‘O Brave New World’: Archaeologies of Changing Identities

Historical archaeology has been particularly concerned with how people form identities in new and challenging environments. Colonialism, capitalism and globalization create situations of displacement, replacement and difference. The papers in this session all deal with the ways in which people actively create, recreate, adjust and alter their identities using the material world. These questions are critical in trying to understand the world today, in which boundaries are simultaneously breaking down and being built up, and humans are constantly adapting to the ever-changing milieu.