The three-volume project Cohesion in Multi-Ethnic Societies in Europe from c. 1000 to the Present explores and seeks to find solutions to a crucial problem facing contemporary Europe: in what circumstances can different ethnic groups co-operate for the common good? They apparently did so in the past, combining to form political societies, medieval and early modern duchies, kingdoms, and empires. But did they maintain their ethnic traditions in this process? Did they pass on elements of their cultural memory when they were not in a dominant position in a given polity? This first volume of the project focuses on the cohesive function of memory, tradition, and identity politics in multi-ethnic societies. Featuring chapters written by authors from Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, it presents sixteen case studies of the co-habitation or co-operation of different ethnic groups from the so-called 'peripheries' of medieval and early modern Europe that resulted in peaceful acculturation or the birth of a new identity on the basis of multi-ethnic political society. The volume suggests that ethnic identities were consciously accepted as one among various forms of identity that were possessed by social groups: they were rarely absolutized, and members of these groups preferred pragmatic approaches in their relations with other ethnicities.
Author(s): Przemyslaw Wiszewski
Series: Early European Research, 15
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 424
City: Turnhout
Front Matter
Przemysław Wiszewski. Preface
Przemysław Wiszewski. Introduction
Part I. Introduction
Aneta Pieniądz. The Meaning of the Past and the Creation of Early Medieval Ethnic Communities
Dániel Bagi. Cohesion and Conflict between Ethnic Groups in Medieval Hungary
Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu. Multi-Ethnicity and Memory in Medieval Transylvania
Jan Zdichynec. Religion and Ethnicity in the Humanist Historiography of the Czech Region
Isabel Grifoll. The Crown of Aragon on the Border
Przemysław Wiszewski. Multi-Ethnicity or the Network of Local and Regional Identities in Silesian Medieval Historiography
Luís Adão da Fonseca. The Portuguese Experience of Multi-Ethnic Sociability in the Atlantic in the Fifteenth Century and the Problem of Implicit Understanding
Part II. Introduction
Paula Pinto Costa and
Maria Cristina Pimenta. Multi-Ethnic Portuguese Society in the Reign of João I (1385–1433)
Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė. The Creation and Administration of a Multi-Ethnic State
Dovile Troskovaite. Myth as a Means of Coexistence
Andrzej Pleszczyński. Portraying the People and Lands of Eastern Europe in Polish Writings up to the Union of Lublin (1569)
Aleksandr Musin. Value Orientation and the Image of the Orbis Gentium in Medieval East European Societies
Part III. Introduction
Luciano Gallinari. Catalans and Sardinians
Flocel Sabaté. Catalan Identity Discourse in the Late Medieval Mediterranean
Tomáš Velička. Three Languages, One Town
Part IV. Introduction
Joanna Wojdon. Visions of the Past and their Role in Shaping the Polish American Identity, as Seen in Ethnic Festivities
Back Matter
