Social identity, material culture, and the archaeology of religion

Abstract

This article considers how social identity groups come to be associated with certain material signs or traits. It is argued that this is a complex and continuing process, but not one which is untraceable or random, and so we can still use these signs to aid our understanding of social identity. Using the archaeological study of religious identity seen through Quakerism as a starting point, this article considers the nature of social identity and how it can be accessed archaeologically. Past Quaker archaeology is briefly outlined, and the apparently contradictory conclusions in this body of work are contextualized. While historians and Quakers themselves felt there to be a strong community, archaeologists have observed disparate material practices. A consideration of the social context of Quakerism and its ‘rules’ will help clarify these contradictions and also suggest a clearer understanding of how the material culture of a social group can allow us access to ephemeral social identities. Even through a changeable window of material traits, we can find coherence and unity in a social group by considering that material culture variability in a matrix of in- and out-group material and social relations, contextualizing what kind of difference each relation marks.

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