Subprojects B09 (Bamboo and Wood as Writing Materials in Early China) and B10 (Rolls for the King) of the CRC 933 “Material Text Cultures” at Heidelberg University seek to explore the materiality of rulership and administration in the Pre-Modern World. While Michael Clanchy’s seminal study From Memory to Written Record set the groundwork for research into record keeping and pragmatic literacy, more recent research has drawn attention to the significance of materiality. Building upon these developments, we wish to take this research a step further through transcultural comparison. The workshop seeks to address questions regarding the nature and scope of the relationship between rulership and administration and the materiality of their records. We want to tackle this issue with a transcultural comparison in order to widen the horizon of our individual fields of research, seeking to explore consistencies (or dissimilarities) of practice between different times and cultures. The basic question would ask if there is an anthropological constant or if people in different times and cultures sought to express and undertake the written records of rulership and administration through materiality differently. By working within a transcultural framework, we seek to be able to cover a broader range of political and cultural systems, which would otherwise not be possible.

This workshop will be held online via HeiConf and consists of pre-circulated papers. If you would like to participate, please email Abby Armstrong (abby.armstrong@uni-heidelberg.de).

CONTACT

Dr Abigail Armstrong – SFB 933 – TP B10
abby.armstrong@uni-heidelberg.de

Chun Fung Tong – SFB 933 – TP B09
ib446@uni-heidelberg.de