Deconstructing Ethnicities: Multiple Identities in Archaic and Classical Sicily

The notions of acculturation, ‘middle ground’, and hibridity are discussed, suggesting that one should frame in terms of hibridity only those colonial situations whereby volatile overlappings and intertwinings of identities and practices take place, changes in identity are the rule, and fluidity and multiplicity go beyond every static dichotomy. A reconsideration of the evidence for many colonial encounters in Sicily suggests that ethnic differentiation was not the most salient line of demarcation. Neither artifacts and practices were primarily characterised by their ethnic origin, nor a straightforward correlation between language and ethnic presence can be taken for granted. Archeological and inscriptional evidence coming from the settlements of Montagna di Marzo and Morgantina, as well as from Castiglione di Ragusa and the Hyblaean region shows that we are dealing with areas in which ethnic and territorial boundaries were weak or even non existing, and with places where varied relationships and senses of membership coexisted, where the identities were changeable and not ethnically salient, being thus multicultural.