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Johannes Siapkas Heterological Ethnicity Conceptualizing identities in ancient Greece ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS BOREAS. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 27 Editor: Gullög Nordquist Editor’s address: Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, S:t Eriks torg 5, SE-753 10 Uppsala, Sweden. Doctoral dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 2004. ABSTRACT Siapkas, J. 2003. Heterological Ethnicity: Conceptualizing identities in ancient Greece. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Boreas. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 27. Uppsala. 343 pp., 1 table, 1 map. ISBN 91-554-5823-8. In accordance with the heterological tradition, this study emphasises the determining effect of theoretical assumptions on our conceptualizations of the past. This study scrutinises how classical archaeologists and ancient historians have conceptualized ethnic groups, in particular the Messenians. Ethnic groups have traditionally been regarded as static with clear-cut boundaries. Each group has also been attributed with certain essential characteristics. According to this view, the Messenian ethnic identity was preserved during the period of Spartan occupation. This view is facilitated by a passive perspective, which regards evidence as reflections of reality and emphasises continuity. This culture historical perspective, which gives precedence to literary evidence and reduces archaeology to a handmaiden of history, has prevailed in classics from the 19th century until today. It can be juxtaposed with perspectives, discernable in classics from the 1960s onwards, which maintain that various parts of culture are manipulated in accordance with contemporaneous socio- political needs. These active perspectives — ranging from systems theoretical, functionalistic to processual models — resemble the instrumentalist model in anthropology which regards ethnicity as a dynamic and flexible strategy. Nevertheless, the instrumentalist redefinition of ethnicity did not influence classics until the late 1990s. According to the instrumentalist perspective, the Messenian ethnic identity emerged as a strategy of distinction in opposition to the Spartans. Despite the variations, these perspectives can be regarded as part of a dogmatic tradition. Scholars within the dogmatic tradition tend to focus on the evidence and neglect the influence of the scholarly discourse on the conceptualizations of the past. This study, which is influenced by Michel de Certeau’s critique of the dogmatic tradition, elaborates on the discursive constraints of classical archaeology and ancient history. Keywords: theory, ethnicity, classical archaeology, ancient history, primordialism, instrumentalism, Messenia, helots, heterology, de Certeau. Johannes Siapkas, Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, S:t Eriks torg 5, SE-753 10 Uppsala, Sweden. © Johannes Siapkas 2003 ISBN: 91-554-5823-8 ISSN: 0346-6442 English revised by Laura Wrang. Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm 2003 Distributor: Uppsala University Library, Box 510, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden www.uu.se, [email protected] v Contents Acknowledgements viii INTRODUCTION 1 The Politics of Archaeology and Classics 1 Structuring the Argument 5 Terminology 7 Terminological Peculiarities 7 Terminological Parallels — Race and Ethnos 11 Demarcating Ethnicity 13 PRACTICE AS CRITIQUE 19 Ethnicity Oscillating between Practice and Discourse 19 Introducing de Certeau 19 Tactics — Other’s Practices 21 Historiography 25 Heterological Ethnicity 30 Practice Theories of Ethnicity 31 PRIMORDIALISM 41 The Primordial Model 41 Primordial Greeks 46 Primordial Messenians 60 Messenian Origins 60 Boreas 27 vi Proto-Messenians 61 Messenian Wars and Aristomenes 75 A comment on the geography 84 Summarising remarks 85 Messenian Survival 88 Political history 89 The helot revolt in the 460s 89 Pylos, 420s 94 Summary 96 Social helots 97 Origins 98 Social organisation 98 Religion and archaeology 104 Exiles 108 Loyalties 111 Summarising remarks 117 Messenian Independence 120 Political history 120 The founding of Messene 121 Messenian expansion and geography 125 Political relations 129 Political biographies 141 Messenia’s political organisation 144 Summary 147 Social history 148 Political tensions 149 Archaeologies and religion 154 Summarising remarks 168 Primordialism — a reiteration 170 INSTRUMENTALISM 175 Instrumentalist Ethnicity 175 Barth and the Emic Perspective 177 Situationalism 180 Criticism 186 Boreas 27 vii Instrumentalist Archaeologies 188 Processual Instrumentalism 189 Instrumentalist Greeks 195 Instrumentalist Messenians 207 Hero Cults 209 Summarising remarks 220 Regional Messenia 220 The University of Minnesota Messenian Expedition 220 The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project 224 Summarising remarks 227 Holistic Helots 228 Helots as Marxist slaves 231 Integrated helots 233 Summarising remarks 247 Greek Discourses 248 Helots — the other Greeks 250 The myopic gaze of Pausanias 255 Summarising remarks 262 Becoming Messenian 263 Being Messenian 275 Instrumentalism — a reiteration 281 HETEROLOGICAL ETHNICITY 287 REFERENCES 293 INDEX 322 Boreas 27 viii Acknowledgements Many persons have contributed to the work on this dissertation. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of them, first and foremost to my supervisor Pontus Hellström. This study would not have been possible without his support during these years. His guidance and gentle ways have helped me make my argument comprehensible. Pontus and I also formulated a research project, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Fund in 1999, of which this study is a part. Another foundation, STINT (the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education), has also contributed to this study, albeit in a more indirect way. Through their financial support, I spent six months in 2000-2001 at the Department of Classics at Stanford University. My stay at Stanford was in retrospect crucial, since I realised, thanks to Ian Morris, that scholarship also is an argument. I owe a lot to Ian’s open-mindedness. Continuing with financial support, I have also benefited from contributions from the following: Sven Kristensons Fund; Axel W Persons Fund; the Friends of the Swedish Institute at Athens; Helge Ax:son Johnsons Foundation; and Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala. Small meetings can have great repercussions. At Stanford, I happened to meet another Greek (I am sorry, but I do not remember his name). If my memory serves me correct, he was writing a thesis on Buddhism in Japan at some Department of Religious Studies. Anyway, to make a long story short, over a cup of coffee and needless to say countless cigarettes, we came to express uneasiness with Bourdieu’s ever-presence in our disciplines. This was the first time I heard the name of Michel de Certeau. I literally began to read The Practice of Everyday Life a couple of hours later. De Certeau’s critique of history, finally, made me realise the intrinsic contradictions of my ideas, which resulted in a fundamental restructuring of this study a year ago. Along the way, I have also met other persons. Gullög Nordquist’s enthusiasm is always inspiring. This work has benefited a lot from Gullög’s encouragement and advice, particularly during the last years when she, in addition to Pontus, served as my supervisor. I would also like to thank, Michael Lindblom, who made a first version of the cover, Lars Karlsson, who helped me decipher the Italian, Brita Alroth, for help with the references, and Susanne Carlsson, for the searches in TLG. Boreas 27 ix I have also benefited greatly from countless discussions revolving around archaeology as a problem with Johan Hegardt, Fredrik Andersson and Michel Notelid. Dimitrios Iordanoglou, too, has been a source of inspiration. It is time to turn to closer relatives. My parents, sister and brother have been a constant source of support. Lastly, my love Lena Sjögren. Her unconditional love, together with countless discussions and her patient readings of the manuscript at different stages, has made the last years endurable. Ioannis Siapkas Uppsala, December 2003 Boreas 27 Introduction Leisurely reader: you don’t need me to swear that I longed for this book, born out of my own brain, to be the handsomest child imaginable, the most elegant, the most sensible. But could I contradict the natural order of things? Like creates like. So what could my sterile, half-educated wit give birth to except the history … you’re under no obligation at all, so you can say anything you like about this history, you don’t have to worry about being insulted if you don’t like it or rewarded if you do. de Cervantes 1995, 3. This book is an argument. I find that the metaphor of discussion captures the essence of scholarship. Heterological Ethnicity should, accordingly, be read as a contribution to an extensive and ongoing debate. My fundamental argument is that theoretical assumptions have a determining effect on our image of the past. This concern is rather wide, and in order to make it comprehensible it needs to be limited. The analytical focus is thus delimited by two notions: ‘ethnicity’, and ‘Messenians’. Ethnicity has been a governing topic in classics since the 19th century and can therefore serve to illustrate the effects of theoretical assumptions. However, since ethnicity has received so much attention I have also made a second limitation;