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- Convenors:
-
Stefan Kamola
(Eastern Connecticut State University)
Anne Broadbridge (University of Massachusetts)
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- Theme:
- HIS
- Location:
- Posvar 3610
- Start time:
- 27 October, 2018 at
Time zone: America/New_York
- Session slots:
- 1
Long Abstract:
It is understood that Western paradigms of the state are often inappropriate for classifying societies of pre-modern Eurasia. Non-state polities, whether predominantly nomadic or sedentary, were able to co-ordinate the activities of thousands of people, whether for economic or military purposes. It is therefore necessary to examine these alternative methods of social organisation, rather than seeing the lack of state structures as a fundamental absence. This panel will therefore examine the reification and reproduction of power in pre-modern Eurasia through the medium of networks, whether of kin, trade, or ideological connection. This panel will also aim to bridge disciplinary and national barriers, in particular between scholars working in Western Europe and North America, and those working in the countries of Central Eurasia.
Alemany's paper will examine a fundamental issue of pre-modern Eurasian historiography: the lack of a comprehensive prosopography. He argues that the dispersed nature of the primary source base has led to the rise of unsustainable conjectures, but that this situation can be ameliorated by the creation of a networked, online source corpus. In this way modern technology can help us visualise pre-modern networks of power in Eurasia.
Latham-Sprinkle's paper will examine a well-attested but understudied phenomenon in pre-modern West Eurasia: the ostentatious display of access to imperial networks of power as a source of political legitimation. This paper will concentrate on the ideological aspects of this practice, rather than its direct military or material implications. It will argue that this 'power of the foreign' suggests a long prehistory of a very contemporary idea: cultural appropriation. Specifically, it will argue that the ability to take on aspects of another culture, and to have that appropriation recognised, has historically been a powerful source of political legitimation.
Nurulla-Khodzaeva's paper will examine one of the most famous cultural networks of pre-modern Eurasia, that of the Sogdians of Central Asia. She argues that the ramifications of this network can be traced far beyond the immediate cultural and economic contexts of the sixth to ninth centuries CE. This paper will argue that this cultural network retains power in the modern era, and can serve as a vehicle to question the national partition of modern Central Asian historiography.
Accepted papers:
Session 1John Latham Sprinkle (University of Ghent)
Paper long abstract:
Among early state and non-state polities of the Western Eurasia, the importance of access to the outside world has been widely observed. Foreign prestige goods and titles granted by foreign empires became extremely important in the reproduction of power structures, and were avidly sought out by elites of both nomadic and sedentary polities. Examples abound, from the Bulgarian Khanates of the ninth century seeking Byzantine prestige goods, seals and titles, to the Kalmyk Khans of the seventeenth century legitimating their rule by acquiring titles from the Tibetan Dalai Lama.
In many cases, the reason for this phenomenon is obvious: militarily weaker neighbours of large empires sought support from their neighbours, a co-operation signified by their placement in an outside imperial hierarchy. However, in many cases the reason is less obvious. Why, for example, did the rulers of the North Caucasian Sarir Kingdom claim that they possessed the golden throne of the Sassanian shahanshahs in the ninth to twelfth centuries, when the Sassanian Empire had fallen centuries before?
This paper will analyse this ideological co-optation of foreign symbols of prestige, with particular reference to the North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania. Alan rulers depicted themselves as Byzantine rulers and used Byzantine titles in their self-presentation, but never came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, nor faced a military threat from it. It will suggest that this phenomenon demonstrates the long past of a very current phenomenon: cultural appropriation. It will argue that the adoption of a different ideological form of power, and having that appropriation recognised as legitimate, constituted a potent form of legitimation in its own right. This paper will suggest continuities between this form of legitimation and other social constructions of power, which can be ultimately reduced to the recognition by others of claims to an authoritative status.
Agustí Alemany (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
Paper long abstract:
Imperial nomads of the Pre-Mongol period have been paid little or no attention from a prosopographical perspective. In fact, several objections can be raised against such an approach: sources are often scarce and therefore the number of individuals is necessarily limited; in most cases, known persons are hápax legómena and no cursus honorum can be reconstructed for them, with the exception of a few individuals, often in the service of sedentary empires; and, taking into account that PIR, the first modern prosopography, was planned by Mommsen as a supplement to epigraphic corpora, the absence of inscriptions (or other written documents) in the nomadic world before the eighth century is no good omen, and their relative scarcity in later periods forces us to rely heavily on the fragmentary and often biased reports left by sedentary neighbors.
However, we can turn the tide if we conceive a "nomadic" prosopography as a tool devised to overcome all these drawbacks and their worst consequence, the abuse of vague conjectures and hazardous hypotheses -which often become established truths- by scholars trying to fill the gaps of our knowledge on these peoples. In our opinion, a series of prosopographies of imperial nomads of the Pre-Mongol period (Huns, Avars, Türks, Uighurs, etc), conceived as reference works providing quick and easy access to primary sources and their discussion, would be a worthwhile enterprise (which, in any case, could be extended to the Chinggisid age, if it proved successful).
Despite the limited number of individuals and the relative scarcity of sources for most of them, the required effort should not be underestimated: a close reading of available evidence would be imperative, especially in search of anonymi (recorded persons whose name is unknown) and relevant aliens, sedentary or not, "civilized" or "barbarian", both within and outside the nomadic world, but always interacting with it. The heterogeneous origin of the sources claims for a long-standing, international research project, midway between philology and history, and with a significant presence of sinologists, given the accumulative nature of Chinese sources. I would like to emphasize the need for designing a unified plan and methodology for all these prosopographies, which would allow the comparison of similar processes in different historical and cultural contexts. And finally, even if printed versions might seem more attractive at first sight, a computer-accessible form allowing for quick searches would be an obvious desideratum.
Kevin Tuite (University of Montreal)
Paper long abstract:
It has long been recognized that vernacular religious practices in Georgia and adjoining regions of the North Caucasus have been influenced by institutional Orthodoxy. What has not been undertaken, however, is a detailed investigation of precisely which features of Orthodox practice are continued in vernacular religion — and likewise which features were not transmitted. This report will draw upon over three decades of fieldwork in Georgia, with a special focus on the highland province Svaneti.
Among the features to be discussed are:
(1) Spatial organization and the structure of buildings — eastward orientation of the sanctuary; gendered hierarchy of access; architecture and spatial divisions; lands surrounding or belonging to the church;
(2) Ritual practices — Liturgy & celebrants; offerings; preparation (purification, abstention);
(3) The calendar — The Orthodox church calendar abounds in feast-days, festivals and fasts, many of which remained popular even in the absence of priests. Ritual elements of some festivals are continued in vernacular Orthodoxy (e.g. torches in mid-winter festivals derived from Candlemas). Others are linked to popular saints (e.g. George, Mary, Elijah). The continuity of yet others appears to be primarily due to their time-marking function (for example, the mid-summer feast of St Athenogene, which in the earliest Georgian church calendars fell on the 50th day after Pentecost, itself celebrated on the 50th day after Easter.
(4) Cults of saints and church decorations — Orthodox churches in Georgia and the North Caucasus were elaborately decorated. Despite church-imposed iconographic constraints, the preference of donors for frescoes and icons depicting the military saints, especially St George, is evident. Early depictions of the saint show him standing alone, whereas the dominant image in the Middle Ages shows George on horseback, spearing an adversary (often a man rather than a serpent), or freeing a princess from a dragon. Taken together, these facts point to the special significance of a warrior saint for an aristocracy confronting the menace of Islamic armies to the east and an increasingly hostile Byzantium to the southwest.
A handful of churches in Svaneti conserve frescoes painted on the outside walls, including the remarkable depiction on a church in the village Lenjer of an ogre-slaying scene from the medieval romance Amiran-Darejaniani. Folklore and ritual feature a character with similar attributes and the same name as the hero of this romance, implying that secular themes popular among the elite could also find their way into vernacular religion.