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Migration and ethnicity in prehistoric Cyprus: Technology as habitus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

David Frankel
David Frankel*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Melbourne
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Abstract

During the third millennium cal BC, there were major changes in many aspects of Cypriot material culture, technology and economy which characterize the division between the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age on the island. Many innovations can be traced to Anatolian antecedents. These include a very wide array of domestic as well as agricultural and industrial technologies. Their nature and range make it possible to argue strongly for the movement of people to the island, rather than for other mechanisms of technology transfer and culture change. This identification of an intrusive group, with distinctive patterns of behaviour (habitus), opens up questions of prehistoric ethnicity, and the processes by which the initial maintenance of different lifeways by indigenous and settler communities eventually gave way to a common cultural system.

Les changements profonds qui prirent place dans de nombreux aspects de la culture materielle cypriote, de la technologie et de l'économie pendant le troisième millénaire BC, caractérisent, dans l'île, la division entre le chalcolithique et l'âge du bronze ancien. Bon nombre d'innovations peuvent être reliées à leurs antécédents anatoliens. Celles-ci comprennent un large ensemble de technologies domestiques, agricoles et industrielles qui à cause de leur nature et leur importance permettent de démontrer de façon convaincante que ces innovations sont dues à un afflux de populations nouvelles sur l'île. Il n'est donc pas nécessaire d'invoquer d'autres mechanismes de transfert de technologie et de changement de culture. L'identification d'un groupe intrusif à comportement distinct (habitus), permet de s'interroger sur l'ethnicité préhistorique ainsi que sur le processus qui a servi à maintenir initialement un style de vie différent pour les communautés indigènes et pour celles des immigrants, avant que celle-ci ne soit remplacé petit à petit par un système culturel commun.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Während des dritten Jahrtausends kal. BC fanden wichtige Änderungen in vielen Aspekten der zyprischen materiellen Kultur, Technologie und Ökonomie statt, die Trennung von Chalkolithikum und Frühbronzezeit auf der Insel charakterisieren. Viele lnnovationen können auf anatolische Vorläufer zurückgeführt werden. Diese Innovationen schließen eine beachtlichc Reihe von sowohl häuslichen als auch landwirtschaftlichen und industriellen Technologien ein. Ihre Art und ihr Umfang sprechen weit eher für die Wanderung von Menschen als für andere Mechanismen des Technologietransfers und Kulturwandels. Diese Identifikation einer eindringenden Gruppe mit andersartigen Handlungsweisen (habitus) eröffnet Fragen zur prähistorischen Ethnizität und zu den Prozessen, durch die ursprüngliche Beibehaltung der verschiedenen Lebensweisen der Einheimischen einerseits und Siedlergemeinschaften andererseits letztlich einem gemeinsamen kulturellen System Platz machte.

Keywords

archaeologyBronze AgeChalcolithicCyprusethnicitymigrationprehistorytechnology
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 167 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Sage Publications 

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