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 1972-1975?

Letter: Vicki Wengrow-Wilma Heide, Undated

Letter to Wilma Heide, Chairwoman, Board of Directors, National Organization of Women from Vicki Wengrow regarding guidelines for establishing NOW chapter in Jacksonville, Florida. NOW chapter charter process

Overview: Herstory - Jacksonville Women\u27s Movement

Draft of expanded overview of NOW chapter activities, August 26, 1970-December 1979. Recompiled and expanded June 1986. Draft includes handwritten notes in margins

Overview: The Early Jacksonville Women\u27s Movement and the Contributions & Career of Vicki Wengrow

Overview and table of contents for the collection compiles by Vicki Wengrow. List of early NOW/Jacksonville women\u27s movement activists. List of abbreviations of groups and subjects in collection

Letter: Vicki Wengrow-Hans Tanzler

Copy of letter from Vicki Wengrow and the Board of National Organization for Women Jacksonville to Jacksonville Mayor Hans Tanzler discussing the part women in Jacksonville played in defeating the Bond Issues