The Hutterites succeeded in forging a unifying identity, levelling out individualities while valuing communality, creating a supposed homogeneity within their communities that enabled their survival over time. Key aspects of this identity, emerging in the foundational stage of the Moravian Anabaptist thoughts, were sharing all things in common, self-sufficiency in food and ability to resettle when necessary. This, together with the internal mechanisms of the communities, which tend to deliberately isolate them from the ‘rest of the world’, have made the Hutterites' way of life singular.

Addressing the question of Hutterite identity requires understanding the mechanisms and strategies involved in the processes of constructing ancient identities. While history has greatly improved our knowledge on this subject, it overall fails to define or glimpse individualities. Archaeology, and even more so the archaeological sciences which include biomolecular anthropology, allow us to deepen this knowledge by entering into micro-history and discovering particularities. Osteobiographical approaches integrating isotopic analyses are today the most capable of reconstructing life histories which, when juxtaposed and recontextualised, allow us to reconstruct bio-cultural interactions and characterise identity traits.

The aim of this project is to use archaeo-biogeochemistry, in particular stable isotope analysis (d13C, d15N and d34S), to highlight the internal commonalities and external peculiarities of Moravian Hutterite communities, by comparison to coetaneous non-Hutterite populations, through the prism of their food practices.

The tasks to be addressed in this thesis are:
1) To develop the theoretical framework of the thesis, with a focus on the historical, archaeological, and methodological contexts
2) To sample the collections, perform the stable isotope analysis, and acquire the isotopic results
3) To statistically process isotopic data according to biological (sex, age, etc.), archaeological (funerary practices, funerary furniture, etc.), and chronological (medieval periods, modern periods, etc.) parameters. To proceed intra- and inter-site comparisons.
4) To interpret the results in terms of dietary practices, and discuss and contextualise the results in a broader framework.

This work may require travel abroad for analysis.

To be awarded credit for the first semester (course Bi7771 Diploma Thesis I) the above stated task 1 needs to be accomplished, to be awarded credit for the second semester (course Bi8772 Diploma Thesis II) also the above stated task 2 needs to be accomplished, to be awarded credit for the third semester (course Bi9200 Diploma Thesis III) also the above stated task 3 needs to be accomplished and to be awarded credit for the fourth semester (course Bi9773 Diploma Thesis IV) also the above stated task 4 needs to be accomplished, therefore to finish the thesis and hand it in for thesis defense in the IS Archive.

The recommended extent of the thesis is 50-100 pages but can be exceeded if the thesis development requires it. However, the 50-page lower limit is the minimum which can be accepted. The thesis will exclude the explicit description of utilized material and methods, including in cases when the thesis is in form of a literature review. The method/process description will clearly state the author’s contribution to acquired results. Czech version of the ISO 690 style will be the citation style. Appropriate tabelar and graphical summarizing and instructive illustrations will form part of the thesis. The thesis will be handed in in the PDF format in the IS Archive and in print bound form for defense and archiving purposes. In the formal and content aspects the valid MU legislation, Dean’s Measure on final these and Department of Anthropology internal regulations must be met.