Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology: The Case of the <i>Alamanni</i>

Brather, Sebastian

doi:10.1484/m.sem-eb.3.4487

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…(Photo by György Klösz, public domain.) 20 E.g., Alföldi 1932;Atwood 2012;de la Vaissière 2015, 178-79;de Takács 1935;Hirth 1900;Kim 2013, 26-28;Maenchen-Helfen 1944;Maenchen-Helfen 1973, 451;Meier 2019, 159-62. 21 Brather 2002;Hakenbeck 2011;Von Rummel 2010. 22 and elongate the parietal bone.…”

Section: Historical Accounts Of the Hunsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of drought during the Hunnic incursions into central-east Europe in the 4th and 5th c. CE

Hakenbeck

Büntgen²

2022

J. Roman Archaeol.

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The Hunnic incursions into eastern and central Europe in the 4th and 5th c. CE have historically been considered one of the key factors in bringing the Roman Empire to an end. However, both the origins of the Huns and their impact on the late Roman provinces remain poorly understood. Here we provide a new, combined assessment of the archaeological, historical, and environmental evidence. Hunnic raids and warfare within the Roman provinces are most intensely attested for the first half of the 5th c. We propose that severe drought spells in the 430s to 450s CE disrupted the economic organization of the incomers and local provincial populations, requiring both to adopt strategies to buffer against economic challenges. We argue that the Huns’ apparently inexplicable violence may have been one strategy for coping with climatic extremes within a wider context of the social and economic changes that occurred at the time.

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Section: Historical Accounts Of the Hunsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of drought during the Hunnic incursions into central-east Europe in the 4th and 5th c. CE

Hakenbeck

Büntgen²

2022

J. Roman Archaeol.

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“…Any attempt to make interpretations based solely on the archaeological record is misleading and epistemologically flawed (idea reiterated in Hall 2002). This stance serves as a preview of the highly sceptical position held by Brather (2002;, who goes much further by denying ethnic interpretations for the Early Middle Ages when there are written sources. The lack of certainty in interpreting ethnic signalling in material culture -roughly what Wiessner (1983) considered 'emblemic' style -is sound reasoning, but nonetheless there is much of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.…”

Section: Current Approaches To Ethnicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological narratives in ethnicity studies

Reher¹,

Fernández-Götz

2015

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In order to study ethnicity through Archaeology, the first challenge is to fully understand what that form of identity is and how it works. In recent years scholars have started to overcome the ‘introduction to ethnicity’ syndrome —whereby recent anthropological developments are acknowledged and then disregarded when carrying out the analysis—, shedding light on new perspectives which enlighten our understanding of ethnic identity. In this paper, we not only revise these new approaches, but offer two novel case-studies: the Treveri from Late Iron Age Gaul and the Igaeditani from Roman Lusitania.

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“…Because such signs were not mentioned in written sources, 'we have no inside report, no message about the meaning of things'. 20 He denies that we will ever have the ability to learn in detail the meaning of cultural traditions, their symbolic underpinnings, or their importance for past ritual or group behaviour. 'There is no hermeneutic path to a real 17 Lev S. Klein understanding' of ethnicity.…”

Section: The Issue At Stakementioning

confidence: 99%

Some remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeology

Curta

2007

Early Medieval Europe

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Some remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeology F  C  Recent critiques of the culture-historical approach to ethnicity have denounced the idea that archaeological cultures are 'actors' on the historical stage, playing the role that known individuals or groups have in documentary history. But the critique has gone as far as to claim that, because archaeologists supposedly have no access to the meaning of cultural traditions, medieval ethnicity cannot be studied by archeological means. Ethnicity should be banned from all discussions, if medieval archaeology is to make any progress in the future. The paper examines the theoretical malaise at the root of this scepticism verging on nihilism. The understanding of the archaeological record not as an imprint, but as a text allows for much learning about meaning in the past. Symbols, style and power are the key concepts that currently guide anthropological research on ethnicity as a 'social construction of primordiality'. As several archaeological examples show, medieval ethnicity was a form of social mobilization used in order to reach certain political goals. Ethnic identity was built upon some preexisting cultural identity, in a prototypic manner. Eine ethnische Einheit, ein Volk oder ein Stamm, mit dem man in Mitteleuropa ohne weiteres Kulturen oder kulturellen Gruppen identifizieren pflegt, ist aber kein gar so homogenes und gleichbleibendes Gebilde, wie man es in Anlehnung an der romantischen Volksbegriffs Herders annehmen zu können glaubt, sondern eine ungemein vielschichtige Gesellungsform, die nicht so sehr durch die Bande des Blutes, als vielmehr durch das Moment politischer Herrschaft zusammengehalten wird. 1

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Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology: The Case of the Alamanni

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

The role of drought during the Hunnic incursions into central-east Europe in the 4th and 5th c. CE

The role of drought during the Hunnic incursions into central-east Europe in the 4th and 5th c. CE

Archaeological narratives in ethnicity studies

Some remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeology

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