Assessing place‐based identities in the early Middle Ages: a proposal for post‐Roman Iberia.

Sociological models of place‐based identity can be used to better understand the social dynamics of local communities and how they interact with their surroundings. This paper explores how these theoretical models of belonging to a place, in tandem with communal cognitive maps, can be applied to pos...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early Medieval Europe Vol. 31; no. 1; pp. 23 - 51
Main Authors: Martínez Jiménez, Javier, Tejerizo‐García, Carlos
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Feb2023
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:Sociological models of place‐based identity can be used to better understand the social dynamics of local communities and how they interact with their surroundings. This paper explores how these theoretical models of belonging to a place, in tandem with communal cognitive maps, can be applied to post‐Roman contexts, taking the Iberian Peninsula in the Visigothic period (sixth–eighth centuries) as a preliminary case study. We argue that this approach can give us not only a more complex understanding of community agencies but also allows us to reconsider the social context for past social interactions. Furthermore, it will open a new archaeological perspective for future work on the relations between groups and individuals with their built, social, and natural environments.