Description
Book SynopsisIn recent decades, there has been a new surge of interest in the history and legacies of the Silk Roads both within academic and public discourses. A field of Silk Roads Studies has come into its own. Consciously mirroring the temperament of its subject, the field has moved out of the narrow niches of particular disciplines to become a truly interdisciplinary endeavor. New research findings about the historical operations of the Silk Roads and interpretations of their legacies for the modern and contemporary world have broken down geographical and temporal divides that once demarcated the Silk Roads as primarily pre-modern and Old World-centered conduits of globalization. In light of these developments, the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field. Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives brings together leading scholars in multiple disciplines related to Silk Roads studies. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas. This holistic approach to understanding ancient globalization, exchanges, transformations, and movements - and their continued relevance to the present - is in line with contemporary academic trends toward interdisciplinarity. Indeed, the Silk Roads is such an expansive topic that many approaches to its study must be included to represent accurately its many facets. The volume emphasizes exchange and transformation along the Silk Roads - moments of acculturation or hybridization that contributed to novel syncretic forms. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches to the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas.
Trade ReviewThe papers range geographically across the overland and maritime Silk Routes, and chronologically from antiquity to contemporary issues around China’s One Belt One Road Initiative. As such, it is an amazing volume. * Current World Archaeology *
Lerner and Shi argue that “the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field” (p. 1); this interdisciplinary volume with its broad-ranging content is certainly a very good start. * Antiquity *
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction Section One: Acculturation and Hybridization 1. The “Birth” of the Silk Road Between Ecological Frontiers and Military Innovation Nicola Di Cosmo 2. Sogdians in Shanxi (386 CE-618 CE): Literary and Archeological Evidence Xiaoyan Qi 3. From Exotic Toys to Objects of Scientific Inquiry: A Special Way of Transmitting European Optical Knowledge in the Qing Dynasty Yunli Shi 4. The Karakorum Highway: Gateway of Empires, Religions, and Commerce Saba Samee Section Two: Understanding Spice Through Interdisciplinarity 5. A TRP Along the Silk Roads: How and Why We Detect and Use Spices Wayne Silver and Cecil J. Saunders 6. Silk Road Pharmacy: Debating Theriac and Defining the Natural World Monique O’Connell 7. Spice and Taste in the Culinary World of the Early Modern Mediterranean Eric Dursteler Section Three: Tradition as Continuity and Change 8. Devotional Prints and Practice: Woodcuts from the Library Cave at Dunhuang Bernadine Barnes 9. Dome of Heaven: From the Lantern Ceiling to the Chinese Wooden Dome Di Luo 10. “Malacca” – From Fabled Port to Muddy Lagoon: A Cautionary Tale of Ecological Disaster Margaret Sarkissian 11. Twenty-first Century Trading Routes in Mongolia: Changing Pastoral Soundscapes and Lifeways Jennifer Post 12. Erasing the Local, Celebrating the Local: Tracing the Contradictions of the Silk Road in Pakistan Chad Haines Section Four: Cultural Transactions 13. Arsacid Economic Activity on the Silk Road Touraj Daryaee 14. Pearls and Power: Chōla's Tribute Mission to the Northern Song Court within the Maritime Silk Road Trade Network James A. Anderson 15. “Flying Cash”: Credit Instruments on the Silk Roads Dan Du Section Five: Long-Distance Commodity Trade 16. The Case for Shipwrecked Indians in Germany Jeffrey D. Lerner 17. Samuel Shaw’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’ from American Independence towards Monopoly, 1784–1794 John A. Ruddiman
