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The Archaeology of Ethnicity: Constructing Identities in the Past and Present

01 Jan 1997-
TL;DR: Sian Jones as mentioned in this paper argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation, and presents a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences.
Abstract: The question of ethnicity is highly controversial in contemporary archaeology. Indigenous and nationalist claims to territory, often rely on reconstructions of the past based on the traditional identification of 'cultures' from archaeological remains. Sian Jones responds to the need for a reassessment of the ways in which social groups are identified in the archaeological record, with a comprehensive and critical synthesis of recent theories of ethnicity in the human sciences. In doing so, she argues for a fundamentally different view of ethnicity, as a complex dynamic form of identification, requiring radical changes in archaeological analysis and interpretation.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors traces the impact of displacement on existing and emerging identities of groups and individuals which were relocated to "frontier" areas in the aftermath of conflict and conquest by Rome during the reign of emperor Trajan.
Abstract: Inspired by the catalyst papers, this essay traces the impact of displacement on existing and emerging identities of groups and individuals which were relocated to ‘frontier’ areas in the aftermath of conflict and conquest by Rome during the reign of emperor Trajan. The Dacian Wars, ending in 106 CE with the conquest of Dacia by Roman armies, not only resulted in the deliberate destruction of settlements and the society of the conquered, but also the removal of young Dacian men by forced recruitment into the Roman army, some serving the emperor in the Eastern Egyptian Desert. In turn, the wealth in gold and silver of the newly established Roman province of Dacia was exploited by mining communities arriving from Dalmatia. As a result of these ‘displacements’ caused by war and the shared experience of mining in the remote mountains of Dacia or guarding roads through the desert east of the Nile, we can trace the emergence of new senses of belonging alongside the retainment of fixed group identities.

18 citations

DOI
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: This article reviewed the history of burial protection and repatriation in Virginia, looking forward to the ways that the federal acknowledgment of Virginia Indian tribes as well as new guidelines on the disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains will facilitate repatriation and reburial in Virginia.
Abstract: Repatriation, the legal process of returning Native American human remains and cultural objects to present-day tribes, is far from simply a legal mandate. For American Indian tribes, museum professionals, academic researchers, and lawmakers, it is a deeply political and emotionally-charged subject. More than twenty years after the passage of the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAIA, 1989) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990), there are still many unresolved conflicts among American Indians, anthropologists, and the federal government. These conflicts include the relationship between federal acknowledgement and repatriation as well as the disposition culturally unidentifiable human remains, both of which are critical issues for the repatriation process in Virginia. This thesis reviews the history of burial protection and repatriation in Virginia, looking forward to the ways that the federal acknowledgment of Virginia Indian tribes as well as new guidelines on the disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains will facilitate repatriation and reburial in Virginia. In the past, archaeologists studying ancient Virginia Indian history have classified sites within archaeological cultures; cultural practices are often associated with language families as well. However, a review of historical, geographical, anthropological, linguistic, archaeological, and bioarchaeological evidence suggests that boundaries between ethnic, political, and linguistic groups are often indistinct and do not coincide during the Late Woodland and Early Historic periods. Nonetheless, further review of linguistic, archaeological, and bioarchaeological data, as well as records of kinship and oral tradition, may illuminate the different affiliation choices made by Virginia Indian tribes during these periods. The cultural affiliation of human skeletal remains and associated burial contexts from sites throughout Virginia should be guided by contemporary theories of identity and landscape as well as the prerogatives of present-day Virginia Indian tribes. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Dedications iv List of Tables v List of Figures vi Epigraph vii Chapter

18 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the presence and comparison of the analyses of artefacts located in three surface assemblages on Gordon Downs Station in the southeast Kimberley Region, Western Australia is discussed.
Abstract: The presence and comparison of the analyses of artefacts located in three surface assemblages on Gordon Downs Station in the southeast Kimberley Region, Western Australia is discussed. The comparative ethnoarchaeological model has revealed changes and adaptations in the use of material culture through three post-contact periods and has provided evidence about the choices that Aboriginal people made when selecting new materials as they became available.

18 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
12 Dec 2018-Genes
TL;DR: It is shown that aAIMs identified by a novel principal component analysis (PCA)-based method outperform all of the competing methods in classifying ancient individuals into populations and identifying admixed individuals.
Abstract: The rapid accumulation of ancient human genomes from various areas and time periods potentially enables the expansion of studies of biodiversity, biogeography, forensics, population history, and epidemiology into past populations. However, most ancient DNA (aDNA) data were generated through microarrays designed for modern-day populations, which are known to misrepresent the population structure. Past studies addressed these problems by using ancestry informative markers (AIMs). It is, thereby, unclear whether AIMs derived from contemporary human genomes can capture ancient population structures, and whether AIM-finding methods are applicable to aDNA, provided that the high missingness rates in ancient-and oftentimes haploid-DNA can also distort the population structure. Here, we define ancient AIMs (aAIMs) and develop a framework to evaluate established and novel AIM-finding methods in identifying the most informative markers. We show that aAIMs identified by a novel principal component analysis (PCA)-based method outperform all of the competing methods in classifying ancient individuals into populations and identifying admixed individuals. In some cases, predictions made using the aAIMs were more accurate than those made with a complete marker set. We discuss the features of the ancient Eurasian population structure and strategies to identify aAIMs. This work informs the design of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays and the interpretation of aDNA results, which enables a population-wide testing of primordialist theories.

18 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Arthur et al. as discussed by the authors argued that the type of research itself is at least partly responsible for the limited results, and pointed out that the focus on deeply stratified archaeological deposits in caves and coastal middens at the expense of open landscape surveys, the persistence of typological classification and the lack of research into the eighteenth and nineteenth-century Khoekhoen are the causal factors.
Abstract: Archaeologists commonly cite the high mobility of pastoralists and destruction by modern development and agriculture to explain the low number of herder sites known to date. This paper presents an alternative explanation. Here it is argued that the type of research itself is at least partly responsible for the limited results. The focus on deeply stratified archaeological deposits in caves and coastal middens at the expense of open landscape surveys, the persistence of typological classification and the lack of research into the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Khoekhoen are presented as causal factors. A dominant theoretical model links all three. The cultural identity or 'dichotomy model' requires deep deposits and large numbers of artefacts in order to classify assemblages as either produced by hunters or by herders. The dominant model also encourages a focus on the pre-colonial period, as hunter and herder identities are thought to have become less distinct after colonial settlement. In contrast, results of recent work suggest that the best methods for recognising herders in the archaeological record may involve open landscape survey and the study of low-density sites, the study of spatial and technological organisation and the use of a wider range of historical sources, including those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To cite this article: Arthur, C. 2008. The archaeology of indigenous herders in the Western Cape of southern Africa. Southern African Humanities 20 : 205-20.

18 citations