On Barbarian Identity: Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early Middle Ages 4)

291 Pages·2002·30.89 MB·English

by  Andrew Gillett (editor)

ON BARBARIAN IDENTITY
Critical Approaches to Ethnicity
in the Early Middle Ages
STUDIES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES
EDITORJAL BOARD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE
CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF YORK
Elizabeth M. Tyler (University of York)
Julian D. Richards (University ofYork)
Ross Balzaretti (University ofNottingham)
VOLUME4
ON BARBARIAN IDENTITY
Critical Approaches to Ethnicity
in the Early Middle Ages
Edited by
Andrew Gillett
BREPOLS
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
On barbarian identity ; critical approaches to ethnicity in the early middle ages. -
(Studies in the early middle ages; v. 4)
l.Ethnicity-Europe-History-To 1500 2.Middle Ages 3.Europe-History-
476-1492
!.Gillett, Andrew
305.8'0094'0902
ISBN 2503511686
©2002, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2002/0095/0031
ISBN: 2-503-51168-6
Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper.
Contents
List of Illustrations and Figures vii
Contributors
lX
Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: 1
Ethnicity, History, and Methodology
ANDREW GILLETT
Section I
Does the Distant Past Impinge on the Invasion Age Germans? 21
WALTERGOFFART
Reinhard Wenskus on 'Ethnogenesis', 39
Ethnicity, and the Origin of the Franks
ALEXANDER CALLANDER MURRAY
Nation versus Army: A Necessary Contrast? 69
MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI
Was Ethnicity Politicized in the Earliest Medieval Kingdoms? 85
ANDREW GILLETT
Visions ofNational Greatness: 123
Medieval Images, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in Finland, 1905-1945
DEREK FEWSTER
vi Contents
Section II
Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology: 149
The Case of the Alamanni
SEBASTIAN BRATHER
Volkstum as Paradigm: Germanic People and 177
Gallo-Romans in Early Medieval Archaeology since the 1930s
HUBERTFEHR
From Kossinna to Bromley: 201
Ethnogenesis in Slavic Archaeology
FLORIN CURTA
Section Ill
Ethnicity, Theory, and Tradition: A Response 221
WALTERPOHL
Ethnogenesis: The Tyranny of a Concept 241
CHARLES R. BOWLUS
Index 257
Illustrations and Figures
Illustrations
Fewster, 'Visions of National Greatness'
1. Late-nineteenth-century photograph of theatrical representation 129
of a young Finn and an old Swede in an allegory of the two
battling cultures of Finland
2. The ghost of the mythical warrior Lernminkainen in a fund-raising 130
postcard for the Boy Scouts of Finland
3. The Karelian tribal fortress of 'Tiurin linna', on a wall chart for schools 131
4. Pattern sheet of 1900 of the 'Aino-dress' 132
5. Bishop Henry and Lalli in a wall chart for use in schools, c. 1928 133
6. Matti Kurki kills Pohto; novel illustration, c. 1918 134
7. The defence of the hillfort ofRapola; novel illustration, c. 1929 135
8. A Finnish fleet fmds America in the tenth century; novel cover, c. 1937 136
Figures
Brather, 'Ethnic Identities as Constructions of Archaeology'
1. Schematic representation of conceptions of' ethnic interpretation' 151
in archaeology
2. Different 'models of culture' (Kulturmodelle) in the sixth century 154
3. Frequency of certain kinds of weapons, buried in male graves of 155
southern and western Germany during the Merovingian period (sixth
to seventh centuries)
4. 'Alemannian' Bugelfibeln 158
viii Illustrations and Figures
5. Some Germanic elite graves containing two or three arrow heads 160
6. Spread of the so-called 'Elbefibeln' (type Almgren VI,174-176) 163
7. Schretzheim near Dillingen (Baden-Wfuttemberg), plan of the cemetery 165
8. A special type of 'Alemannian' Bugeljibeln (early sixth century) 166
9. Spread of the Celts, based on written and archaeological sources 168
10. Schematic model of a 'polythetic' culture in archaeology 172
Fehr, 'Volkstum as Paradigm'
1. Distribution of 'Germanic' row-grave cemeteries in northern Gaul 185
2. The 'Nordic race' in northern Europe 186