Overview

This book examines the construction of space and place in early China and the ancient Mediterranean through the lens of performances conducted in specific locations. It highlights conceptions of place and performance, seeing both as crucial to the production of cultural meaning and communal cohesion, and as heavily dependent on the prevailing political culture. Whether urban or rural, global or local, central or fringe, public or private, real or imagined, theatrical or ritual, the places and performances highlighted serve to show both commonalities and differences between the ancient Mediterranean and early China. The range of places of comparison is also very diverse, including roads, gardens, neighbourhoods, hydraulic infrastructures, funerary performance, spectacles at court, and the everyday display of authority through clothing and fashion. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hans Beck (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany) ,  Griet Vankeerberghen (McGill University, Montréal)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009390026

ISBN 10:   1009390023
Pages:   448
Publication Date:   30 November 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release. This is a print on demand item which is still yet to be released.

Table of Contents

List of figures; List of contributors; Series editors' preface; Editors' preface; Introduction: place and performance. Comparative remarks on Greece, Rome, and China Hans Beck and Griet Vankeerberghen; Part I. Crafting Space and Place: 1. Theories of place across time and space: urban form in Ancient Rome and Han China Amy Russell; 2. Local administration, history, and geography in the Han and Roman Empires: Ban Gu's Dili Zhi and Strabo's Geographika Luke Habberstad; Part II. Performances of Power: 3. Power and its trappings in the Han and Roman Bureaucracies Taco Terpstra; 4. The 'Performance' of agricultural labor in Ancient Rome and Han China Darian Marie Totten; 5. Foreigners, spectacles, and imperial performance: Nero and emperor Wu of the Han Zhou Yiqun; 6. The maiden and the mirror: exploring aspects of gendered social performance in the works of Plutarch and Sima Qian Chandra Giroux; Part III. Urban Places: 7. Neighborhood life in Imperial Rome and Han Chang'an Ryan R. Abrecht; 8. Society, cities, and the significance of 'Sacred Roads' in Archaic Greece, in the Chinese Qin and Han Empires and in the Archaic States of the Middle East Martin Mohr; 9. Hydropolitical engineering in Rome and Chang'an. Water flows in the shape of power Jordan Christopher; 10. Imperial gardens in Early Roman and Chinese Empires: a comparative study Wentian Fu; Part IV. Fringe Places and Endpoints: 11. Imitating the emperor? Cities and client kings in the Hellenistic East and the Western Regions of the Han Realm Alex McAuley; 12. Traces of Han and Roman Frontiers: documents from Vindolanda and Jianshui Jinguan Charles Sanft; 13. Money and the dead: coins and other money in Han Chinese and Imperial Roman Tombs and Funerals Tian Tian; 14. Displaying the dead: funeral processions, tombs, performance and place in Ancient Rome and China Armin Selbitschka; Index.

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Author Information

HANS BECK is Professor and Chair of Greek History at the University of Münster and Adjunct Professor at McGill University, Montreal. He has published widely on local and global constellations in the ancient world, including Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China (Cambridge, co-edited with Griet Vankeerberghen). Among other distinctions, he is the recipient of the Anneliese Maier Research Prize, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute. GRIET VANKEERBERGHEN is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Classical Studies of McGill University. She is co-editor of Chang'an 26 BCE: an Augustan Age in China (2015) and Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China (Cambridge, 2021).

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