ABSTRACT
Identity today is a ‘hot’ topic even though it might not be defined as such. Open a newspaper, watch or listen to the news and many of the stories are concerned with, essentially, the struggle of identity manifestations for a voice or for power, be they ethnic, religious, sexual, or related to disability, for instance. Equally, within the Western world (the primary but not exclusive focus of this introduction), related concerns centred around equality and diversity figure prominently, which again can predominantly be grouped within the umbrella remit of identities as well. However, archaeological contributions to this debate are rare, which is unfortunate, for ‘debate’ is not always the best descriptive term for what occurs, ‘polemics’ perhaps being sometimes more apt. This is regrettable, for archaeologists, through exploring themes such as past identities, their interactions, and the successes and failures of these interactions, could, importantly perhaps provide a new, or at least an alternative perspective. But it is from sociology or anthropology (see for example Barth 1969; Gellner 1983; Jenkins 1994), concerned as they are with current or recent identity groups, that examples are drawn, upon which theories are developed, and approaches to the study of identities formulated.
