Interrogating Identity: The Fluidity of Social Boundaries in African Archaeology

The concept of identity within archaeological discourse is sometimes uncritically linked to modern or historically-known ethnic groups and political entities. At the same time, archaeologies of identity that consider multiple scales of identification (tied to gender, kinship, locality, subsistence regime, status, religion, mobility, and ethnicity, to name a few) have made important contributions to the field, moving us far beyond the old “pots equal people” paradigm. In African archaeology, for example, there is growing recognition that the human past is characterized by intricate socio-economic mosaics, where foragers, herders, agriculturalists, and individuals who transcended these categories can be essential constituents of complex polities. In these environments, interpersonal and intergroup interactions both reify and erode various social boundaries, demonstrating that identities are both enduring and highly mutable. The papers in this session seek to further this discourse by interrogating the twin issues of interactions and identity within Holocene African archaeology. Presenters use a broad range of methodological techniques and cover topics from throughout the continent.