22 Harald Haarmann
(f) Phenomenological markers of ethnicity
(i) Parameters of self-identification (i.e., attitudes toward myths of origin and the
local mythic tradition in general)
(ii) Identification with and boundary-marking of the socioeconomic and cultural
space (i.e., territoriality)
(iii) Parameters of the categorization of Others (i.e., cultural stereotypes about other
populations)
(iv) Religion and worldview (i.e., parameters of a spirituality and systems of belief,
relationship to the ancestors, polytheism versus henotheism)
(v) Enhancing social relationships, celebrating group cohesion (i.e., communal cer-
emonies and rituals: initiation, gift exchange, thanksgiving, etc.)
(vi) Symbols enhancing group cohesion (i.e., symbolic values crystallizing in the
ethnonym, significance of symbols of authority and power, etc.)
(vii) Value system (i.e., parameters of prestige values attributed to the peer group,
social equality versus the marking of gender difference, assigning authority ver-
sus the marking of social status and elite power)This scheme serves as a theoretical construct. Each of the features may be of significance
for shaping a group’s identity, but not all the features of the scheme will have equal
significance in each instance. To give a simple example: the relevance of writing as a system
of visual communication is valid only in a community such as fifth-century Athens, where
this technology is developed. In Iberian societies of the same period, without writing,
other systems of visual communication may be more prominent.
Languages and Interethnic Relations
in Prehistory
The configurations of ethnic groups and languages as we know them from antiquity are
the product of ethnic processes that unfolded in prehistory (see the chapter by Kris-
tiansen in this volume). Significant changes in the linguistic landscape were effected by
the process of Indo-Europeanization, which is the spread of Indo-European cultures
and languages in Eurasia and Anatolia. Nowadays, the great majority of the populations
in Europe speak Indo-European languages. Until the Bronze Age, the proportions of
non-Indo-European and Indo-European languages in Europe were the opposite of mod-
ern times, with Paleo-European languages of non-Indo-European affiliation dominating
the linguistic landscape (Haarmann 2011a: 62–63).
The Paleo-European languages that can be identified as individual linguistic complexes
were scattered in the northern region of the Mediterranean. These are the following:
Old European (the language associated with the Danube civilization) in southeastern
Europe; Minoan in ancient Crete; Lemnian on the island of Lemnos in the eastern
Aegean (closely affiliated to Etruscan); Etruscan in Etruria (Tuscany); remnants of
pre-Greek (=non-Indo-European) languages in Sicily; Paleo-Sardinian in Sardinia;
Camunic in the Alpine region of northern Italy; Rhaetic in the Swiss Alps; Ligurian