On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages
Ethnicity has been central to medieval studies since the Goths, Franks, Alamanni and other barbarian settlers of the Roman empire were first seen as part of Germanic antiquity. Today, two paradigms dominate interpretation of barbarian Europe. In history, theories of how tribes formed ('ethnogenesis') assert the continuity of Germanic identities from prehistory through the Middle Ages, and see cultural rather than biological factors as the means of preserving these identities. In archaeology, the 'culture history' approach has long claimed to be able to trace movements of peoples not attested in the historical record, by identifying ethnically-specific material goods. The papers in this volume challenge the concepts and methodologies of these two models. The authors explore new ways to understand barbarians in the early Middle Ages, and to analyse the images of the period constructed by modern scholarship. Two responses, one by a leading exponent of the 'ethnogenesis' approach, the other by a leading critic, continue this important debate.
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On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages
Ethnicity has been central to medieval studies since the Goths, Franks, Alamanni and other barbarian settlers of the Roman empire were first seen as part of Germanic antiquity. Today, two paradigms dominate interpretation of barbarian Europe. In history, theories of how tribes formed ('ethnogenesis') assert the continuity of Germanic identities from prehistory through the Middle Ages, and see cultural rather than biological factors as the means of preserving these identities. In archaeology, the 'culture history' approach has long claimed to be able to trace movements of peoples not attested in the historical record, by identifying ethnically-specific material goods. The papers in this volume challenge the concepts and methodologies of these two models. The authors explore new ways to understand barbarians in the early Middle Ages, and to analyse the images of the period constructed by modern scholarship. Two responses, one by a leading exponent of the 'ethnogenesis' approach, the other by a leading critic, continue this important debate.
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On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages

On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages

On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages

On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages

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Overview

Ethnicity has been central to medieval studies since the Goths, Franks, Alamanni and other barbarian settlers of the Roman empire were first seen as part of Germanic antiquity. Today, two paradigms dominate interpretation of barbarian Europe. In history, theories of how tribes formed ('ethnogenesis') assert the continuity of Germanic identities from prehistory through the Middle Ages, and see cultural rather than biological factors as the means of preserving these identities. In archaeology, the 'culture history' approach has long claimed to be able to trace movements of peoples not attested in the historical record, by identifying ethnically-specific material goods. The papers in this volume challenge the concepts and methodologies of these two models. The authors explore new ways to understand barbarians in the early Middle Ages, and to analyse the images of the period constructed by modern scholarship. Two responses, one by a leading exponent of the 'ethnogenesis' approach, the other by a leading critic, continue this important debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9782503511689
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Publication date: 07/03/2002
Series: Studies in the Early Middle Ages Series , #4
Pages: 289
Product dimensions: 6.54(w) x 9.84(h) x 0.86(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: Ethnicity, History, and Methodology - Andrew Gillett Does the Distant Past Impinge on the Invasion Age Germans? - Walter Goffart Reinhard Wenskus on Ethnogenesis, Ethnicity, and the Origin of the Franks - Alexander Callander Murray Nation versus Army: A Necessary Contrast? - Michael Kulikowski Was Ethnicity Politicized in the Earliest Medieval Kingdoms? - Andrew Gillett Visions of National Greatness: Medieval Images, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in Finland, 19051945 - Derek Fewster Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology: The Case of the Alamanni - Sebastian Brather Volkstum as Paradigm: Germanic People and Gallo-Romans in Early Medieval Archaeology since the 1930s - Hubert Fehr From Kossinna to Bromley: Ethnogenesis in Slavic Archaeology - Florin Curta Ethnicity, Theory, and Tradition: A Response - Walter Pohl Ethnogenesis: The Tyranny of a Concept - Charles R. Bowlus
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