The material culture of Roman colonization : anthropological approaches to archaeological interpretations
This thesis will explore the agentive roles of material culture in ancient colonial encounters. It takes as a case study the Roman colonization of southern Britain, from the first century BC onwards. Using ethnographic and theoretical perspectives largely drawn from social anthropology, it seeks to demonstrate that the consumption of certain types of continental material culture by some members of communities in southern Britain, pre-disposed the local population to Roman political annexation in the later part of the first century AD. Once the Roman colonial project proper commenced, different material cultures were introduced by colonial agents to maintain domination over a subaltern population. Throughout, the entanglement of people and things represented a reciprocal continuum, in which things moved people's minds, as much as people got to grips with particular things. In addition it will be suggested that the confrontations of material culture brought about by the colonial encounters affected the colonizer as much as the colonized. The thesis will demonstrate the impact of a variety of novel material cultures by focusing in detail on a key area of southern Britain â Chichester and its immediate environs.
Manley, John Francis
CC Archaeology ; DA History of Great Britain ; DA140 Celts. Romans. Saxons. Danes. Normans ; GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography ; GN Anthropology
The material culture of Roman colonization : anthropological approaches to archaeological interpretations. This thesis will explore the agentive roles of material culture in ancient colonial encounters. It takes as a case study the Roman colonization of southern Britain, from the first century BC onwards. Using ethnographic and theoretical perspectives largely drawn from social anthropology, it seeks to demonstrate that the consumption of certain types of continental material culture by some members of communities in southern Britain, pre-disposed the local population to Roman political annexation in the later part of the first century AD. Once the Roman colonial project proper commenced, different material cultures were introduced by colonial agents to maintain domination over a subaltern population. Throughout, the entanglement of people and things represented a reciprocal continuum, in which things moved people's minds, as much as people got to grips with particular things. In addition it will be suggested that the confrontations of material culture brought about by the colonial encounters affected the colonizer as much as the colonized. The thesis will demonstrate the impact of a variety of novel material cultures by focusing in detail on a key area of southern Britain â Chichester and its immediate environs.
material_culture roman colonization anthropological approach archaeological_interpretation explore agentive role material_culture ancient colonial encounter take case_study roman colonization southern_britain onwards using ethnographic theoretical_perspective largely draw social_anthropology seek consumption certain_type continental material_culture member_community southern_britain pre local_population roman political annexation later part roman colonial project proper commence different material_culture introduce colonial agent maintain domination subaltern population throughout entanglement people thing represent reciprocal continuum thing move people mind much people get grip particular thing addition suggest confrontation material_culture bring colonial encounter affect much impact variety novel material_culture focus detail key_area southern_britain immediate environs