Tying the Threads of Eurasia

Tying the Threads of Eurasia
Author: Toby C. Wilkinson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The famous 'Silk Roads' have long evoked a romantic picture of travel through colourful civilizations, but how far back can we trace these trade-networks?

Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern and Premodern China

Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern and Premodern China
Author: Kelly Kar Yue Chan
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2022-01-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9811683751

This book presents an essential contribution to approaches in the studies of film, literature, performance, translation, and other art forms within the Chinese cultural tradition, examining East-West cultural exchange and providing related intertextual dialogue. The assessment of cultural exchange in the East-West context involves the original source, the adapted text, and other enigmatic extras incurred during the process. It aims to evaluate the linkage among, but not limited to, literature, film, music, art, and performance. The sections unpack how canonical texts can be read anew in modern society; how ideas can be circulated around the world based on translation, adaptation, and reinvention; and how the global networks of circulation can facilitate cultural interaction and intervention. The authors engage discussions on longstanding debates and controversies relating to Chinese literature as world literature; reconciliations of cultural identity under the contemporary waves of globalization and glocalization; Chinese-Western film adaptations and their impact upon cinematic experiences; an understanding of gendered roles and voices under the social gaze; and the translation of texts from intertextual angles. An enriching intellectual, intertextual resource for researchers and students enthusiastic about the adaptation and transformation process of different genres, this book is a must-have for Sinophiles. It will appeal to world historians interested in the global networks of connectivity, scholars researching cultural life in East Asia, and China specialists interested in cultural studies, translation, and film, media and literary studies.

Ancient Iran and Its Neighbours

Ancient Iran and Its Neighbours
Author: Cameron A. Petrie
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 833
Release: 2013-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782972285

The fourth millennium BC was a critical period of socio-economic and political transformation in the Iranian Plateau and its surrounding zones. This period witnessed the appearance of the world’s earliest urban centres, hierarchical administrative structures, and writing systems. These developments are indicative of significant changes in socio-political structures that have been interpreted as evidence for the rise of early states and the development of inter-regional trade, embedded in longer-term processes that began in the later fifth millennium BC. Iran was an important player in western Asia especially in the medium- to long-range trade in raw materials and finished items throughout this period. The 20 papers presented here illustrate forcefully how the re-evaluation of old excavation results, combined with much new research, has dramatically expanded our knowledge and understanding of local developments on the Iranian Plateau and of long-range interactions during the critical period of the fourth millennium BC.

Revolutionizing a World

Revolutionizing a World
Author: Mark Altaweel
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2018-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1911576658

This book investigates the long-term continuity of large-scale states and empires, and its effect on the Near East’s social fabric, including the fundamental changes that occurred to major social institutions. Its geographical coverage spans, from east to west, modern-day Libya and Egypt to Central Asia, and from north to south, Anatolia to southern Arabia, incorporating modern-day Oman and Yemen. Its temporal coverage spans from the late eighth century BCE to the seventh century CE during the rise of Islam and collapse of the Sasanian Empire. The authors argue that the persistence of large states and empires starting in the eighth/seventh centuries BCE, which continued for many centuries, led to new socio-political structures and institutions emerging in the Near East. The primary processes that enabled this emergence were large-scale and long-distance movements, or population migrations. These patterns of social developments are analysed under different aspects: settlement patterns, urban structure, material culture, trade, governance, language spread and religion, all pointing at movement as the main catalyst for social change. This book’s argument is framed within a larger theoretical framework termed as ‘universalism’, a theory that explains many of the social transformations that happened to societies in the Near East, starting from the Neo-Assyrian period and continuing for centuries. Among other influences, the effects of these transformations are today manifested in modern languages, concepts of government, universal religions and monetized and globalized economies.

The Elamite World

The Elamite World
Author: Javier Álvarez-Mon
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 973
Release: 2018-01-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131732983X

Amongst the civilizations to participate in the dynamic processes of contact and interchange that gave rise to complex societies in the ancient Near East, Elam has remained one of the most obscure, at times languishing in the background of scholarly inquiry. In recent years, however, an increasing body of academic publications have acknowledged its relevance and suggested that its legacy was more considerable and long-lasting than previously estimated. The Elamite World assembles a group of 40 international scholars to contribute their expertise to the production of a solid, lavishly illustrated, English language treatment of Elamite civilization. It covers topics such as its physical setting, historical development, languages and people, material culture, art, science, religion and society, as well as the legacy of Elam in the Persian empire and its presence in the modern world. This comprehensive and ambitious survey seeks for Elam, hardly a household name, a noteworthy place in our shared cultural heritage. It will be both a valuable introductory text for a general audience and a definitive reference source for students and academics.

The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization

The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization
Author: Tamar Hodos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1449
Release: 2016-11-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131544898X

This unique collection applies globalization concepts to the discipline of archaeology, using a wide range of global case studies from a group of international specialists. The volume spans from as early as 10,000 cal. BP to the modern era, analysing the relationship between material culture, complex connectivities between communities and groups, and cultural change. Each contributor considers globalization ideas explicitly to explore the socio-cultural connectivities of the past. In considering social practices shared between different historic groups, and also the expression of their respective identities, the papers in this volume illustrate the potential of globalization thinking to bridge the local and global in material culture analysis. The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization is the first such volume to take a world archaeology approach, on a multi-period basis, in order to bring together the scope of evidence for the significance of material culture in the processes of globalization. This work thus also provides a means to understand how material culture can be used to assess the impact of global engagement in our contemporary world. As such, it will appeal to archaeologists and historians as well as social science researchers interested in the origins of globalization.

Archaeometallurgy – Materials Science Aspects

Archaeometallurgy – Materials Science Aspects
Author: Andreas Hauptmann
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 595
Release: 2020-11-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030503674

This book successfully connects archaeology and archaeometallurgy with geoscience and metallurgy. It addresses topics concerning ore deposits, archaeological field evidence of early metal production, and basic chemical-physical principles, as well as experimental ethnographic works on a low handicraft base and artisanal metal production to help readers better understand what happened in antiquity. The book is chiefly intended for scholars and students engaged in interdisciplinary work.

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics: Rethinking Temporality and Community in Eurasian Archaeology

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics: Rethinking Temporality and Community in Eurasian Archaeology
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004325476

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics re-examines the relationship between Eurasia’s past and its present by interrogating the social construction of time and the archaeological production of culture. Traditionally, archaeological research in Eurasia has focused on assembling normative descriptions of monolithic cultures that endure for millennia, largely immune to the forces of historical change. The papers in this volume seek to document forces of difference and contestation in the past that were produced in the perceptible engagements of peoples, things, and places. The research gathered here convincingly demonstrates that these forces made social life in ancient Eurasia rather more fitful and its publics considerably more unruly than archaeological research has traditionally allowed. Contributors are Mikheil Abramishvili, Paula N. Doumani Dupuy, Magnus Fiskesjö, Hilary Gopnik, Emma Hite, Jean-Luc Houle, Erik G. Johannesson, James A. Johnson, Lori Khatchadourian, Ian Lindsay, Maureen E. Marshall, Mitchell S. Rothman, Irina Shingiray, Adam T. Smith, Kathryn O. Weber and Xin Wu.

Medieval Textiles across Eurasia, c. 300–1400

Medieval Textiles across Eurasia, c. 300–1400
Author: Patricia Blessing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2023-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009393383

This study considers the textiles made, traded, and exchanged across Eurasia from late antiquity to the late Middle Ages with special attention to the socio-political and cultural aspects of this universal medium. It presents a wide range of textiles used in both domestic and religious settings, as dress and furnishings, and for elite and ordinary owners. The introduction presents historiographical background to the study of textiles and explains the conditions of their survival in archaeological contexts and museums. A section on the materials and techniques used to produce textiles if followed by those outlining textile production, industry, and trade across Eurasia. Further sections examine the uses for dress and furnishing textiles and the appearance of imported fabrics in European contexts, addressing textiles' functions and uses in medieval societies. Lastly, a concluding section on textile aesthetics connects fabrics to their broader visual and material context.

Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations

Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations
Author: Mher Sahakyan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2024-07-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 104003926X

The Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations explores China’s relations with the Eurasian continent’s regions and countries in a multipolar era, providing an equal and balanced platform for scholars and practitioners from East, West, North, and South. This diversity enriches the contribution, giving it a dynamic ability to examine sources in different languages and cover a vast geography. Divided into ten parts, this handbook analyses the major powers in a Multipolar World Order; China’s political and economic interests in post-Soviet Eurasia, Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Arctic; and China's relations with the US, Russia, Eurasian Economic Union, NATO and other players. International technology and environmental experts consider the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative, along with other international economic and transport corridors, and examine China’s multilateral relations and Digital Silk Road and e-governance roles. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese and Eurasian International Relations also contains official documents detailing the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and several European and Asian states, making it an authoritative source on diplomatic affairs. This groundbreaking book will be of interest to policymakers, businessmen, scholars, and students of international relations, area studies, cybersecurity and digitalization, economics and the politics of international trade, security studies, foreign policy, global governance, international organizations, and environmental studies.