‘Illyrians’ in ancient ethnographic discourse - Persée

DHA 40/ 2-2014 Dialogues d’histoire ancienne 40/ 2-2014, 45-65

‘ Illyrians’ in ancient ethnographic discourse

Danijel Dzino*

Knowledge of foreign lands and peoples was important for ancient Greeks and Romans not only to develop perceptions about the world around them, but also as a way to better understand and define their own culture. Ancient ethnography was not a separate literary genre but rather, a discursive accumulation of knowledge, which was used by other ancient discourses such as, for example, historical and geographical. The creation of ancient ethnographic knowledge was a long and complex process of gathering information and transferring it into written discourse. Written discourse then accumulated in ancient archives, which developed in cultural (frequently also political and imperial) centres such as Athens, Alexandria or Rome, 1 functioning as depositories of ethnographic knowledge. Successive generations of writers would use these depositories of knowledge combining them with new information in accordance with contemporary ideological needs and concerns. In the continuous transfer of information from one context to another, the original information would ultimately lose its original meaning. It would become a reusable and adjustable block of knowledge, ready to be used in different literary genres and ideological contexts. 2

The most significant concerns of ancient ethnographers were to describe ‘ other peoples’ , show their customs and pasts, and position them in space. The positioning of different groups was especially important in the development of ancient cognitive maps of certain regions. These cognitive maps would significantly change, as certain ethnic labels would acquire diverse meanings in changing chronological and political contexts, thus creating difficulties in later attempts to understand what did happen. The terms: ‘ Illyrians’ , ‘ Illyria’ and Illyricum, are probably one of the best examples of such

* Associate Lecturer, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sydney, danijel. dzino@ mq. edu. au