Gaelic Peoples-Identity and Cultural Practices

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The aim of this module is to investigate expressions of identity, social organisation and cultural practices among Gaelic peoples c. 1200-1600 AD, through the record of their settlements and material culture. There is particular emphasis on the centrality of ancestral attachment and pedigree of place in Gaelic society. Social organisation was defined by a deeply hierarchical kin-based structure of septs, and framed by a concept of geography as lineage. Those values influenced the ways in which people organised and settled their territories and lived their lives. The impacts and outcomes of relationships between Gaelic peoples and colonial communities on the island of Ireland in this period are integral to the module. The approach is grounded in the theory and methods of historical archaeology (Old World), in which the efficacy of all types of archaeological evidence, from artefacts to landscapes, buildings and text, is valued in the generation of interpretations of the past.