Globalization and Colonization: a view from Iron Age Sicily

The seeming discrepancy between postmodern diversity and contemporary concepts of globalization reflects a misunderstanding of the nature of globalization, which should not be taken to imply that there is a uni- fied world society or culture. The process of globalization actually serves to highlight and reinforce cultural heterogeneities. It is the balance between shared sets of practices and local heterogeneities that enables the globalization model to be an extremely powerful tool in highlighting identity expressions, especially those exhibited through material culture choices in mixed cultural contexts. Using such a framework, this paper explores in particular the engagement between Sicilian populations of the seventh and sixth centuries BC and their Greek colonial neighbors, the Greek world and the Mediterranean at large, as a demonstration of how such a model might be used most effectively in interpreting cultural interactions in the past.