Material metaphors

Abstract

This article challenges the traditional assumption that the European Early Bronze Age saw the emergence of an ‘ideology of the individual’. It argues that the Early Bronze Age self was constructed in terms of interpersonal connections rather than the intrinsic attributes of a bounded individual. A discussion of mortuary rites in Britain and Ireland suggests that the objects placed in the grave allowed the mourners to comment metaphorically on the links between the dead and the living, as well as on the changes experienced by a community torn asunder by death. As such, we may argue that identity was a relational attribute; it was people’s relationships with others that made them who they were.