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In light of recent discussions recognizing with rightly renewed vigour the ethnonationalist, racist and imperialist grand narratives which underly the origins of the discipline of “Anglo-Saxon” Archaeology, this lecture will discuss the findings of my recent monograph and the research upon which it is based. This monograph was an investigation into how modern scholars have attempted to study ethnic identity using the fragmentary written evidence, and far more abundant but problematically analysed material evidence available from Britain in this period. Using received methods of critical analysis derived from poststructuralist philosophy and sociology, I revealed that the frames of questioning pursued by the discipline of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ archaeology remain stuck in essentialist Herderian normative frameworks in in their approach to the study of ethnicity via material culture, this being the case despite strong attempts being made since the late twentieth century by the discipline to take up received notions of constructivism in ethnic sociology and to come to grips with a disciplinary history grounded in nationalism, imperialism, and white supremacy. Other scholarship has addressed such questions briefly, but mine is the first to perform a close reading of contemporary archaeological scholarship in detail to outline the epistemological roots of the problem. The thesis analysed the precise points at which a slip from empiricism in the study of material culture slipped into this hegemonic framework, and suggested a path out of this by situating the transformation of Britain’s relationship with the Roman world within a wider framework of transitions in normative values relating to gender, civic and martial identity. I seek to underline that this is a problem of discourse, rather than individuals, and that through dialogue, discussion, and mutual respect, we can chart a route toward an inclusive early medieval archaeology.
James Harland has most recently written a book entitled Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum: A Modern Framework and its Problems (Amsterdam University Press, 2021) available for purchase here.
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