The aim of this paper is to locate in the emergence and elaboration of Sardinia's Nuragic society, a narrative of cultural identity formation. The Nuragic period is typically defined in terms of economic, social, and demographic characteristics, and a Nuragic identity is implicitly taken to be a passive byproduct of these material circumstances. Such an account overlooks the role of identity in enabling and characterizing human action. The disjointed and contradictory Nuragic period transition preceded the formation of a coherent cultural identity. This identity, it will be argued, underwent a retrospective rearticulation to establish a distinct boundary between the Nuragic society and its antecedents. The material record illustrates clearly that the history of the Nuragic identity is implicated in social development on Sardinia in the second millennium BC.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AMADU, F., 1978. Ozieri e il suo territorio dal Neolitico all' età Romana. Cagliari: Editrice Sarda Fossataro.
2.
ATZENI, E., 1982. Menhirs antropomorphi e statue-menhirs della Sardegna. Annali del Museo Civico della Spezia II:9-64.
3.
BAFICO, S., G. Rossi and A. BONINU, 1988. Torralba. In AA.VV., L Antiuarium arborense e i civici musei archeologici della Sardegna: 103-116. Sassari: Banca di Sardegna.
4.
BARRETT, J., 1988. Fields of discourse: reconstituting a social archaeology . Critique of Anthropology7 (3): 5-16 .
5.
BARRETT, J., 1994. Fragments from Antiquity: An Archaeology of Social Life in Britain, 2900-1200 BC. Oxford: Blackwell .
6.
BEAUDRY, M. C., L. J. COOK and S. A. MROZOWSKI,, 1991. Artifacts and active voices: material culture as social discourse. In R. H. McGuire and R. Paynter (eds), The Archaeology of Inequality: 150-191. Oxford: Blackwell .
7.
BLAKE, E., 1997. Strategic symbolism: miniature nuraghi of Sardinia . Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology10 (2): 151-164 .
8.
BLAKE, E., forthcoming. The spatial relationship between the giants' tombs and nuraghi of Sardinia. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.
9.
BOURDIEU, P., 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
10.
BOURDIEU, P.,, 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press .
11.
BOYD, R., and P. J. RICHERSON, 1985. Culture' and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
12.
CASTALDI, E., 1968. Nuove osservazioni sulle 'tombe di giganti'. Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana 77:7-91.
13.
CASTALDI, E., 1969. Tombe; di giganti nel Sassarese . OriginiIII: 119-274 .
14.
CASTALDI, E., 1975. Domus nuragiche. Roma: de Luca Editore .
15.
CRANG, M., 1998. Cultural Geography. London: Routledge .
Dieci anni di attivita net territorio della provincia di Nuoro (1975-85). 1985, Various authors. Nuoro: Edizione per la Mostra.
18.
FERRARESE CERUTI, M., 1975. Notiziario: Cagliari, Sa Perda Lada (Decimoputzu). Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 30:408.
19.
FRAU, M., 1996. Aspetti del Megalitismo prenuragico nella Sardegna centro-orientale . Studi Sardi30: 219-298 .
20.
FRIEDMAN, J., 1994. Cultural Identity and Global Process. London: Sage .
21.
GIDDENS, A., 1979. Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan .
22.
GIDDENS, A., 1985. Time, space and regionalisation. In D. Gregory and J. Urry (eds), Social Relations and Spatial Structures: 265-295. London: Macmillan .
23.
HACKING, I., 1995. Three Parables. In R. B. Goodman (ed.), Pragmatism: A Contemporary Reader: 237-249. London: Routledge .
24.
HASELGROVE, C., 1990. The Romanization of Belgic Gaul:-some archaeological perspectives. In T. Blaggand M. Millett (eds), The Early Roman Empire in the West: 45-71. Oxford: Oxbow .
25.
HINGLEY, R., 1996. The 'legacy' of Rome: the rise, decline, and fall of the theory of Romanization. In J. Webster and N. Cooper (eds), Roman Imperialism: Post Colonial Perspectives: 35-48. Leicester: School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester .
26.
JOHNSON, M., 1989. Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation . Journal of Anthropological Archaeology8: 189-211 .
27.
JONES, S., 1997. The Archaeology of Ethnicity: Constructing Identities in the Past and Present. London: Routledge .
28.
LANE, P., 1994. The temporal structuring of settlement space among the Dogon of Mali: an ethnoarchaeological study. In M. Parker Pearson and C. Richards (eds), Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space: 196-216. London: Routledge .
29.
LEWTHWAITE, J., 1985. Colonialism and Nuraghismus . In C. Malone and S. Stoddart (eds), Papers in Italian Archaeology IV, Part iii: Prehistory. BAR International Series244: 220-251 .
30.
LILLU, G., 1980. Monumenti antichi barbaricini. Quaderni 10, Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici per le province di Sassari e Nuoro. Sassari: Dessi.
31.
LILLIU, G., 1988. La civiltà dei Sardi dal Paleolitico all'età dei nuraghi. Torino: Nuova ERI.
32.
LO SCHIAVO, F., 1981. Economia e società nell'età dei nuraghi. In E. Atzeni et al. (eds), Ichnussa: la Sardegna dalle origini all'età classica: 255-347. Milano: Libri Schweiller.
33.
LO SCHIAVO, F. and M. SANGES, 1994. Il Nuraghe Arrubiu di Orroli. Sassari: Delfino.
34.
MANCA, G., 1983. La tomba di Jumpadu o Gonnorigori e le 'stele' con dentelli . OriginiXI: 415-450 .
35.
MANUNZA, M., 1984. Notiziario: Olzai Locazione Sedile. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 39:402.
36.
MCGUIRE, R. H. and R. PAYNTER (eds), 1991. The Archaeology of Inequality. Oxford: Blackwell .
37.
MESKELL, L., 1996. The Somatization of archaeology: institutions, discourses, corporeality . Norwegian Archaeological Review29 (1): 1-16 .
38.
MESKELL, L. (ed.), 1998. Archaeology Under Fire. London: Routledge .
39.
MILLETT, M., 1990. The Romanization of Britain: an Essay in Archaeological Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
40.
MORAVETTI, A., 1985. Statue-menhirs in una tomba di giganti del Marghine. Nuovo Bullettino Archeologico Sardo 1/1984:41-67.
41.
MORAVETTI, A., 1990. Le tombe e l'ideologia funeraria. In AA.VV., La Civiltà Nuragica: 120-168. Milano: Electa.
42.
PERRA, M., 1994. Statue-menhir in territorio di Samugheo (Oristano). Nuovo Bullettino Archeologico Sardo 4/1987-92:17-42.
43.
PITZALIS, G., 1996. L'Ogliastra preistorica tra ipogeismo e megalitismo: le 'domus de janas' con corridoio dolmenico d'accesso e i 'menhirs' peritafici . Studi Sardi XXX, 1992-3: 169-218 .
44.
PRATT, M. L., 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge .
45.
Progetto I Nuraghi I: I Reperti, 1990. Various authors. Milano: Consorzio Archeosystem.
46.
SABA, A., 1993. Le Nuove Statue-Menhir. Bollettino di Archeologia 19-20-21:151-158.
47.
SHENNAN, S. J., 1989. Introduction. In S. J. Shennan (ed.), Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity: 1-32. London: Routledge .
48.
TANDA, G., 1984. Arte e religione della Sardegna preistorica nella necropoli di Sos Furrighesos, Vol. II. Sassari: Editrice Chiarella.
49.
THOMAS, J. and C. TILLEY, 1993. The axe and the torso: symbolic structures in the neolithic of Brittany. In C. Tilley (ed.), Interpretative Archaeology: 225-324. Oxford: Berg .
50.
TRUMP, DAVID, 1990. Nuraghe Noeddos and the Bonu Ighinu Valley. Excavation and Survey in Sardinia. Oxford: Oxbow .
51.
TYKOT, R. 1994. Radiocarbon dating and absolute chronology in Sardinia and Corsica. In R. Skeates and R. Whitehouse (eds), Radiocarbon Dating and Italian Prehistory: 115-145. London: Accordia Specialist Studies on Italy Vol. 3/ Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome Vol. 8 .
52.
TYKOT, R., 1997. Bronze, sea and Sardinia: social and technological evolution in an island society . Paper presented at the'Metals in Antiquitf Conference, September.
53.
TYKOT, R. and A. AMMERMAN, 1997. New directions in central Mediterranean obsidian studies . Antiquity71: 1000-1006 .
54.
UGAS, G., 1989. L'eta nuragica: il bronzo medio e il bronzo recente. In V. Santoni (ed.), Ii Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Cagliari: 79-92. Sassari: Banco di Sardegna.
55.
UGAS, G., 1992. Considerazioni sullo Sviluppo dell' Architettura e della Societa Nuragica. In R. Tykot and T. Andrews (eds), Sardinia in the Mediterranean: a Footprint in the Sea: 221-234. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press .
56.
USAI, A., 1970. II Villaggio Nuragico di Lanusei. Cagliari: Ed. Soc. Poligrafica Sarda.
57.
VAN DOMMELEN; P., 1997. Colonial constructs: colonialism and archaeology in the Mediterranean . World Archaeology28 (3): 305-323 .
58.
WEBSTER, G., 1996a. A Prehistory of Sardinia 2300-500 BC. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press .
59.
WEBSTER, G., 1996b. Social archaeology and the irrational . Current Anthropology37 (4): 609-627 .
60.
WIESSNER, P., 1990. Is there a unity to style? In M. Conkey and C. Hastorf (eds), The Uses of Style in Archaeology: 105-111. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
61.
ZUCCA, R., 1988. Il santuario nuragico di S. Vittoria di Serri. Sassari: Delfino.
