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theses

My dissertation examines acculturation among ethnic groups in the Anglo-Welsh border region by comparing its experiences with other border regions across Eurasia. The study contains three parts. The first part includes three chapters that situate the Anglo-Welsh case study in its regional and Eurasian context. It argues that Western European and Turko-Mongolic peoples were predominately responsible for orchestrating numerous settlement processes across high-medieval Eurasia that established the context and structure of intercultural contact in the border regions. In most high-medieval border regions, ethno-religious groups retained substantial socio-cultural autonomy that reduced assimilative pressures, but did not prevent acculturation. Settlement features and situations and outcomes of contact in the British Isles were comparable to those found elsewhere in Eurasia. Indeed, the British Isles represented a microcosm of Eurasia in that they offered every possible outcome and situation of ethnic contact. However, the British Isles produced more hybrid ethnic groups than anywhere else in Eurasia. Furthermore, the system of communal autonomy that emerged in Wales was not centrally imposed, but developed organically and reflected the desire of both the Welsh and Anglo-European populations to retain physical distance and legal distinction. The second part contains the Anglo-Welsh case study. It has three chapters that focus on differences in language, law, and social structure. These chapters principally assert that extensive acculturation transpired between the Anglo-European and Welsh communities. However, because both communities retained distinctive laws and customs, utilized separate ethnic courts, and generally lived separately, strictly dichotomized identities persisted that ignored the reduction in socio-cultural difference. The third part contains two chapters that compare the similarities and divergences in acculturative outcomes in Wales to Ireland and Scotland and Eurasia more generally. The chapters illuminate why Ireland and Scotland saw acculturative divergences with Wales, how historical narrative could maintain ethnic distinction, how deep acculturation could transpire despite the presence of legal regimes to preserve communal autonomy, how those legal regimes could collapse, why acculturation was typically selective, and why large-scale assimilation rarely occurred.

ETD_5368

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Michael R. Hill

doi:10.7282/T3BP013V

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.