Trying to create more rational presentation of the evidence.
- Identity versus descent. Give it's own section for modern English people. Why do people identify as English? Is it common social-cultural norms or is it because of a common origin? What do anthropologists tell us about identity and descent?
- What is the relationship between the ancient peoples of England during pre-history and the modern population? Is the modern population related at all to these ancient inhabitants? Why did invasionist theories take off during the late nineteenth century? What do modern archaeologists and geneticists think about this relationship? Were these ancients "English"? What was the relationship between North Sea peoples prior to the Roman invasion of Britain? What is the linguistic evidence? Did the pre-Roman and Roman peoples of eastern Britain speak Brythonic or Germanic languages?
- Was there a mass migration? Was there a migration of any sort? Why is it important to English identity? What is the evidence for and against a mass migration? Was there a more limited migration, an "elite takeover"? What is the evidence? Was English introduced at this time? Did these invading peoples identify as "English"? Were they a single ethnic group? Did they see themselves in this way? What is the relationship between the kingdoms of the heptarchy? When and why did they Christianise?
- Why are the Viking invasions important in forging a national identity? Was the pagan nature of the Vikings a factor in unifying the Christian peoples of Anglo-Saxon England? What was Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder and Athelstan's contribution to creating a common identity? What is the relationship between the political union of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into a single "Anglo-Saxon" and then English kingdom and the creation of a common identity? Was the mass invasion myth created in order to forge a sense of kinship in this fledgling national identity?
- How did William's invasion affect identity? Was the "Anglo-Saxon" population oppressed by the Norman invaders? Why did it take so long for the Norman elite to adapt to an English identity? Whay did it do this?
- When did mass English identity surface? Was English identity restricted to a social elite before modern times? Were ordinary peoples mainly tied to their local communities prior to modern times? Was their sense of identity restricted to a localised region before modern times?
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