Ritual and Economy in East Asia: Archaeological Perspectives


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Series: Ideas, Debates, and Perspectives
ISBN: 978-1-950446-40-7 (print), 978-1-950446-41-4 (eBook)
Publication Date: Jul 2023
Price: Hb $100, eBook $80
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Anke Hein, Rowan Flad, Bryan K. Miller

In commemoration of Lothar von Falkenhausen’s 60th birthday, this volume assembles eighteen scholarly essays that explore the intersection between art, economy, and ritual in ancient East Asia. The contributions are clustered into four themes: “Ritual Economy,” “Ritual and Sacrifice,” “Technology, Community, Interaction,” and “Objects and Meaning,” which collectively reflect the theoretical, methodological, and historical questions that Falkenhausen has been examining via his scholarship, research, and teaching throughout his career.

Most of the chapters work with archaeological and textual data from China, but there are also studies of materials from Mongolia, Korea, Southeast Asia and even Egypt, showing the global impact of Falkenhausen’s work. The chronological range of studies extends from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age in China, into the early imperial, medieval, and early modern periods. The authors discuss art, economy, ritual, interaction, and technology in the broad context of East Asian archaeology and its connection to the world beyond.
Table of Contents

Preface: To Lothar Li Shuicheng

Chapter 1. Introduction: Ritual and Economy in East Asian Archaeology Rowan Flad and Anke Hein

Part I: Ritual Economy

Chapter 2. Uncovering Disguised Social Inequality: An Investigation of the Bronze Age Cemetery at Donghuishan Wen Chenghao

Chapter 3. On the Margins of the Chinese World: The Bronze, Iron, and Gold of the Xi Rong at Majiayuan Alain Thote

Chapter 4. Ritual Economies of Peripheral East Asia: Reflections on Mahan Mortuary Archaeology Jack Davey

Chapter 5. State Regulations or Human Sentiment: The Disappearance of Funerary Figurines in Ninth Century Chang’an and Luoyang Ye Wa

 

Part II: Ritual and Sacrifice

Chapter 6. No Sacrifice Too Great: A Measured Speculation on the Motive behind the Great Sanxingdui Hoards Richard Ehrich

Chapter 7. Raw Material Hoards, Ritual Deposits, or Disturbed Burials? Object Pits in the Mountains of Southwest China Anke Hein

Chapter 8. The Zooarchaeology of Oracle Bone Divination in Northwest China Katherine Brunson, Li Zhipeng, Rowan Flad, Qiao Hong, and Wang Qianqian

Chapter 9. Emergence of Chime-bells and Li-yue in the Zhou Dynasty Kazuo Miyamoto

Chapter 10. Consuming the Herds: Animal Sacrifice and Offerings of the Xiongnu Bryan K. Miller

 

Part III: Technology, Community, Interaction

Chapter 11. Long-Distance Influences and Local Adoption: Technological Innovation in Ritual and Economy in Late Prehistoric Northwest China Rowan Flad

Chapter 12. Organization of Copper Mining and Smelting along the Middle Yangzi River Shi Tao

Chapter 13. Erlitou and Nanwa: Contextualizing White Ceramics in Early Bronze Age China  Lee Hsiu-ping

Chapter 14. Archaeology of Community: Changing Settlement Patterns from the Yingpanshan to the Shi’erqiao Period in Ancient Sichuan, China Lin Kuei-chen

Chapter 15. China for Asia: Bencharong and Peranakan Porcelains in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Ellen Hsieh

 

Part IV: Objects and Meaning

Chapter 16. The Xi’an Kharoṣṭhī Inscription: A New Translation Minku Kim

Chapter 17. Solidified Qi Clouds: Reconsideration of the Form and Name of Boshan Incense Burners Zhang Hanmo

Chapter 18. “What Was the Nicest Thing You Ever Found?” An Essay on the Meaning of Objects Hans Barnard

Epilogue: The Number 60 and the Beginning of Everything Willeke Wendrich

Afterword Lothar von Falkenhausen