Local identity in the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida: when ethnicity and religion aren’t the point

Abstract

ABSTRACT While scholarship on early medieval Europe often centers ethnicity or religion over other forms of identity, they were not always the most relevant form of identification for contemporaries. In the Lives of the Fathers of Mérida (late sixth-early seventh century), ethnic and religious identity were actually deployed to construct a local identity around the space and people of the city. This article explores how the text did so by closely analyzing terms used and their context, and by applying social scientific theories of boundary construction to illuminate the strategies of identification behind it. It argues that such an approach gives historians of medieval identity a window into shifting affiliations within a locality and forces us to reconsider the salience of various layers of identity, both locally and kingdom-wide.