Proper ID Required: Difficulties in Discerning Past Identities

Extrapolating identity from material culture has always been a complicated and challenging aspect of archaeological work. Over the past four decades, exploration of identity has evolved from primordialist roots to an understanding that this is a fluid social construct which varies significantly with place, time, and cultural references. The goal of accurately understanding and representing the past, instead of simply reflecting current social constructs or biases, continues to challenge archaeologists. Past communities created, adopted, or appropriated diverse identities for complicated reasons which we may not understand. The objective of this session is to explore past and present interpretations of material correlates of identity in variable geographic, cultural, and temporal settings. Identity can be reflected in the use and creation of material culture, the spread and exchange of ideas and objects, as well as the construction or curation of monuments and the built landscape. However, identity can also be misrepresented, consciously and subconsciously, for myriad reasons. Therefore, we seek papers that reflect upon how we project the familiar present, be it nationalities, genders, or structures, onto the past, and how that past is reified in the present. There is no temporal or geographic restriction on this session.