• Walter POHL – Andre GINGRICH (Eds.) - Annamaria Pazienza - Irene Bavuso - Clemens Gantner - Cinzia Grifoni (Guest Eds.)

medieval worlds • no. 20 • 2024

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"medieval worlds" provides a forum for comparative, interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Its aim is to overcome disciplinary boundaries, regional limits and national research traditions in Medieval Studies, to open up new spaces for discussion, and to help developing global perspectives. We focus on the period from c. 400 to 1500 CE but do not stick to rigid periodization.
medieval worlds is open to submissions of broadly comparative studies and matters of global interest, whether in single articles, companion papers, smaller clusters, or special issues on a subject of global/comparative history. We particularly invite studies of wide-ranging connectivity or comparison between different world regions.

Apart from research articles, medieval worlds publishes ongoing debates and project and conference reports on comparative medieval research.


In this volume S. Liccardo and S. Wabnitz provide an in-depth study of Western and Chinese sources on marriage strategies, especially levirate in the early Middle Ages, drawing on anthropological insights and providing historical context for the latest results of archaeogenetic research.

Our thematic section Moving Jobs: Occupational Identity and Motility in the Middle Ages was collected by guest editors Annamaria Pazienza and Irene Bavuso and focuses on the mobility of people in connection with their work. It offers case studies on the Southern Tarim Basin (T. Høisæter), central Greece (G. Wu), Italy (A. Pazienza) and southern Germany (W. North). A second instalment of this section will follow in December 2025.

In our second thematic section Cultural Brokers in European and Asian Contexts. Investigating a Concept guest editors Clemens Gantner and Cinzia Grifoni present contributions which explore this possible approach to agents of knowledge transfer in the context of their disciplines: K. Schaeffer in Tibetan Buddhist history, Ch. Pecchia in Colonial South Asia, C. Grifoni in early medieval Francia and C. Gantner in early medieval Italy/Byzantium. Introductions to both clusters provide methodological context and comparative insights.

Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: verlag@oeaw.ac.at

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medieval worlds • no. 20 • 2024

ISSN 2412-3196
Online Edition

ISBN 978-3-7001-9704-1
Online Edition



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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
A-1011 Wien, Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2,
Tel. +43-1-515 81/DW 3420, Fax +43-1-515 81/DW 3400
https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at, e-mail: bestellung.verlag@oeaw.ac.at
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Cultural Brokers and Other Historiographic Metaphors: Perspectives from Indo-Tibetan Cultural History

    Kurtis R. Schaeffer

medieval worlds • no. 20 • 2024, pp. 109-125, 2024/06/27

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no20_2024s109

doi: 10.1553/medievalworlds_no20_2024s109


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doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no20_2024s109



doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no20_2024s109

Abstract

This contribution discusses the two analytical concepts of »Indo-Tibetan« Buddhism and »cultural broker«, and shows how both can (still) be usefully applied. The term »Indo- Tibetan« Buddhism, though today outdated, can help us to describe specific configurations in the history of Buddhism. The use of the concept of »cultural broker«, which developed in the field of social anthropology and was adopted in the field of historical studies, is shown as problematic when its scope becomes very wide. The more detailed operative definition that is offered as a result of this in-depth analysis is then tested on the case of the iconic early Tibetan Buddhist monk, translator, and traveler Vairocana. When delimited by precise criteria, the broker concept can structure and guide our investigations and helpfully illuminate pivotal moments in history, as it does in the case of the history of »Indo-Tibetan« Buddhism.

Keywords: cultural broker(age), knowledge exchange, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Vairocana