Middle Ground Theory

This study analyzes the process of contact between Native American and Euro-American societies during the colonial period. The focus is on the missionary experience between the Guarani and their interactions with the Hispanic and Lusitanian colonial fronts in the Platina region, the southern portion of South America. Regarding the methodological approach, the systematic exercise of comparisons that, in addition to dialoguing with pertinent literature and inserting the relations between Guarani and Iberian societies in the larger universe of contact in colonial America, stands out as an experimental effort with concrete consequences on the arguments put forward. The comparative orientation, in this sense, assumes the role of a methodological expedient while it constitutes an essential procedure to the formulation of an interpretation that starts from a point of view that is not recurrent between the researches of the theme. The serial method is also used in the treatment of parochial records of baptisms of the Povo de São Francisco de Borja between 1795 and 1835. In revealing the demographic universe of this reduction, this expedient was an essential resource for the construction of the object of study of this investigation. In relation to the theoretical contribution, the conceptual framework assumed in this thesis articulates the concepts of middle ground, constructed by Richard White, and of missionary ethnogenesis, defended by Guillermo Wilde. From this theoreticalmethodological apparatus, I maintain that the process of ethnogenesis of the Guarani missioneiro enabled the development of a culture of contact that guided the interactions between this indigenous population and the Euro-American societies of the mid-seventeenth century until around the 1820s.

The concept of contacts zones, as developed in Ulf 2009, employs differentiating factors to embed the actors involved in the transfers of goods and ideas in their cultural and socio-political environments. Power exerted between people who transfer goods and ideas and those who receive them, is decisive for how receptivity is shaped by their recipients. To discover where power is situated in the complex processes of intercultural interactions, this paper leads attention to the societal characteristics that have an impact on the cultural actors. Referring to the change from the Greek enoikismoi within the scattered settlements of the local population(s) in the hinterland between the Gulf of Taranto and Brindisi to the emergence of recognizable Greek settlements along the coastline from the 8th to the 7th century BC, the example of the feast is chosen to highlight the accompanying change of the scale of power and its exertion. In the terminology of contact zones, a dense contact zone lacking a dominant partner turns into a Middle Ground. From the definition of the various contact zones derives, that the receptivity changed from free adaptation of so far unknown cultural elements to their own intentions and needs to conscious and intentional misunderstandings of the other’s cultural forms and behaviour to gain advantage over the exchange partner. Thus power is a growing factor in their relationship and becomes the more important when the Middle Ground is replaced by a dense zone of contact where one partner is able to dominate. Thereby, it becomes clear that the relationships in cultural transfers are not tied up with ethnic conditions or cultural superiority and inferiority, but determined by the type of contact zones which in turn are characterized by the tools of power involved.

The importance of migrations in archaeological studies has varied over time. New theoretical models focus on the processes behind human mobility and the migrant–indigenous interactions during a contact situation. A central concept in the early contact situations between two equally powerful groups is the middle ground. In this a common ground is created from the attempts of both sides to adjust their own actions to fit into the assumed world view of the others and persuade the other side that the shared actions that they perform together are legitimate and fair. Over time these create new shared customs and traditions that are the foundation of the new intermixed populations.

In this work the study of migrations focuses on the Kärsämäki type cemeteries from the Roman period onwards. The proposed Germanic migration to the coastal region of Finland Proper has been seen in the large number of new types of cemeteries that were established during the Early Roman Period, but these also have features that are local or Baltic in origin. Therefore it is probable that these cemeteries do not only feature elements from one ethnic group, but from many. It is plausible that the migrants and local population began to intermix from the very first stages of their contact. This can be seen in the later development of the sites and the adoption of the cremation cemeteries under level ground could have been the result of a long period of intermixing, but in some sites the older traditions were still being upheld even during the Migration and Merovingian Periods.

The incentives to move to Finland Proper were probably the changes in climatic and social conditions during the Roman Period. The information of the resources and opportunities from Finland would have accumulated with the help of older contact networks across the sea. The later development between Sweden and Finland diverged as the local conditions in Finland enabled a more varied subsistence strategy than agriculture alone. Due to this the deterioriation of climatic conditions would have had smaller impact in Finland than in other regions. However, the larger developments in Europe had more direct impact on Finland as the flow of trade goods would have been severely disrupted during extended periods of warfare, like the 3rd century crisis.

This master's thesis seeks to explain the distribution and meaning of the glass beads found on the île aux Tourtes historic archaeological site and its integration at the heart of the Montréal archipelago (the fluvial network situated between Deux-Montagnes Lake and the confluence of Mille-Îles, des Prairies and St. Lawrence Rivers). Situated opposite Montréal's westernmost point, the île aux Tourtes archaeological site
included a Sulpician mission, a garrison fort and a trading post. Its easy access to communication routes such as the waterways of the Ottawa, St. Lawrence and other rivers gave it a strategic position for the interception of furs coming downstream to Montréal. We have studied the meaning of glass beads in the "contact space" of Amerindian and European cultures during the French Regime. Euro-Amerindian contact took place west of the Lachine rapids, at the edge of the colonial space that pushed Amerindian groups westward. Comprehension of the contact space was enabled by studying the global distribution of glass beads on all archaeological sites from the French Regime of the Montréal archipelago. From this distribution study, we determined the status of the île aux Tourtes archaeological site in relation with others across the Montréal archipelago. We also studied the assemblage of 925 glass beads from l'île aux Tourtes from the perspective of glass bead symbolism in order to rediscover the cultural meaning of this collection.

Ce projet de mémoire vise une compréhension de la distribution et de la signification des perles de verre sur le site historique de l'île aux Tourtes et de son intégration au sein de l'archipel montréalais (réseau hydrographique compris entre le lac des Deux-Montagnes et la confluence des rivières Mille-Îles, des Prairies et du fleuve Saint-Laurent). Situé en face de la pointe extrême ouest de l'île de Montréal, le site de l'île aux Tourtes abritait une mission sulpicienne, un fort de garnison ainsi qu'un poste de traite. L'accès aux voies de communications fluviales de l'Outaouais, du fleuve Saint-Laurent et autres rivières offrait au site une position stratégique dans l'interception des convois de fourrures qui descendaient à Montréal. La signification de la présence de ces perles a été observée à partir de l'espace de contact entre culture amérindienne et européenne pendant le Régime français. Cet espace de contact se situait à l'ouest des rapides de Lachine. Les terres à l'est des rapides étaient réservées à la colonisation européenne, refoulant ainsi les groupes amérindiens plus à l'ouest. La compréhension de cet espace de contact s'est faite à l'aide de la distribution globale des perles de verre sur les sites archéologiques du Régime français de l'archipel montréalais. À partir de cette étude de distribution, nous pourrons déterminer le statut du site archéologique de l'île aux Tourtes au sein de l'archipel montréalais. De plus, nous étudierons l'assemblage des 925 perles de verre du site de l'île aux Tourtes afin de faire émerger un sens de cet ensemble avec l'aide de textes portant sur la symbolique des perles de verre.

Aquest article presenta una reflexió sobre com es pot mesurar la intensitat i la qualitat de la transformació carolíngia del territori ibèric corresponent a la franja fronterera perifèrica sud-occidental de l’imperi carolingi, durant i després de la seva existència, des del segle IX a l’XI. La perspectiva d’enfoc en una regió fronterera, amb els conseqüents reptes particulars ‒pel fet d’haver estat sempre una terra mitjancera, quant a la transferència de coneixement i quant a la construcció d’identitats, entre els centres polítics, religiosos i culturals de l’imperi franc, els regnes ibèrics cristians del nord i els dominis mediterranis musulmans del sud‒, pot ajudar-nos a esmolar les eines per a descriure la cultura carolíngia, tant en els centres com en les perifèries europees. Mitjançant l’ús de categories establertes quant a la qualificació d’habilitats i coneixements culturals, aquest article discuteix dos fenòmens centrals de la cultura carolíngia: 1) el desenvolupament i l’ús de l’específica minúscula carolina i 2) la introducció i la transformació dels textos carolingis relatius a la vida religiosa en la incipient societat transcultural de la Catalunya altmedieval. D’aquesta manera, aquest article subratlla el fet que ens cal reconsiderar el qualificatiu ‹carolingi› des d’una doble perspectiva: des del punt de vista extern franco-francès i des del punt de vista intern ibèrico-visigòtico-català.

This paper will give a comprehensive overview of how the political collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after the Muslim conquest of the Iberian and southern Gaulish world changed not only the socio-political and religious, but also the cultural agenda of south-western Europe between the eighth and eleventh centuries. After the Frankish-Carolingian "reconquest" of the north-eastern parts of the Visgothic world, i.e. Septimania and the so-called "Spanish March", a new socio-political constellation of powers between 'Gallia' and 'Hispania' and a new Church organisation, the 'ecclesia Narbonensis', became established. The talk will show how early medieval Catalonia's double-face orientation towards the old Hispano-Visigothic cultural traditions and the new Romano-Frankish knowledge transfer has decisively shaped the political, religious, and cultural physiognomy of this emerging middle ground. My paper will tell the story of a political and cultural interruption which finally led to the political and social disruption on both sides and the formation of a new hybrid society of religious, legal, and political institutions of its own.

This master’s thesis presents the study of about 1677 trade beads  upfrom five archaeological sites near the Saint-Pierre rivermouth where the settlement of Ville-Marie, which would become known as Montréal, was founded. A typological analysis demonstrates that trade beads from contexts dated from 1642 to the beginning of the 19th century must rather be assigned to a chronology extending from 1600 until the end of the first quarter of the 19th century. As trade beads are one of the exchange items the most directly associated with Euro-Amerindian trade, a parallel study illustrates the nature and the intensity of these bicultural relations during the French Regime. On this topic, a regional conceptual approach inspired by the thought of historian Richard White on the ‘middle ground’ was used.

Ce mémoire présente les résultats d’une recherche en culture matérielle sur 1677 perles de traite mises au jour sur cinq sites archéologiques situés à l’embouchure de la rivière Saint-Pierre, lieu de fondation de Ville-Marie qui deviendra Montréal. L’analyse typologique a permis de démontrer que les perles provenant de contextes s’étalant de 1642 au début du XIXe siècle doivent plutôt être attribuées à une chronologie allant des environs de 1600 jusqu’à la fin du premier quart du XIXe siècle. Comme les perles sont l’un des produits d’échanges les plus directement liés au commerce euro-amérindien, une étude parallèle a permis d’illustrer la nature et l’intensité de ces relations biculturelles au cours du Régime français. Dans cette optique, une approche conceptuelle régionale mettant de l’avant les avancées théoriques sur le « middle ground » émises par l’historien Richard White a été employée.

This paper presents a reflection on how we can measure the intensity and quality of the Carolingian transformation of the Southwestern Iberian periphery of the Carolingian Empire during and after its existence from the ninth to the eleventh century. The view through the lens of a border region and its challenges of having always been a middle ground of knowledge transfer and identity building between the political, religious and cultural centres of the Frankish Empire, the Northern Christian Iberian reigns and the Southern Muslim dominions of the Mediterranean world can sharpen our instruments of describing Carolingian culture in its European centres and peripheries. By using established categories of the qualification of cultural skills and knowledge, the paper discusses two central phenomena of Carolingian culture: 1) the development and use of a specific Carolingian minuscule and 2) the introduction and transformation of Carolingian texts of religious life in the rising transcultural society of early medieval Catalonia. In doing so, the paper shows that we must reconsider the attribute ‘Carolingian’ from a double perspective – from the external Frankish-French and the internal Iberian-Visigothic-Catalan standpoint.

I argue that the Seleukid rulers were not the ‘chameleon kings’ of the older literature, who passively adapted their monarchy to supposed local "traditions"; I argue instead that the Seleukids actively negotiated with local elites, and that local customs changed as a result of this, even as these were still presented as ‘traditional’.

Conventional scholarship holds that in the third century BCE, the Seleukid dynasty controlled the various populations of their empire by respecting indigenous ‘traditions’. This paper takes issue with the alleged passivity of the Seleukids and the conceptualization of 'Near Eastern' culture as coherent, static and traditionalist. I focus on the famous Antiochos Cylinder from Borsippa, a document that is often foregrounded as evidence for the early Seleukids’ willingness to adopt the role of ‘traditional’ Babylonian kings. Using globalization theory and Richard White's notion of Middle Ground, I argue instead that the indigenous monarchy outlined by the Cylinder is in fact the innovative result of negotiations between a 'global' imperial elite and a local priestly elite, who cooperated to their mutual benefit. The Cylinder thus reflects neither a top-down imposition of imperial ideology on so-called ‘subalterns’, nor the bottom-up instruction by native experts on how to be a good Babylonian king. The Cylinder instead offers us a unique insight into the dynamics of internal power changes that took place in Babylonian cities after the Macedonian conquest, when priestly families in alliance with the imperial dynasty were able to reassert the supremacy of the central sanctuaries, and hence of their own political dominance.

Après plus d’un siècle de recherche, les sciences humaines se sont dotées de concepts et d’outils toujours plus affinés pour cerner les caractéristiques des échanges culturels. Depuis la constitution du paradigme diffusionniste qui revenait souvent à étudier la circulation des objets culturels sans identifier spécifiquement les acteurs, de nombreux travaux ont permis de disséquer les processus de transfert et les individus qui y sont impliqués. Des concepts et outils hérités de l’anthropologie et de l’ethnologie comme l’acculturation, les transferts culturels, le métissage, le middle ground ou encore l’hybridation ont tenté de rendre compte des phénomènes résultant des échanges interculturels. Toutefois, l’attention ne s’est portée que plus récemment sur les intermédiaires et leur rôle au sein des divers processus.

Much like pottery, glass beads represent important chronotypological markers within archaeological collections in the North American Northeast. However, their potential has not always been fully exploited, leaving hundreds of glass bead assemblages unstudied, and creating a gap in our knowledge relating to the dating of beads in Quebec, to their role in intercultural relations, and on the trade routes by which they moved through the territory. This thesis examines 4,518 glass beads found on three archaeological sites on the shores of Lake Abitibi, in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region. Beginning with their typological identification, this analysis parses out the beads’ distribution within the sites themselves, ascertains their chronology, and conceptualises the relations between First Nations and French traders by theorising their role within these relations. The movement of these beads through space will be examined with respect to George Hunt’s and Bruce Trigger’s idea of a Northern Route, a vast exchange network linking Huronia to the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region (Trigger 1976a : 271). The interactions between the French and First Nations will be explored using Richard White’s idea of Middle Ground and Gilles Havard’s complementary concept of “Empire du milieu.”
The use of the Kidd classification system and the Kenyon chronotypological system reveals that the majority of the glass beads from the Bérubé (DdGt-5), Margot (DdGt-6), and Louis (DdGu-7) sites date to an interval between 1600 and 1625/1630. The spatial distribution analysis of the beads at Bérubé reveals two patterns, one diffuse and one highly concentrated. Lastly, by integrating historical data, we see that glass beads were much more than a commodity of exchange. Although their economic function cannot be negated, they held a performative role within intercultural relationships, and represented the adherence to certain First Nations’ protocols by the French during the first half of the 17th century.

Tout comme la poterie, les perles de verre, des artefacts européens très répandus dans le Nord-Est américain, sont des repères chronotypologiques importants au sein des collections archéologiques. Leur potentiel n’a toutefois pas toujours été exploité, laissant des centaines d’assemblages non étudiés et creusant une lacune dans nos connaissances sur la datation de ces perles au Québec, sur leur rôle dans les relations interculturelles euro-autochtones et sur les systèmes d’échange par lesquels elles voyageaient sur le territoire. Ce mémoire analyse 4518 perles de verre retrouvées sur trois sites voisins au lac Abitibi, dans la région de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue. À partir du classement typologique des perles, ce mémoire analyse leur distribution sur les sites à l’étude, détermine leur datation et conceptualise les relations entre les nations autochtones et les Français dans l’arrière-pays du Québec à travers le rôle des perles de verre à l’intérieur de ces relations. Le mouvement des perles dans l’espace est conceptualisé à l’aide de l’idée de la « route du Nord », élaborée par George Hunt et Bruce Trigger pour décrire un vaste réseau d’échanges entre la Huronie et les postes français sur le Saguenay (Trigger 1976a : 271). Les interactions interculturelles entre des nations autochtones et les Français, sous-jacentes à la distribution de ces artefacts, seront également explorées par l’entremise du concept de Richard White de Middle Ground et l’idée complémentaire de Gilles Havard de « l’Empire du milieu ».
L’emploi du système de classification typologique de Kidd et du système chronotypologique de Kenyon révèle que la majorité des perles dans les collections Bérubé (DdGt-5), Margot (DdGt-6) et Louis (DdGu-7) datent entre 1600 et 1625/1630. La distribution spatiale des perles de verre sur le site Bérubé montre deux schèmes sur le site : l’un diffus, l’autre très concentré. Enfin, en intégrant les écrits historiques, nous voyons que les perles de verre représentent bien plus qu’un simple artefact d’échange, jouant plutôt un rôle performatif au sein des relations et des médiations interculturelles du début du XVIIᵉ siècle.

The Catalan abbot-bishop Oliba of Ripoll and Vic (1008–46) was a
remarkably learned man, with religious and cultural connections to many
European regions beyond Catalonia. When he died, a letter commemorating
his life and death circulated from Ripoll through many religious institutions
of Catalonia, Septimania, and Western Francia, showing the wide-ranging
network he had developed during his lifetime. However, Oliba also had
another important religious and cultural orientation – towards Italy in general
and Rome in particular. In the light of widely unknown or disregarded Catalan and northern Iberian copies of the so-called Tiburtine Sibyl from the early
eleventh century onwards, this article highlights the historical and social circumstances of the early transfer of this new product of Greco-Latin translation
activity. This one example stands for many further text transmission activities
in Oliba’s life, spread through the networks he had established between Rome,
Italy, his home region Catalonia, and the northern Iberian world.

Central Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age is marked by a well-documented Old Assyrian presence during the kārum period (20th–17th century b.c.), a dynamic time of long-distance trade and cultural contact. One of the idiosyncrasies of the social history of this period is a special bigamous arrangement which allowed Assyrian men to enter second marriages on the condition that one wife remained at home in Aššur, and the other in Anatolia. In testing the extent to which a middle ground for cross-cultural compromise is recognisable in such Assyro-Anatolian marriage practices, this article considers whether the terminology used in reference to the first and second wives (amtum and aššatum respectively) can be interpreted as the crucial element of misunderstanding in middle ground formation.

This article presents Middle Ground Theory as a fresh conceptual framework for the Egyptian-Levantine interaction during the Hyksos period. I propose that the Hyksos consciously worked to create a new, mutually constructed and shared worldview with their Egyptian and West Asian subjects in an effort to rule the unique borderland of the eastern Delta more effectively. This paper explores how the middle ground encompassed both the intentional maintenance of the Hyksos’ foreign identities, as well as their adaptation of particular aspects of Egyptian culture. I demonstrate the usefulness of this approach through two case studies, (1) the Hyksos’ adoption of traditional Egyptian titulary and throne names alongside the use of the Heka Khasut title with their Semitic personal names, and (2) their adjustment of the Egyptian administration system to a more kinship-based structure of governance.

The renewed interest in post-Palaeolithic societies and Neolithisation in northern Africa entails the rethinking of various issues, starting with Africa's autonomy in the Neolithisation process, with respect to the Near East. This paper aims to review this issue by discussing data emerging from new research conducted in North Africa. In particular, it illustrates how the space between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists (the so-called 'middle ground') can be the key to answering many questions about the emergence of food production in northern Africa. It also analyses how Near Eastern domesticated animals became a part of North African cultures and focuses on the dynamics of transmission and on the reactivity of social groups, in light of both timing and mechanisms behind propagation.

In the late eighth century indigenous sites, located on the southeastern coast of Sicily, came into contact with a series of Greek settlements which were established close to indigenous communities. Through the archaeological documentation it seems that some Greek elements have been introduced into indigenous culture and they are detectable through religion, rituals, burial and often through new architectural models. Historiographically there has been a tendency to write this story of intercultural contact in a way that favours Greeks as the superior group, conscious of their own ethnos. Meanwhile, indigenous appear less complex and politically or socially inferior. Recent theoretical and methodological advances however have provided a new ways of looking at concepts of ethnic and cultural identity. These new approaches can be fruitfully applied to the archaeological record of ancient Sicily. Greek and Roman writers, like Herodotus, Thucydides or Diodorus Siculus, have passed on to us names and natures of the populations in Sicily during the Iron Age. However, none of these is contemporary with the periods they discuss. Hence, the research bears in mind that ancient sources describe systems and structures that were not familiar or contemporary with them. Sources are the cultural effect of a specific moment of the history that has been influenced by the necessity to create a Hellenic identity, between the late sixth century B.C. and fifth century B.C. Currently, the research examines the indigenous site of Monte Finocchito, considered a critical case study for this territory, in order to retrace the relationship among all of the indigenous sites located along the southeastern side of Sicily and also analyse the economic transformation observable for the eighth century B.C. The aim is to establish Greeks and Sicilian identity and move towards a better understanding of " Hellenic colonization " and the way this " culture contact " is manifested in the material culture record.