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Migration in Historical Archaeology

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

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Introduction

History is defined by the movements of people. From global expansion in early prehistory to the frequent engagement of individuals in international occupation in the present, people migrate (sometimes not by choice) in response to social, political, and economic needs. These processes are a continuous, global phenomenon, with 2–3% of the world’s population estimated to be in migration each year (Castles et al. 2014). These movements are occurring at different social and geographic scales, ranging spatially from local to international (Friedman 2007), temporally from temporary to permanent (Sabhlok 2019), and socially from acts of individual agency to forced migrations and slavery (Gill et al. 2011).

The processes that define migrations are often systematic, rooted in social and economic historical precedent. As a result, global developments within historical periods have had significant impact on how more recent migration processes take shape. For example, rapid...

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Further Reading

  • Burmeister, S. 2000. Archaeology and migration: Approaches to an archaeological proof of migration. Current Anthropology 41 (4): 539–567.

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  • Cabana, G., and J. Clark, eds. 2011. Rethinking anthropological perspectives on migration. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Nicholas P. Ames

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  1. Nicholas P. Ames
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Correspondence to Nicholas P. Ames .

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  1. College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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  1. Posgrado en Arqueología, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, DF, Mexico

    Patricia Fournier

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Ames, N.P. (2020). Migration in Historical Archaeology. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_3468

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