The link between objects, culture, and identity is never straightforward or simple. At certain moments, however, the relationship between certain objects and a sense of identity and community is more clear. This is especially visible right now in Athens as many of the residents of the city focus their attention on the funeral for Metropolitan Archbishop Christodoulos whose life, office, and now death was punctuated with a wide range of symbolically significant regalia.
Immigration is another moment when the link between identity and material culture can crystallize into a recognizable (albeit fluid) assemblage of objects. A panel on this topic organized by Kostis Kourelis (Clemson University) and Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory (La Trobe University) at the 2008 Archaeological Institute of America Annual Meeting is now available online as podcasts. The panel, "The Archaeology of Xenitia: Greek Immigration and Material Culture," represented the recent work of friends and members of the Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology of the Mediterranean Interest Group of the AIA, and the podcasts appear complements of their SQUINCH web page :
Between 1900 and 1915, one quarter of the working-age male Greek population immigrated to the United States, Canada and Australia. This profound demographic phenomenon left an indelible mark on Greek society but also created new diasporic communities in the host countries. Greek immigration is a phenomenon of modern trans-nationalism that shares features with other migration stories despite its unique ethnic manifestations. Xenitia, as a historical narrative, has been studied by various disciplines, entering the popular mainstream through movies, comedy, television, academia, museums and culinary institutions. The historical enterprise of Greek immigration in the twentieth century, however, has lacked a significant archaeological voice... (more)
We suspect that this is the first AIA panel to be podcast and hope that these podcasts serve to disseminate these fascinating papers to a wider audience.
These podcasts also resonate with a recent post by Michael Lopez on the new Prairie Polis blog of the North Dakota Humanities Council which focuses on the experiences of migration within the US. They also echo one of the ongoing themes in this blog -- the material culture and archaeology of abandonment (which I have commented on here, here, here, and here).
Congratulations on the launch of Squinch! Do you think you can convince your tech guy to deploy a feed?
Posted by: Chuck Jones | January 31, 2008 at 03:26 AM