Empire and Local Worlds: A Chinese Model for Long-Term Historical Anthropology / Edition 1

by Mingming Wang

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598744040
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/15/2009
Series:	UCL Institute of Archaeology Critical Cultural Heritage Series
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mingming Wang is Professor of Anthropology at Peking University. He is also director of the National Center for Anthropological and Ethnological Inquiries located at Central Minzu University in Beijing and chief editor of Chinese Review of Anthropology. He has a Ph.D. from University of London and is author of many articles and books on Chinese anthropology, history, and sociology in both Chinese and English, including Social Anthropology and Sinology (1997, in Chinese), Grassroots Charisma (2001, in English, co-authored with Stephan Feuchtwang), Beyond Rural China (2003, In Chinese), and The West as Other (2007, in Chinese). He also writes political comments and travelogues.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 2 The Carp: Empire and the Culture of Commerce, 712–1368 3 Casting the Net: Pu and the Foundations of Local Control, 960–1400 4 Pujing and the "Civilizing Process" of the Ming, 1368–1520 5 Heaven on Earth: Pujing and Worship Platforms 6 Local Worlds on the Margin, 1400–1644 7 Unorthodox Cults and the Expulsion of Demons, 1500–1644 8 "Congregations of the Gods," Rule of Division, 1644–1720 9 Pujing Feuds, 1720–1839 10 The Ceremonial Redemption, 1840–1896 11 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

China’s most prolific published writer of anthropological studies, essays, and histories,…Wang Mingming reverses the perspective of historical anthropologists who, even when they are as enlightened as Marshal Sahlins, still take European civilisation as a template. Wang Mingming takes Chinese civilisation as his template and comments on Sahlins, Norbert Elias, Eric Wolf and many others as he writes the city of Quanzhou into a history of China and its maritime trade….This is a pioneering work of urban and historical anthropology. It is the work of a highly accomplished and refreshingly non-Western anthropologist.” —From the Foreword by Stephan Feuchtwang

From the Publisher