Empire and Local Worlds: A Chinese Model for Long-Term Historical Anthropology (UCL Institute of Archaeology Critical Cultural Heritage Series)

Mingming Wang, one of the most prolific anthropologists in China, has produced a work both of long-term historical anthropology and of broad social theory. In it, he traces almost a millennium of history of the southern Chinese city of Quangzhou, a major international trading entrepot in the 13th century that declined to a peripheral regional center by the end of the 19th century. But the historical trajectory understates the complex set of interrelationships between local structures and imperial agendas that played out over the course of centuries and dynasties. Using urban structure, documentary analysis, and archaeological artifacts, Wang shows how the study of Quangzhou represents a Chinese template for civilizational studies, one distinctly different from Eurocentric models propounded by such theorists as Sahlins, Wolf, and Elias. Social Science,Anthropology,General

Mingming Wang has produced a work both of long-term historical anthropology and of broad social theory. In it, he traces almost a millennium of history of the southern Chinese city of Quanzhou, a major international trading entrepot in the 13th century that declined to a peripheral regional center by the end of the 19th century. But the historical trajectory understates the complex set of interrelationships between local structures and imperial agendas that played out over the course of centuries and dynasties. Using an analysis of urban structure and cosmology, one thousand years of historical writing, and diverse archaeological materials, Wang provides both an exemplary history of Quanzhou and a uniquely Chinese paradigm for civilizational studies.

Introduction The carp: empire and the culture of commerce, 712-1368 Casting the net: pu and the foundations of local control, 960-1400 Pujing and the civilizing process of the ming, 1368-1520 Heaven on earth: pujing and worship platforms Local worlds at the margin, 1400-1644 Unorthodox cults and the expulsion of demons, 1500-1644 congregations of gods, rule of division, 1644-1720 Pujing feuds, 1720-1839 The ceremonial redemption, 1840-1896 Conclusion.