1st Edition
The Impact of Diasporas Markers of identity
Markers of identity define human groups: who belongs and who is excluded. These markers are often overt – language, material culture, patterns of behaviour – and are carefully nurtured between generations; other times they can be invisible, intangible, or unconscious. Such markers of identity also travel, and can be curated, distilled, or reworked in new lands and in new cultural environments. It has always been thus: markers of identity are often central to the ties that bind dispersed, diasporic communities across lands and through time. This book brings together research that discusses a very wide range of scholarly approaches, periods, and places – from the Viking diaspora in the north Atlantic, and Anglo-Saxon treasure hoards, to what DNA can and cannot reveal about human identity, to modern, multicultural Martinique, East London, and urban Africa, and the effect of the absence of geopolitical identity, of statelessness, among the Roma and Palestinians – to better understand how markers of identity contribute to the impact of diasporas. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.
Introduction – The impact of diasporas: markers of identity Joanna Story and Iain Walker
1. In the blood: the myth and reality of genetic markers of identity Mark A. Jobling, Rita Rasteiro and Jon H. Wetton
2. Becoming a Viking: DNA testing, genetic ancestry and placeholder identity Marc Scully, Steven D. Brown and Turi King
3. Ancient objects with modern meanings: museums, volunteers, and the Anglo-Saxon ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ as a marker of twenty-first century regional identity Morn Capper and Marc Scully
4. One of us? Negotiating multiple legal identities across the Viking diaspora Pragya Vohra
5. Shifting markers of identity in East London’s diasporic religious spaces Nazneen Ahmed, Jane Garnett, Ben Gidley, Alana Harris and Michael Keith
6. Markers of identity in Martinique: being French, black, Creole Olivia Sheringham
7. Everyday statelessness in Italy: status, rights, and camps Nando Sigona
8. Tracing diasporic identifications in Africa’s urban landscapes: evidence from Lusaka and Kampala Oliver Bakewell and Naluwembe Binaisa
9. On the threshold of statelessness: Palestinian narratives of loss and erasure Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh
Biography
Joanna Story is Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester, UK.
Iain Walker is an Associate Member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
