S1 Ep6: Episode 6 - Sicán Funerary Mask, Shang Ritual Owl and Another Kick-Ass Queen

In this episode Ashley shares the news of over-the-counter birth control in the US and Tracey responds to another dumbass - this time explaining why it is inappropriate to say the Jews survived in the Holocaust if they were useful. Ashley’s piece of stuff is a glorious Sicán funerary mask (a culture that precedes the Inca in Peru) and Tracey talks about a Shang period bronze owl-shaped ritual vessel used in ancestor worship and the extraordinary kick-ass queen/priestess/general who owned it.

Ashley’s Stuff in the News:

Sarah Toy, “FDA Approves First Over-the-Counter Birth-Control Pill,” Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/otc-birth-control-pill-4c180a93.

PBS, “The Catholic Church and Birth Control,” PBS American Experience, accessed July 29, 2023, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-catholic-church-and-birth-control/.

Tracey’s Stuff in the News:

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar, “A Holocaust Survivor respond to Greg Gutfeld on Fox about useful people in concentration camps,” The Independent, July 29, 2023. Accessed at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/auschwitz-holocaust-fox-news-host-b2382772.html

“Forced Labor,” Holocaust Encyclopedia: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, accessed July 31, 2023 at https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/forced-labor

The United States Holocaust Museum, “Death Marches in the Holocaust,” Common Lit, 2017. Accessed at https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/death-marches-in-the-holocaust

Nikolaus Wachsmann, “Liberation” The Nazi Concentration Camps accessed July 31, 2023 at http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk/themes/liberation.html

Nazi Racial Theory, Wikipedia accessed July 31, 2023 at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_racial_theories

Tracey's Piece of Stuff

Minje Su, “Queen, Priestess, General: The Legendary Life of Fu Hao,” Medievalist.net accessed on July 31, 2023 at https://www.medievalists.net/2018/12/queen-priestess-general-the-legendary-life-of-fu-hao/

Cortney E. Chaffin, “War and Sacrifice: The Tomb of Fu Hao,” Smarthistory accessed July 31, 2023 at https://smarthistory.org/tomb-of-fu-hao/

Shuxian Ye, A Mythological Approach to Exploring the Origins of Chinese Civilization, Springer Nature, 2022.



“Fu Hao Owl Zun,” Wikipedia accessed July 31, at https://www.medievalists.net/2018/12/queen-priestess-general-the-legendary-life-of-fu-hao/

“Taotie: The Mystery of Chinese Mythology’s Famous Glutton,” PBS Monstrum with Dr. Emily Zarka, accessed July 31, 2023 at https://youtu.be/o_FN55VUqRc

Ashley’s Piece of Stuff:
Joanne Pillsbury, Funerary Mask, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/309959.

Amy Tikkanen, “Cinnabar,” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 21, 2023 https://www.britannica.com/science/cinnabar.


Picture Credits:

“Funerary Mask: Lambayeque (Sicán), 10-12th centuries, The Metropolitan Museum, public domain accessed July 29, 2023.

Windmemories, “Fu Hao Zun at the Henan Museum,” Wikimedia Commons accessed July 31, 2023 Windmemories, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Gary Todd, “Fu Hao Zun at the National Museum of China,”Wikimedia Commons accessed July 31, 2023. By Gary Todd - https://www.flickr.com/photos/101561334@N08/9829808373/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96349251

Music Credits: Ashley Bozian