Book contents
- Rome, China, and the Barbarians
- Rome, China, and the Barbarians
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- A Note to the Reader
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Ethnography in the Classical Age
- Chapter 2 The Barbarian and Barbarian Antitheses
- Chapter 3 Ethnography in a Post-Classical Age
- Chapter 4 New Emperors and Ethnographic Clothes
- Chapter 5 The Confluence of Ethnographic Discourse and Political Legitimacy
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 1 - Ethnography in the Classical Age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2020
- Rome, China, and the Barbarians
- Rome, China, and the Barbarians
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Maps
- Maps
- Acknowledgments
- A Note to the Reader
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Ethnography in the Classical Age
- Chapter 2 The Barbarian and Barbarian Antitheses
- Chapter 3 Ethnography in a Post-Classical Age
- Chapter 4 New Emperors and Ethnographic Clothes
- Chapter 5 The Confluence of Ethnographic Discourse and Political Legitimacy
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
As the latter part of this book will examine ethnological discourse in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval China, periods that post-date by several centuries the formulation of that discourse into a relatively stable set of norms, tropes, and conventions, this chapter will provide an introductory survey to early ethnographic practices in the Greco-Roman and Chinese traditions. Such a survey will serve as the basis for an assessment of the degree of continuity of these practices in a later age of great transformation and change, namely the sixth-century Roman Empire and the seventh-century Tang 唐 dynasty. Only by establishing the basic components of classical ethnography and ethnological thought in each tradition will it be possible to contextualize the representations of foreign peoples in the later periods in terms of their respective traditions.
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- Information
- Rome, China, and the BarbariansEthnographic Traditions and the Transformation of Empires, pp. 28 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020