The archaeology of ethnogenesis

Abstract

Over more than a century, a growing body of books, articles, and dissertations has emerged that can now be recognized as part of the archaeology of ethnogenesis. Regardless of whether this work concerns people in the far reaches of antiquity or the more recent past, archaeologists are grappling with a variety of social forces, historical processes, contexts, and dimensions of social identity making. As with much contemporary anthropological social theory, prevalent themes include politics and economics as well as specific topics such as colonialism, frontiers, ethnonymy, persistence, nativism, migration, instrumentalism, slavery, and religion. There are few major regions of the world where archaeologists have not applied ethnicity or ethnogenesis theories. Although many archaeologists' attitudes toward investigating these forms of social identity involve skepticism or ambivalence, there is growing support. For similar and different reasons, native and descendent communities share this range of opinions about ethnogenetic research.