Entanglements of Empire

Abstract

C ross-cultural engagements have the power to initiate radical social change.Oft en fraught, rife with miscommunication, and marred by violence, encounters and entanglements between formerly unconnected peoples have frequently proven to be transformative moments in world history, occasions that have profound and oft en unexpected consequences, that are both material and cosmological.If we survey the last millennium of the global past, we see that such encounters have enabled the transfer of plants, animals, and germs, the diff usion of commodities and technologies, and the creation of a host of new trading relationships that created new forms of interdependence that linked previously disparate groups.Th ese material exchanges have initiated far-reaching ecological modifi cations, as they have driven both tragic depopulation and sustained population growth, made fortunes and impoverished communities, and enabled the rise and fall of states and empires.Even though much historical work on cross-cultural encounters has documented their material consequences, both spectacular and horrifi c, we must not overlook the far-reaching but oft en elusive nature of the cosmological change that such meetings initiated.Meetings with newcomers, especially where those transitioned from brief encounters to lasting engagements, oft en undercut long-established pieties and created new spiritual orders.Encountering strangers has frequently called Introduction bodies in contact, bodies in question

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