2009 Visiting Scholar Conference - Hybrid Material Culture: The Archaeology of Syncretism and Ethnogenesis

Hybrid material culture results from the adoption, modification, or fusing of elements of style, manufacture, materials, technology, or meaning from distinct intellectual and cultural legacies. Issues involving hybrid material culture reach deep into prehistory and involve the origin and modification of style and group boundaries, technology transfer, transition of concepts across media, and the adoption of new raw materials. Hybridization is also a key aspect of the concept of ethnogenesis, where new material culture and patterns of object use mirror the emergence of new cultural identities in contexts of culture contact, colonialism, and creolization.

The 26th annual Center for Archaeological Investigations Visiting Scholar Conference brings together researchers studying a broad range of hybrid material culture from a variety of geographical and chronological contexts. The research presented at this conference will emphasize methodological approaches to identifying and interpreting hybridized aspects of artifacts and architecture, and how melding and copying affect archaeological classification. Broader theoretical issues will include hybridity resulting from rapidly changing regional and global movement of goods, people, and ideas; the nature of technological and stylistic transfer across cultural boundaries; and the extraordinary role material culture can play in understanding changes in identity and worldview in individuals and society.