Ethnogenesis

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Example for the ethnogenesis of the "Swiss": Legend of the Rütli oath

Ethnogenesis (from ancient Greek éthnos "[not Greek] people " and genesis "birth, origin, emergence") is a modern method name from the areas of cultural and social science to describe the process of the creation of a people or an ethnic group .

A “new people” with their own identity , culture and possibly language and mythology as well as a feeling of togetherness can arise through prolonged isolation of a group of people . Other possibilities are a common fate or a common history of a certain group of people, from which an own conception of identity develops, or jointly formative influences from climate , geography , fauna or flora .

Often other peoples are also involved in the ethnogenesis of a people, leaving behind ethnic , linguistic and other cultural characteristics or helping to shape the typical characteristics of the new people. A new people can also arise from the amalgamation of several peoples. In this sense, modern research emphasizes less biological than historical-social developments that ultimately lead to the formation of a people with its own identity. The (ethnic) identity is decisive here, which arises in a changeable process in which different factors play a role.

In historical research, the formation of new groups in the period between the transition from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages , during the so-called migration of peoples, has been examined in recent decades . The research of Reinhard Wenskus and Herwig Wolfram led to a veritable paradigm shift, although it has recently been modified and partially corrected. The core idea of ​​modern research is that one cannot assume a primordial, timeless and static development of peoples, but rather groups join together in a dynamic social process. Only then do they develop their own identity, which is expressed, for example, in stories of origin (see Origo gentis ). According to this, peoples and tribes are not biologically determined communities, but the result of historical development. In recent times, due to critical comments on the concept of ethnogenesis (especially in parts of Anglo-American research), the concept of identity has been used, especially since it does better justice to the ongoing process of identity formation that is never fully completed.

See also

literature

  • Charles R. Bowlus: Ethnogenesis Models and the Age of Migrations: A Critique . In: Austrian History Yearbook 26, 1995, pp. 146-164.
  • Sebastian Brather : Ethnic interpretations in prehistoric archeology. History, basics and alternatives (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 42). de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2004, ISBN 3-11-018040-5 .
  • Helmut Castritius : Tribal formation, ethnogenesis. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 29. Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 508-515.
  • Herwig Friesinger (ed.): Types of ethnogenesis with special consideration of Bavaria (= publications of the commission for early medieval research. Vol. 13 = Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Memoranda. Vol. 204). Reports of the Symposium of the Commission for Early Medieval Research, October 27-30, 1986. Volume 2. Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7001-1715-9 .
  • Patrick J. Geary : The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2002, ISBN 0-691-09054-8 , (German: European peoples in the early Middle Ages. On the legend of the becoming of nations (= Fischer. European history 60111). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-596-60111-8 ).
  • Andrew Gillett (Ed.): On Barbarian Identity. Critical Approaches to Ethnicity in the Early Middle Ages (= Studies in the Early Middle Ages. Vol. 4). Brepols, Turnhout 2002, ISBN 2-503-51168-6 .
  • Walter Goffart : Barbarian Tides. The Migration Age and the later Roman Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA 2006, ISBN 0-8122-3939-3 .
  • Jörg Jarnut : Rule and Ethnogenesis in the Early Middle Ages. Collected Essays. Celebration for the 60th birthday. Edited by Matthias Becher . Scriptorium publishing house, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-93261-019-9 .
  • Michael Kulikowski: Barbaric Identity. Current research and new interpretive approaches. In: M. Konrad, C. Witschel (Ed.): Roman legionary camps in the Rhine and Danube provinces - nuclei of late antique-early medieval life? Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2012, pp. 103–111.
  • Walter Pohl : The Avars. A steppe people in Central Europe 567–822 AD 2nd, updated edition. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-48969-9 .
  • Walter Pohl: Die Germanen (= Encyclopedia of German History. Vol. 37). Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-55705-X .
  • Walter Pohl: The Great Migration. Conquest and Integration. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2002, ISBN 3-17-015566-0 .
  • Roland Steinacher: Ethnogenesis, Gens, Regnum. The historical ethnography. In: Latin Forum . 50/51, 2003, ZDB -ID 2056601-3 , pp. 83-105 ( PDF ).
  • Roland Steinacher: Wends, Slavs, Vandals. An early medieval pseudological equation and its afterlife until the 18th century. In: Walter Pohl (Ed.): The search for the origins. On the importance of the early Middle Ages (= research on the history of the Middle Ages. Vol. 8 = Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Memoranda. Vol. 322). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3296-4 , pp. 329–353.
  • Reinhard Wenskus : Tribal formation and constitution. The emergence of the early medieval gentes. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1961 (at the same time: Marburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1959), (2nd, unchanged edition. Ibid 1977, ISBN 3-412-00177-5 ).
  • Herwig Wolfram : The Empire and the Teutons. Between antiquity and the Middle Ages (= The Empire and the Germans. Vol. 6). Siedler, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-88680-168-3 ; complete paperback edition (= settlers German history. Vol. 1). Goldmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-442-75518-2 .
  • Herwig Wolfram: The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the sixth century. Draft of a historical ethnography. 4th edition. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-33733-3 .
  • Herwig Wolfram: Introduction or reflections on the Origo gentis. In: Herwig Wolfram, Walter Pohl (Hrsg.): Types of ethnogenesis with special consideration of Bavaria (= publications of the commission for early medieval research. Vol. 12 = Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Memoranda. Vol. 201). Reports of the Symposium of the Commission for Early Medieval Research, October 27-30, 1986. Volume 1. Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-7001-1709-4 , 19–31.
  • Herwig Wolfram: Ethnogenesis in the early medieval Danube and Eastern Alps (6th to 10th centuries). In: Helmut Beumann , Werner Schröder (Ed.): Early Middle Ages Ethnogenesis in the Alpine Region (= Nationes 5). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1985, pp. 97-151.

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Walter Pohl: Identity and Contradiction. Thoughts on a history of meaning in the early Middle Ages. In: Walter Pohl (Ed.): The search for the origins. On the importance of the early Middle Ages. Vienna 2004, p. 23ff .; Peter Stachel: Identity. Genesis, inflation and problems of a concept that is central to contemporary social and cultural studies. In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 87, 2005, pp. 395–425.
  2. ↑ Cf. basically Walter Pohl: Die Völkerwanderung. 2nd edition Stuttgart 2002. Examples include the ethnogenesis of the Goths , Franks , Lombards , Slavs and numerous equestrian peoples .
  3. ↑ Concerning these corrections see Helmut Castritius: Tribal formation, Ethnogenese. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 29. Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 508-515, here pp. 511-514; Walter Pohl: Identity and Contradiction. Thoughts on a history of meaning in the early Middle Ages. In: Walter Pohl (Ed.): The search for the origins. On the importance of the early Middle Ages. Vienna 2004, p. 23ff.
  4. ↑ See Helmut Castritius: Tribal formation, ethnogenesis. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 29. Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 508-515, here pp. 509-511.
  5. ↑ Michael Kulikowski: Barbaric Identity. Current research and new interpretive approaches. In: M. Konrad, C. Witschel (ed.): Roman legionary camps in the Rhine and Danube provinces - nuclei of late antique-early medieval life? Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2012, pp. 103–111.
  6. ^ Walter Pohl: Identity and contradiction. Thoughts on a history of meaning in the early Middle Ages. In: Walter Pohl (Ed.): The search for the origins. On the importance of the early Middle Ages. Vienna 2004, p. 23ff.