The Role of Personal Ornament in the Expression of Identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Ireland
Darina Daly
Supervisor: Dr Jo Brück
Dr Graeme Warren
Funded by:
Abstract
The way in which people express their identity is tied into cultural, personal and societal frameworks. Identity can be expressed through objects, clothing, writing, sound or as a visual expression through art, etc. Central to all of this is the body itself, particularly how humans view the body as a medium of expressing identity and how objects are utilised as a means of expression.
There is nothing particularly new about the concept of expressing individuality through objects or clothing . There is archaeological evidence to suggest that body adornment reaches far back into the human record and there is abundant ethnographic evidence to support various theories on body adornment and identity.
This project will investigate concepts of identity through an examination of personal ornament in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. It will question traditional approaches, which have seen such objects as indicators of status and wealth. In Irish prehistory, objects like perforated stone beads, bone pins, gold ear rings and bracelets etc., may have been used not only to express social status or as items of communal identity, but also as a means of expressing and acknowledging individualism within society. It is further argued that the production and manufacture of these items was as important as the ownership of them.
The first phase of this research will focus on creating a comprehensive database of objects of personal ornament and setting them within an established chronological framework within the Irish Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (particularly gold work and prestige items), as well as categorizing them in terms of style, type, method and distribution.
The second and third phases of the research will take a more thematic approach, discussing the role of personal ornament in expressing identity and dealing with issues of ritual, burial, production, aesthetic value and distribution. An examination of cross-cultural practices of expressions of identity through personal ornamentation will be carried out to establish the wide range of ways in which identity is expressed through objects. Discussions of tattoos, body piercing and other ways in which the body is used as a medium of expression will form part of this overall anthropological approach.
Overall, this research project is intended to further elaborate on previous studies by moving away from artefact and material culture studies that have been dominated by pottery, stone tools and metal implements, which are readily accepted as indicators of development and status.
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