This chapter discusses trends in the study of ethnicity in the humanities and social sciences and has a tripartite structure: it first addresses ethnicity as a concept developed in anthropology and sociology, before exploring the influence of this conceptualisation in archaeological scholarship and, lastly, considering its specific application in the archaeology of the early ‘Anglo-Saxon’ period. Given the degree of affinity found between these disciplines, and the frequent dissemination of knowledge across disciplinary boundaries (which, like ethnic boundaries, can be treated as fluid and unstable), the separation here of the disciplines of ‘social anthropology’ and ‘archaeology’ may seem somewhat artificial. Nevertheless, it remains the case that most theorisation of ethnicity as a phenomenon has taken place within what may be classed as the anthropological and sociological disciplines, whose findings subsequently filter into general archaeological discourse before finally achieving dominance in period-specific archaeology. For this reason, the three-tier structure of this chapter addresses these three domains as separate entities, though it is of course necessary to recognise that such treatment can occasionally mask the complex overlap of these three domains.

We will see, as this chapter unfolds, that despite considerable debate, and nuancing of the concept as the discipline has taken on new ideas, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, for the most part, remains focused on ethnic paradigms which cannot be empirically proven when the contemporary sociological understanding of ethnicity is taken into account.

Ethnicity: General Conception and Theorisation

Many useful works have already detailed the development of the study of ethnicity, so this account can be brief. The following focuses primarily on developments from the 1960s onwards as it is these, and the disputes that these developments prompted, that have the most significance for current archaeological interpretation of material culture. Nevertheless, a very brief discussion of earlier taxonomic classifications of peoples and cultures is offered to contextualise them. A considerable volume of pre-existing work exists on this theme, and I make no claims here to have been comprehensive.

Romantic Nationalism

Post-Enlightenment European and North American ideas about race and culture are responsible for considerable evil, and it is always necessary to open a discussion of them with acknowledgement of the atrocities which they helped to justify.