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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: In this article, the authors employ the stories of 10 mixed-heritage individuals to examine their incorporation of "otherculture" ancestries into identity constructs, and identify three broad identity responses emerge from the data: affirmation of singular constructs; questioning and contemplation; and pluralist embracing of both cultures.
Abstract: There has been a long history of contact between Indigenous and Chinese people in north-eastern Australia. This is evidenced in contemporary communities by the significant presence of mixed-heritage individuals of Indigenous and Chinese ancestry. This paper employs the stories of 10 such individuals to examine their incorporation of 'otherculture' ancestries into identity constructs. In doing so, the paper sheds light on how identities are narrated at the intersection of 'myth' and 'moment', and how challenge evokes transformation and discontinuity. Three broad identity responses emerge from the data: affirmation of singular constructs; questioning and contemplation; and pluralist embracing of both cultures. Historical and contemporary discourses feature prominently, covertly and overtly restricting potential identifications. Mutuality and hegemonic rivalry are found to underpin the narration of relations between the two marginalised and racialised groups.

11 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the spatiality and spread of tradition is the outcome of continuous reflexive transformation of embodied traditional knowledge in contested social and symbolic relationships between groups, which unfolds in conflict over the meaning, ownership, and value of symbolic inventories (knowledge, names, practices, symbols).
Abstract: Archaeologists have explained the spatiality and spread of traditions primarily in terms of conflict-free transfers of knowledge. This article critiques the sociospatial conceptualization of tradition implicit in many of these explanations and re-theorizes tradition as a relational process of symbolic conflict. Of particular concern are hierarchical approaches to traditional knowledge that set the more durable unconscious or ‘embodied’ elements of tradition apart from ‘symbolically invested practices’ and attribute to each a unique spatiality, with that of embodied tradition involving largely benign mechanisms of transmission. This article proposes instead that the spatiality of tradition is the outcome of continuous reflexive transformation of embodied traditional knowledge in contested social and symbolic relationships between groups. This transformation unfolds in conflict over the meaning, ownership, and value of symbolic inventories (knowledge, names, practices, symbols) within social fields. Ethnographic and archaeological data are used to argue that strategies of symbolic conflict propel traditions along the relational pathways of fields.

11 citations

01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an acknowledgment of the authorship of the author's work and the authors' contributions..................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter
Abstract: .................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter

11 citations

Dissertation
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: Towards "A New Recording of Mauritanian Rock Art" as mentioned in this paper is an attempt to utilise new methods and techniques for recording rock art in north-west Africa.
Abstract: Towards "A New Recording of Mauritanian Rock Art" is an attempt to utilise new methods and techniques for recording rock art in north-west Africa. This research aims to show the recorded work not as isolated figures but as groups of inter-related figures. According to the published and unpublished inventories of the Mauritanian rock art sites, the two studied sites, which have only engravings, have not been recorded before. They are situated in the Adrar plateau in the north-central part of the Mauritanian Sahara. In addition to the methods and techniques of recording rock art (e.g. tracing, rubbing and photography), the methodology used in this work includes a number of new aspects that seem to be ignored or omitted in most previous work on the subject. This new recording aims to provide new clues that enable the researcher to carry out two basic interpretative analyses and gain a better understanding of the recorded engravings as an example of the rock art of Mauritania.

11 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using the archaeological displays at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, this article examined the exhibition as a site of identity creation through the negotiations between categories of same and Other, and argued that the exhibition constructs a particular relationship between the Celtic Fringe and Scottish National identity that draws upon the historical discourses of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as a place and a time "apart".
Abstract: Using the archaeological displays at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, this paper examines the exhibition as a site of identity creation through the negotiations between categories of same and Other. Through an analysis of the poetics of display, the paper argues that the exhibition constructs a particular relationship between the Celtic Fringe and Scottish National identity that draws upon the historical discourses of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as a place and a time ‘apart’. This will be shown to have implications for the display of archaeological material in museums but also for contemporary understandings of Scottish National identity.

11 citations