Unveiling social identification, shared social identity, and collective memory as collective resilience factors: Insights from the Kura-Araxes diaspora

Abstract

During and after migration, communities can experience adaptive processes leading to collective resilience. Such processes are shaped by the challenges these communities face in adjusting to new social contexts, cultural backgrounds, and occasionally new environmental conditions. Undergoing a relocation process outside of a homeland, namely in a diaspora, is a strenuous venture. On the one hand, social psychological research shows that the loss of a close-knit community, once strongly attached to a social and natural environment, can leave individuals in precarious physical and mental states. Resilience research, on the other hand, demonstrates that specific resilience factors, such as social identification and shared social identity, strengthen communities affected by relocation, thereby buffering the negative effects on physical and mental health.

In an interdisciplinary effort, this study integrates archaeological evidence with theories from social psychology and resilience research to explore long-term mechanisms of collective resilience. Focusing on the Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes society–one of the largest prehistoric diasporic communities in southwest Asia during the mid–fourth millennium BCE–we examine how material culture contributed to sustaining group cohesion and resilience in diasporic contexts. Our analysis demonstrates that social identification, shared social identity, and collective memory among Kura-Araxes communities functioned as resilience-enhancing factors over time. These findings deepen current understandings of collective resilience processes and open new avenues for investigating material culture as an agent of resilience. Moreover, the study highlights the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration to inform both archaeological interpretation and contemporary discussions on community resilience in the face of displacement and stress.