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An Archaeology of Diasporas

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction and Definition

Diaspora studies have become an important interdisciplinary field for investigating large-scale movements, migrations, processes of colonization, and resettlements of cohesive social groups in Archaeology. These social processes are intertwined in narratives of a displaced group seeking to maintain its identity as a distinct community in a foreign place (Brighton 2009). Where migration is defined as the physical, movement, resettlement, and reestablishment of social groups, diaspora is more specifically the consciousness of being connected to the people and traditions of a homeland and to the migrants of the same geographic or cultural origin. In other words, migration can occur without a diaspora, but diasporas always emerge from migration movements.

Social scientist Robin Cohen (2008: 161–162) proposed nine characteristics that diasporas may exhibit: (1) the dispersal from an original homeland, often traumatically, or alternatively, (2) the expansion from...

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  1. University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Sara Ann Knutson

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  1. Sara Ann Knutson
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Correspondence to Sara Ann Knutson .

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Knutson, S.A. (2020). An Archaeology of Diasporas. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3501-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3501-1

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