ABSTRACT
The word ‘ethnicity’ has been used in several contexts, both as a seemingly more neutral description for what used to be called ‘tribes’, ‘peoples’ and ‘races’ and for minority groups inside bigger political structures, normally nation-states (Eriksen 1993). In the this chapter, I will look at some of the definitions of ethnicity, followed by a discussion of the study of past ethnicities by archaeological means. A case study of a change of material culture in the early/middle Neolithic of Germany will illustrate the possible links between material culture, within-group conflict and the formation of a new ethnic groups (ethnogenesis) approached from an interpretive perspective.
