Ethnic Identities and Multicultural Societies in Medieval Europe

The three papers in this session examine how ideas of “ethnic identities” were formed and used by both the élites and the unfree within the societies in question. Sébastien Rossignol's paper will focus on the groups of dependent "Slavic" peasants in the royal diplomas of Ottonian Saxony. New designations to describe these unfree peasants based on ethnic criteria fostered an awareness of cultural differences between the mancipia Teutonica and the mancipia Sclavonica. Cameron Sutt's paper argues that the self-identity of the Magyars in multi-ethnic early Árpádian Hungary was complicated and changing. Magyar group identity was based not just upon Christianity and kingdom, but also upon other factors such as language and myths of ethnic genesis. Finally, Heidi Sherman’s paper will explore in some detail the characteristics of Novgorodian culture, its churches, icon painting, and other forms of its material culture. The paper examines the exportation and intermingling of Novgorodian culture with those cultures it sought to absorb as it consolidated its position against other northern powers.Cameron Sutt