The Formation of Ethnic Groups in Early Modern Times. Interculturality and Transculturality in the Case of the Armenians in Eastern Europe

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jürgen Heyde
• Subject Area: Early Modern History ; Medieval History
• Term: from 2014 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253720236

The project examines the functions and interdependencies of transcultural agency, intercultural norms and the formation of ethnic groups in early modern times. It focusses on Armenian merchants in four cities that served as centers of trade: Kamjanec in Podolia, L'viv, Cracow and Gdansk, during a period ranging from late medieval times to the middle of the 17 th century. The first two cities displayed ethnic administrative structures with an Armenian self-government. The Armenians in Cracow and Gdansk, however, were not able to rely on such structures. They acted without a common institutional ethnic framework. Everywhere they were identified by a common social marker, the byname "Armenus".These examples serve to examine strategies of transcultural communication and ethnic group-formation of the Armenian merchants living under varying legal and social conditions. The study looks at the ways the actors locate themselves and are locate by others within changing social ramifications. It does not presuppose the existence of a clearly defined ethnic collectivity, but examines pre-modern ethnicity as a historical phenomenon, as a way to enforce individual as well as collective agendas, which is sometimes complementary and sometimes adverse to transcultural interrelations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants