I have this on pre-order as I hear Gideon Shelach furthers his exciting work on nomadism and the early Chinese state in his paper.
Out straight away a...moreI have this on pre-order as I hear Gideon Shelach furthers his exciting work on nomadism and the early Chinese state in his paper.
Out straight away as an inexpensive paperback, how I like that. (less)
So, has this extravaganza of French philosophy any insight for a student of real, historical steppe nomads?
Yes.
It's a helluva lot better (on the noma...moreSo, has this extravaganza of French philosophy any insight for a student of real, historical steppe nomads?
PS. If you're here for steppe research in a strict sense, you can safely start on p.50. Not that there wasn't food for thought beforehand. On waterworks, I thought of the human control of water in China, a story told in The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China.(less)
I've just read Gideon Shelach's contribution to this: 'He Who Eats the Horse, She Who Rides It?' on what graves tell us about horse use, or horse symb...moreI've just read Gideon Shelach's contribution to this: 'He Who Eats the Horse, She Who Rides It?' on what graves tell us about horse use, or horse symbolism. I'd better get the book. May be fairly raw archaeological data. None the less valuable for that. (less)
Public domain ebook. Print length given as 124 pages. Without the biography of De Quincey at the front and the notes at the back (too old to matter),...morePublic domain ebook. Print length given as 124 pages. Without the biography of De Quincey at the front and the notes at the back (too old to matter), feels like 50.
On late 18th century events. Heard about it in China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. There Peter Perdue says: "Out of the epic Long March of the Torghut Mongols from the banks of the Volga back to their Mongolian homeland, De Quincey created a minor classic of English literature. As historical fiction, his account rivals the works of Sir Walter Scott in dramatic scenes, vivid characters, and melodramatic conflict."
I can't be as enthusiastic -- he needs to get out more. Besides, it's non-fiction, written with a lively imagination. Little or no speech, for instance. Worth a read for its garish scenes and grand 19thC style: "The spectacle became too atrocious; it was that of a host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends."(less)
The argument: "that these China-based and Mongolia-based states had 'entangled histories' resulting from centuries of diplomacy, competition and incor...moreThe argument: "that these China-based and Mongolia-based states had 'entangled histories' resulting from centuries of diplomacy, competition and incorporation of pastoral nomads in North China." The method: "close readings of millennium-old texts and artifacts... with an eye to finding evidence, particularly anecdotes, that reveals the actual thought and behavior of people living in China and Inner Asia." He goes on to liken his method to the 'thick description' of ethnography. (less)
“...starting from the first (or late second) millennium BCE, people in the area of the Northern Zone thought differently from those living in the Yell...more“...starting from the first (or late second) millennium BCE, people in the area of the Northern Zone thought differently from those living in the Yellow and Yangzi River basins.” This is the time when China and the steppe became alien to one another.
How does he know, or how does he investigate the way people thought of themselves? The ‘archaeology of identity’. New awareness from cultural anthropology has led archaeology (he explains) beyond the study of collective identity, to look at individual identities. He looks at the symbols people use, to identify themselves to others, and analyses how these work, what these meant. There was a huge change in symbolism... not so much in lifestyle. A shift of ideology seems to have come ahead, that then hardened, if you like, into the familiar pastoralist/agricultural divide. People made choices, or commitments, and displayed about their persons signs of the way they wished to identify. In the Northern Zone, Gideon Shelach has found, nomadism didn’t begin with economics; his study of human agency uncovers ‘ideological motivations’.
His employment of archaeology, he says, escapes the Chinese records that have written our history unto this day: so that when he turns to those written records, at the end, they do read differently to me, than they had in other books beforehand.
So. I've always been an anarchist in principle (didn't Merlin say in The Once and Future King, every decent person is?) and I come to this, not with a...moreSo. I've always been an anarchist in principle (didn't Merlin say in The Once and Future King, every decent person is?) and I come to this, not with a special interest in upland SE Asia, but after this on hunter-gatherers Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior and after this on pastoral nomads Pastoralists: Equality, Hierarchy, And The State, and after a brave foray into the classic Pierre Clastres too. Wherein I've learnt statelessness is common, and clung to stubbornly, which gives me hope for the species.
This one is about defections from civilization, that are much more common than our ‘civilizational discourse’ has allowed us to see. As such, its relevance is far wider than SE Asia. He draws in others' work from other areas, ethnographers' examinations of cultures wherever they have found these political strategies. At the close he says: “I have come to see this study of Zomia, or the massif, not so much as a study of hill peoples per se but as a fragment of what might properly be considered a global history of populations trying to avoid, or having been extruded by, the state.” My own area of study is steppe history, for which I have found this of the most fantastic use. I'll declare it a need-to-read, in another geography altogether.
It covers far too much to try to sum up. I found the most thought-provoking chapters to be the three last. Though in fact he calls one of them chapter 6 ½, because he's just feeling his way: it's on 'Orality, Writing and Texts', and talks about possible attitudes to writing that go dead against civilized assumptions. Might a people reject writing, the orthodoxy of a text, that is a foundation-stone of states, and feel they are better off with oral history? That was fascinating, and the next chapter is 'Ethnogenesis: A Radical Constructionist Case' on the artificiality or fictionality of tribes. He comes at this from two sides. Administrators have to order populations into tribes that weren't there beforehand; but the peoples themselves have uses for a fictional ethnicity – several uses that Scott explores. This chapter includes the why of state mimicry, or what he calls 'cosmological bluster' – where tribal peoples take on the trappings of states, in ways that may be more subversive than subservient. Lastly, 'Prophets of Renewal', on the question of how and why (and what type of) religion has served in revolts of the marginal and the dispossessed. This is a terrific chapter, that does begin on explanations, and those might not be what you thought.
In the end, even though my eye was caught by that title, I wonder whether we have to call this an anarchist history? It’s a history – a neglected history, one we have been blind to, exciting to discover.(less)
Although what was new in 1990 has percolated into every other book by now, this is splendidly written and conceived.
In very short: walls were a matte...moreAlthough what was new in 1990 has percolated into every other book by now, this is splendidly written and conceived.
In very short: walls were a matter of politics. He examines the politics. Ming in the main, but Ming make a typical story and similar debates went on in other eras. In fact the old debates - offence/defence, treaty or hostility - cycled and cycled... He tells you that.
Certainly where to go for an introduction to walls. (less)
Michael R. Drompp on 'Mutability in the Elite Power Structure of the Early Turks'. That is, attempts to schematize th...more16 papers.
Most worthwhile for me:
Michael R. Drompp on 'Mutability in the Elite Power Structure of the Early Turks'. That is, attempts to schematize that structure have missed the flexibility.
Peter B. Golden on 'The Qipchac... An Example of Stateless Adaptation in the Steppes'. Statelessness as the norm -- more so in the west, without China to trigger creation of states.
Ruth Dunnell on 'The Fall of the Xia Empire'. Tangut-steppe interaction in detail.
Elizabeth Endicott-West on 'Aspects of Khitan Liao and Mongolian Yuan Imperial Rule'. Rejection of Chinese court ritual and the persistence of an Inner Asian identity in both.
Dru C. Gladney on 'The Ethnogenesis of the Uighur'. Uighur identity from origins to present day -- in abeyance for 500 years. How ethnic identities work/are created. ('Ogre' comes from 'Uighur'? Are they kidding? I'll go look that up.)
Not finding much in this. Her treatment of epic means telling us the story of the Trojan War. It's a survey, but without insights or a pulling-together of history, I'm feeling. And, not to stick the boot in or nothing, but -- I'm going to -- her writing is awkward. Not because of jargon, I'm happy to say, just clumsy.
Full title: History of the Civilizations of Central Asia Vol 4 - The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century Part Two - The Ac...moreFull title: History of the Civilizations of Central Asia Vol 4 - The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century Part Two - The Achievements
700 pages
Vol 4 Part One was the history of this period. Part Two - thicker than the history - is cultural, intellectual, religious, artistic, scientific, and my favourite of this set. Pharmacology - music - epic and the oral tradition - historiography - vet sciences - urban development - festivals and drama - 'the search for knowledge through translation' - I'm scouring the index here, but the index is six pages. I like how, for instance, in medicine, we have Iranian, Tibetan and Mongolian; and then we have 'Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Arab influences'. (less)
Full title: History of the Civilizations of Central Asia Vol 4 - The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century Part One - The hist...moreFull title: History of the Civilizations of Central Asia Vol 4 - The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the end of the fifteenth century Part One - The historical, social and economic setting
The index has twenty items. For a selection: 'The states of the Oghuz, the Kimek and the Kipchak' - 'The Ghaznavids' - 'The Karakhanids' - 'The Seljuks and the Khwarazm Shahs' - 'The Uighurs, the Kirghiz and Tangut' - 'The Western Himalayan States' - 'The Khitan and the Kara Khitay' - 'The Delhi Sultanate' - 'The regions of Sind, Baluchistan, Multan and Kashmir' - 'The Timurid states' (less)
On the 'barbarian' dynasties Liao and Jin, created by northern tribal peoples, the Khitan and the Jurchen. More about Liao, for Jin quickly took on Ch...moreOn the 'barbarian' dynasties Liao and Jin, created by northern tribal peoples, the Khitan and the Jurchen. More about Liao, for Jin quickly took on Chinese culture and values. Even in Jin, though, observers from Song China noted the barbarisation of society: women freely on the streets, while Song kept them at home. In emergency, Jin women remembered they were tribal and actively involved themselves in war.
Liao society kept northern values to the end. The sexes weren't segregated; girls rode, shot and studied with boys. Daughters weren't a future loss but a gain, and weren't unwelcome. The custom was for the wife to be older than the husband, often a fair bit older. Single women existed. Virginity before marriage was not an issue.
The Liao Emperor throws a feast when his mother kills a bear. An empress commands the army at Liao's crucial victory over Song. Women participated in politics and war.
And it was catching. In Jin, a woman who has no barbarian about her, she's Han Chinese, followed the example she was given and led a bandit army, for a career in the three-way wars between Jin, Song and Mongols.
In this age, foot-binding was coming into general practice in Song. The author sees a crack-down, a reaction against barbarian habits, once China was for the Chinese again. (less)
This is an old work from 1949. It is exhaustive and you can't do without this book, in spite of its age - it's hard to imagine such a thorough work, h...moreThis is an old work from 1949. It is exhaustive and you can't do without this book, in spite of its age - it's hard to imagine such a thorough work, heavy on my lap, being either compiled or published these days. Call me a cynic.
It translates almost every document left by Liao; it's perhaps half translation (this is not a bad thing). As a source book it's just invaluable and a dream... if only we had this for Jin or indeed a lot of other societies. Liao gets lavish treatment here. No-one's even tried to write about them so deeply since.
I find nothing old-fashioned, in a bad sense, about the authors. And there's a test case: Liao women were freer than women were in 1949, I believe; but the authors aren't fazed by that.
Too much information for almost every purpose you can possibly have. It's great. (less)
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