Homepage Ralph Häussler |
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OUT NOW: OUR "CREOLAGE" OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATION IN "TRAJ":
Haeussler, R and Webster, E. 2020. Creolage. A Bottom-Up Approach to Cultural Change in Roman Times. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, 3(1): 5, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.419 (click here) including a review of "Romanisation" studies and models over the past 30 years. How to cite this website: R. Haeussler and E. Webster (2019) "Creolage", available online: https://ralphhaussler.weebly.com/creolage.html
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Understanding the cultural developments that were taking place in Roman times is a complex issue. Simplistic concepts, like 'Romanisation' or 'acculturation', are not useful.
At TRAC2019 at the University of Kent, Elizabeth Webster and I gave a joint paper suggesting a new term: creolage. This model was well received by delegates! And hopefully our joint paper will come out in print very soon. In the meantime, here is a short summary: Existing theories and models to explain developments in material culture in the highly interconnected Roman world are clearly unsatisfactory. Having jettisoned ou-of-date concept, like Romanisation, acculturation and assimilation, two models, creolisation and bricolage, have been gaining popularity. But these also have limitations:
In other words, the individual’s 'bricolage' was taking place within certain societal collective expectations and cognitive understandings. This will allow us to understand the singularity of self-display, like the apparent out-of-box thinking for some designs, in art, religion, onomastics, dress, etc., taking into account multi-lateral interactions on a local, regional and global scale. Altogether we argue for a creative process that expands far beyond the limitations of available cultural theories. |