Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - Linda R. Gosner

Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - Linda R. Gosner

5. A Lower-Case 'g' globalized World? Examining Three Paradigms of Culture Contact in Middle and Late Bronze Age Sicily

Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean - Linda R. Gosner

Anthony Russell [+-]
Independent Scholar
Anthony Russell graduated in 2011 from the University of Glasgow with a PhD in archaeology. His research interests include the Middle and Late Bronze Age in the central Mediterranean, cross-cultural consumption, materiality, globalization, and intangible heritage. For the past twelve years he has been involved in culture resource management in both Scotland and western Canada. He is currently a permit-holding archaeologist for the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and for the Northwest Territories.

Description

The late second millennium BC represented a high-water mark for pre-colonial material connections in the central Mediterranean. A globalization perspective, however, does not represent a good analytical ‘fit’ for the period, given the region’s lack of hyper-connectivity, or the intensive interdependencies that globalization demands. The evidence for contact is neither plentiful nor intense enough to facilitate useful analogies between the present and this period of the past. Nevertheless, certain concepts drawn from globalization studies may provide novel interpretations that avoid anachronistic pitfalls. Examining material changes through the lens of Nederveen Pieterse’s (2015: 45-59) ‘paradigms’ of cultural globalization (culture clash, McDonaldization, and hybridization) opens new avenues of interpretation that do not require prolonged or direct contact. This study employs Middle-Late Bronze Age archaeological assemblages from Sicily (i.e., architecture at Thapsos, and Pantalica North pottery) to demonstrate how each paradigm has interpretive value regarding changing material practices, and the communities involved.

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Citation

Russell, Anthony. 5. A Lower-Case 'g' globalized World? Examining Three Paradigms of Culture Contact in Middle and Late Bronze Age Sicily. Local Experiences of Connectivity and Mobility in the Ancient West-Central Mediterranean. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 115-136 Mar 2024. ISBN 9781800504387. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44207. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44207. Mar 2024

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