Session: #700

Content:

Identity has always been a central issue in the interpretation of the archaeological record. If we look at the history of the discipline, we can identify different approaches to the question, “how can we recognize identities through material evidence?” In response, archaeologists have created many different areas of research, such as: social identity; ethnicity; gender; and the contemporary political use of cultural identities. These studies have allowed a better understanding of past communities and have contributed to the understanding of archaeologists as social and political actors mediating cultural diversity. Recently, identity as a concept to discuss the archaeological record seems to have been overshadowed by concepts such as networks, social and cultural contact, mobility, ritual, and the body. However, all these views are profoundly linked to identity through their exploration of different aspects of the dynamics of social identity. These perspectives, even if not foregrounding identity, have enlarged the understanding of the complexity and instability of the processes under which identities are created and negotiated, adding to archaeological research questions regarding the transversality, liminality, mutability, performativity, intermediality and fluidity of identity. In this session, we aim to re-approach the concept of identity by considering the contributions from different theoretical perspectives, different objects of analysis and different analytical methods. We welcome papers focusing on distinct aspects of material culture and chronologies, in order to enhance our ability to address identity from an archaeological point of view and to understand the elusive alterity of the past.

Session: #700

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