Objects of Action and the Practice of Empire in Xiongnu Inner Asia

Summary

Material remains of communities and peoples enmeshed in imperial regimes are most often assessed as representations of incorporation into empires. Yet many of the objects in consideration were not so much passive material declarations as they were tools for active demonstrations. Authority, regional and local, derived from membership in exclusive imperial echelons; membership that required more than mere badges of identity but performances of imperially-derived authority. This paper addresses the ways in which locals enacted empire as well as what they sought to gain from doing so. It analyses particular accoutrements of feasting and drinking wielded by steppe peoples of Inner Asia in formalized social interactions aimed at legitimizing authority via participation in the Xiongnu imperial regime. Even though they were often heavily imbued with imperial aesthetics, it was not the cups and bowls alone but rather the practices of drinking ceremonies and eating rituals, afforded by the imperially-imbued objects and the people that wielded them, which bestowed power and authority. The steppe empire was thus constituted through the practices of locally (re)producing the regime, practices that were afforded by assemblies of particular peoples and objects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21203