Ancient China and its Eurasian neighbors : artifacts, identity and death in the frontier, 3000-700 BCE / Katheryn M. Linduff, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Yan Sun, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, Wei Cao, Shaanxi Normal University, China, Yuanqing Liu, Shaanxi Normal University, China.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Linduff, Katheryn M., author.

Sun, Yan, 1970- author.

Cao, Wei, 1955- author.

Liu, Yuanqing, 1986- author.

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

International relations.

China--Antiquities.

China.

Antiquities.

China--Civilization--To 221 B.C.

Civilization.

China--Foreign relations--Eurasia--To 1644.

Diplomatic relations.

Eurasia.

Physical Description:

xiii, 278 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Language Note:

Some text in Chinese.

Summary:

This volume examines the role of objects in the region north of early dynastic state centers, at the intersection of Ancient China and Eurasia, a large area that stretches from Xinjiang to the China Sea, from c.3000 BCE to the mid-eighth century BCE. This area was a frontier, an ambiguous space that lay at the margins of direct political control by the metropolitan states, where local and colonial ideas and practices were reconstructed transculturally. These identities were often merged and displayed in material culture. Types of objects, styles, and iconography were often hybrids or new to the region, as were the tomb assemblages in which they were deposited and found. Patrons commissioned objects that marked a symbolic vision of place and person and that could mobilize support, legitimize rule, and bind people together. Through close examination of key artifacts, this book untangles the considerable changes in political structure and cultural makeup of ancient Chinese states and their northern neighbors.

Contents:

List of figures

List of charts

List of maps. Introduction: the inner Asian frontier reconsidered : The reconsidered inner Asian frontier. 1 Shaping the study of inner Asian artifacts and mental boundaries / Katheryn M. Linduff : Past scholarship

Materialization of identity in metal on the inner Asian frontier: artifacts in action

Frontiers or contact zones

Artifacts as classificatory on the inner Asian frontier

Methods and objectives

Technoscapes, individualscapes, regionscapes and lineagescapes. 2 Technoscapes and the materialization of ideas in metal on the inner Asian frontier (c.3000-1500 BCE) / Katheryn M. Linduff : The emergence and distribution of early metal use: the scholarship

Inner Asian frontier technoscapes

Consequences of these early technoscapes: artifacts in action. 3 Identity and artifacts on the north central and northeastern frontier during the period of state expansion in th elate second and the early first millennium BCE / Yan Sun : The northeastern region

Variations in identity construction in the northeastern region

The north central region

Different modes of identity construction in the central region of the inner Asian frontier. 4 The rise of states and the formation of group identities in the western regions of the inner Asian frontier (c.1500 to the eighth century BCE) / Wei Cao, and Yuanqing Liu, with Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun : The Jing and Wei River Valleys

Local communities in western Gansu and the Qinghai region. 5 Final statements/conclusions and future challenges / Katheryn M. Linduff and Yan Sun : The inner Asian frontier: a cultural crossroads

The formation of technoscapes on the inner Asian frontier

Individualscapes, regionscapes and lineagescapes from the late second to early first millennium BCE

The fluidity of the scapes

Final summation. Glossary of terms

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-266) and index.

ISBN:

9781108418614

1108418619

OCLC:

983195320