Detribalizing the later prehistoric past: Concepts of tribes in Iron Age and Roman studies

Abstract

In studies of the Iron Age and Early Roman periods the concept of the 'tribe' has long been a social framework upon which to hang the archaeological record. Yet, despite widespread recognition of the complex social processes and shifting identities during Rome's expansion, the nature of 'tribes' in Late Iron Age Britain and the suitability of this term for describing societies at this time has been largely ignored. This article examines why the term 'tribe' has retained its prominence in archaeological studies despite being widely critiqued by anthropologists. Through an examination of the historiography of the term I argue that the traditional tribal model was born of nineteenth-century perceptions of social systems and that neither archaeological evidence nor classical sources support many of its current connotations. The names in classical sources should instead be regarded as reflecting the emergence of new social and political entities in the later Iron Age.

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

“…Ethnohistoric and ethnographic evidence points to the role that identity plays in shaping how people construct the worlds that they inhabit and the ways that this might be manifest in the archaeological record. It is important to recognize the difficulty of applying categories and taxa for group identification, as in the case of using “tribes” in Iron Age Europe (Moore 2011). That said, people materialized social differences and solidarities, which leaves residues in the archaeological record.…”

Beyond the Oppida: Polyfocal Complexes and Late Iron Age Societies in Southern Britain

“…So‐called ‘oppida’ have remained central to narratives of change in power structures and social organization at the end of the Iron Age and fundamental to how we conceive Late Iron Age societies (Creighton 2006; Moore 2011). For some time, however, it has been recognized that this term encompasses a range of diverse monuments (e.g.…”

“…It has been argued elsewhere that the model of unified tribal entities may obscure a reality of more fluid social entities (Moore 2011). The presence of other ‘oppida’‐like complexes supports the notion that far from there being clearly defined ‘tribes’, there was significant complexity in social entities and systems.…”

“…In this light, the 20 oppida claimed to have been captured by Vespasian (Suetonius, Life of Vespasian , 4) make more sense, with a range of additional centres in existence, but not necessarily all being the ‘hillforts’ often claimed. Elsewhere, Dio's reference to the splitting of the Dobunni can be argued as indicating a more fluid set of social entities within civitates (Moore 2011, 352), whilst others have argued for missing ‘tribal’ entities, such as a Cornovii around Wanborough (Corney 2001, 6) 11 . The existence of a more fluid set of groups may be supported by the complex coin distributions across southern Britain (Leins 2008), with more federalized or clan‐based communities, whose centres we have largely overlooked or who had no single centre but various assembly places.…”

Dea Dardanica: Pre-Roman tribal deity or Roman imperial construct?

“…Imajući u vidu da su sačuvani istorijski podaci o Autarijatima, Tribalima, Dardancima, Skordiscima i Mezima veoma oskudni i ne nude preciznija određenja ovih pojmova, da pružaju najuopštenije informacije i ne daju specifičnosti o čitavom nizu aspekata života vezanih za populacije koje su označene ovim terminima (v. Papazoglu 1969, 409-463), osnovna poteškoća u njihovom tumačenju leži u činjenici da mi zapravo ne znamo šta navedena imena označavaju i na kakve socio-ekonomske i kulturne oblike se tačno odnose (up. Wells 2001;Moore 2011;Gruen 2013). Uprkos tome, tradicionalna tumačenja su, zahvaljujući opštim teorijskim pretpostavkama sa kojima su operisala, ove antičke označitelje a priori uzimala kao objektivna svedočanstva o etničkom sastavu i "etnografskim" odlikama gvozdenodopskog Balkana, te su ih tretirala kao imena oformljenih etno-plemenskih skupina.…”