Empires and Diversity: On the Crossroads of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History - Paperback

by Gregory E. Areshian (Editor)

For more than four thousand years, empires have been geographically the largest polities on Earth, shaping in many respects the human past and present in different epochs and on different continents. Covering the time span from the second millennium B.C.E. to the sixteenth century C.E., and geographic areas from China to South America, the case studies included in this volume demonstrate the necessity to combine perspectives from the longue duree and global comparativism with the theory of agency and an understanding of specific contexts for human actions. Contributions from leading scholars examine salient aspects of the Hittite, Assyrian, Ancient Egyptian, Achaemenid and Sasanian Iranian, Zhou to Han Dynasty Chinese, Inka, and Mughal empires.

Front Jacket

For more than four thousand years, empires have been geographically the largest polities on Earth, which in many respects have been shaping human past and present in different epochs and on different continents. This book contributes to the de-Westernization of the scholarly criticism of empires and imperialism by exploring the variability in imperial formations and interactions between the conquerors and the conquered.

Author Biography

Gregory E. Areshian holds faculty and research appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles, presently combining academic activities with the position of the Assistant Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the editor of Backdirt, the Annual Review of the Cotsen Institute.