Theme:
1. The Material Record: Current Trends and Future Directions
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Not Another Session on Ethnicity! Replacing Ethnic with Other Types of Group Identities
Content:
Group identities are central to the organisation of human societies, both past and present. Numerous recent studies of group identities show that people can be simultaneously part of different social groups (e.g. ethnic, class, gender, age etc), as well as that the expression of diverse social identities is context related. Yet, a large part of current archaeological research still considers ethnic identity as the primary basis for organisational patterns attested in the archaeological record. Such an approach has been a fundamental part of the discipline since its very beginnings until today, constituting the basis of both cultural-historical and colonial discourses.
Nevertheless, various ethnicity-focused studies conducted in the last 60 years have clearly shown that cultural differences, including those in material culture and practices, have to be made relevant in social interactions to create an expression of ethnic identity. Unfortunately, this level of intentionality is commonly imperceptible in the archaeological record, especially among oral societies. Interestingly enough, the archaeological record can instead provide us with lucid insights into other types of group identities. Therefore, the aim of this session is to provide a more nuanced approach to the emergence of different group identities by exploring alternatives to ethnicity-based approaches. Simultaneously, it questions the very importance of ethnic identities for the self-definition of past societies.
We would like to welcome studies focusing on, but not limited to:
1. Examples where expressions of different group identities (e.g. class, gender, age) were previously wrongly interpreted as an expression of ethnic identity
2. Use of same types of objects and practices in the expression of different group identities within the same socio-cultural context
3. Relationship between ethnic identities and social class
4. Reconciling social class and funerary data
5. Interactions between social class and gender
Keywords:
group identities, ethnicity, social class, gender
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Christos Giamakis (United Kingdom) 1
Co-organisers:
Filip Franković (Germany) 2
Affiliations:
1. York Museums Trust
2. Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT