Ethnogenesis:
A Tricky Tale of European Ethnicity
by Dani Trynoski
Ethnicity can be a tricky subject for medievalists. While there is a healthy sampling of material culture recovered by archaeologists across the globe, it is difficult to understand how the producers of those items felt about them, or about their cultural identity. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the web became entangled further by the rise of nationalist ideals, the ebb and flow of colonialism and imperialism, and violent conflicts most notably the World Wars. Despite these challenges, it is possible to tease an objective understanding of ethnicity and cultural change from the sources available.
Ethnic is defined as “designating or of a population subgroup having a common cultural heritage or nationality, as distinguished by customs, characteristics, language, common history, etc.” (Webster’s New World Dictionary).
Through primary sources and archaeological record, it is possible to trace much of the Gothic culture back to its origins within the Roman Empire and northern Europe before the movement south. The interaction of Gothic