Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Research Aims, Central Concepts and Perspectives
- 2 Social change in the Late Iron Age Lower Rhine region
- 3 Caesar’s Conquest and the Ethnic Reshuffling of the Lower Rhine Frontier zone
- 4 The gold triskeles coinages of the Eburones
- 5 Roman Frontier Politics and the Formation of a Batavian Polity
- 6 The Lower Rhine Triquetrum Coinages and the Formation of a Batavian Polity
- 7 Kessel/Lith. A Late Iron Age Central Place in the Rhine/Meuse Delta
- 8 The Political and Institutional Structure of the pre-Flavian Civitas Batavorum
- 9 Foederis Romani Monumenta. Public Memorials of the Alliance with Rome
- 10 Image and Self-Image of the Batavians
- 11 Hercules and the Construction of a Batavian Identity in the Context of the Roman Empire
- 12 Conclusion and Epilogue
- Abbreviations
- Bibliograpy
- General Index
10 - Image and Self-Image of the Batavians
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Research Aims, Central Concepts and Perspectives
- 2 Social change in the Late Iron Age Lower Rhine region
- 3 Caesar’s Conquest and the Ethnic Reshuffling of the Lower Rhine Frontier zone
- 4 The gold triskeles coinages of the Eburones
- 5 Roman Frontier Politics and the Formation of a Batavian Polity
- 6 The Lower Rhine Triquetrum Coinages and the Formation of a Batavian Polity
- 7 Kessel/Lith. A Late Iron Age Central Place in the Rhine/Meuse Delta
- 8 The Political and Institutional Structure of the pre-Flavian Civitas Batavorum
- 9 Foederis Romani Monumenta. Public Memorials of the Alliance with Rome
- 10 Image and Self-Image of the Batavians
- 11 Hercules and the Construction of a Batavian Identity in the Context of the Roman Empire
- 12 Conclusion and Epilogue
- Abbreviations
- Bibliograpy
- General Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
In chapter one of this book I outlined the essentials of ethnicity, defining ethnic identity as the temporary resultant of a process of developing collective self-images, attitudes and conduct that takes place in a context of interaction between those directly involved and outsiders. Ethnic identities are by definition subjective, dynamic and situational constructs, which makes their relationship to material culture problematic. Unlike many other kinds of cultural identity, unless combined with textual data, they are in principle archaeologically intangible. The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on and apply these general principles in the specific case of the Batavians.
In chapter 5 I outlined a model of an emerging Batavian polity in the Lower Rhine frontier zone of the Roman empire and of the earliest beginnings of the Roman-Batavian relationship. It is against that historical background that I intend to analyse in this chapter the creation of a Batavian self-image, one which seems to have been shaped to a significant degree by interaction with the Roman world. It is clear that the Batavian community as a political entity came first, and that it was then followed by the shaping of an ethnic identity – a Batavian self-image.
By definition, a tension exists between ethnic identity as image or representation and as reality. As a rule, ethnic identities are constructed around a body of clichés, stereotypes and invented histories. A process is involved, whereby the collective formulates and applies rules of inclusion, role fulfilment and exclusion in interaction with their self-image and the image that others construct of them. But ethnic identity covers actions as well as images. It would be correct to say that ethnic identities are moulded, channelled and modified through constant interaction between the group image and the praxis of individual and collective action. In terms of the topic of my research, this means that Batavian identity was shaped in the forcefield between internal and external perception – between self-image and the image formed by outsiders – and was then named and appropriated as their own.
One obvious methodological problem is the almost total absence of primary sources about the selfimage of the Batavians.
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- Information
- Ethnic Identity and Imperial PowerThe Batavians in the Early Roman Empire, pp. 221 - 234Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2004