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Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 C.E.
Author(s): Jerry H. Bentley
Source: Journal of World History, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Fall, 1998), pp. 237-254
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Hemispheric
Integration,
500-1500
c-e-*
JERRY H. BENTLEY
University
ofHawa?i
an article on "The Inter
1963 Marshall G. S. Hodgson
published
a vigorous
in
relations
of
Societies
registered
History."1 Hodgson
IN
vision
Eurocentric
the
that
of
the
traced the
about
past
complaint
mainstream
from
of historical
and
Mesopotamia
Egypt to
development
western
which
then
and
lands,
Greece,
Rome,
European
spread their
an
the
As
and
world.
alternative
values
power, influence,
throughout
the past in the context of a vast Afro
scholars to understand
zone of cultivation,
For almost
urban life, and interaction.
from iooo b.c.e. to 1800 ce., Hodgson
three millennia,
argued, inter
connections
of Europe,
the societies
southwest Asia,
between
India,
in technological
that pro
and cultural diffusions
and China
resulted
the eastern
influenced
historical
throughout
foundly
development
on
his
these interconnections,
By concentrating
analysis
hemisphere.
he urged
Eurasian
torians
of individual
societies,
including
place the development
context.
in
society,
pertinent
European
in his
offered only a brief outline of Afro-Eurasian
history
Hodgson
in hemispheric
from
sketched patterns
the
article?it
age of
history
*
ence
could
This article
of Historians
originated
(London,
as a presentation
July 1997) and
at the Sixty-sixth
Anglo-American
the Midwest
Medieval
Conference
Illinois, September
1997).
1
"The Interrelations
of Societies
G. S. Hodgson,
Marshall
in the
Studies in Society and History
5 (1963):
227-50;
reprinted
of Hodgson's
collection
essays, Rethinking World History:
Essays on
ed. Edmund Burke III (Cambridge,
History,
1993), pp. 3-28. This
some ideas Hodgson
in an earlier essay, "Hemispheric
had explored
in History,"
Confer
(Peoria,
Comparative
posthumously
published
Islam, and World
Europe,
article developed
further
as
History
Interregional
1 (1954):
an Approach
toWorld
715-23. On Hodgson
History," Cahiers d'histoire mondiale
as a world historian,
see Edmund Burke III, "Marshall G. S. Hodgson
and the Hemispheric
toWorld History," Journal ofWorld History 6 (1995): 237-50.
Interregional
Approach
Journal ofWorld History, Vol. 9, No. 2
of Hawai'i Press
by University
?1998
237
JOURNAL
238
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
to the era of the gunpowder
societies
the ancient
empires
river-valley
in about eight pages?but
he did not shrink from describing
it as "closer
to a true world history
than is the traditional
historical
image of the
narrative
West."
the
of
the
Hodgson's
empires,
building
emphasized
and the diffusion
of
traditions,
spread of religious and philosophical
the
Alexander
and
empire builders,
technologies.
Among
Chinggis
mention
in his capsule hemispheric
Khan merited
by name
history,
which also made room for technologies
chariots, mold-board
involving
and gunpowder. About
half of his
printing,
plows, paper, compasses,
account
focused on cultural traditions of the axial age and the spread
of universal
religious faiths.
Some might
for an unnuanced
fault Hodgson
of reli
understanding
as
a
and
cultural
which
he
rather
gious
exchanges,
presented
unprob
universal
lematic spread of sophisticated
religions to peoples harboring
notion
simpler beliefs. Others might notice an excessively mechanical
an
in
It is possible,
of technological
diffusion.
that
alter
too,
seeking
to the Eurocentric
native
an Islam-centered
world
eties,
vision
of the past, Hodgson
inclined
toward
soci
that
obscured
the
roles
of
other
history
even
an
India and China,
if it clearly registered
particularly
on Eurocentric
historical
improvement
analysis.
In spite of these reservations,
article posed a
however, Hodgson's
that
but
has not yet
historical
challenge
scholarship
sorely needed
as
am
met.
I
So
far
and
aware, the only scholarly, analytical,
entirely
that works along lines similar to those
world history
comprehensive
isWilliam
H. McNeill's
Rise of theWest: A His
envisioned
by Hodgson
same year as Hodg
Human
which
the
the
tory of
Community,
appeared
son's article on the interrelations
societies.2 And
of Afro-Eurasian
the
even
various
notion
that
the
world's
lingers
began to
peoples
today
recent
In
interact
his
The
after
book
Clash of
1492.
intensively
only
R
for
Samuel
made
this
Civilizations,
point in no
Huntington
example,
uncertain
civilizations
terms: "During most of human
existence,
or nonexistent."3
were intermittent
contacts
between
2
William
The Rise of theWest: A History
H. McNeill,
(Chi
of the Human Community
in
his vision of world history
of Hodgson:
cago, 1963). McNeill
independently
developed
to The Rise of theWest
that he had conceived
the
he mentioned
the preface
(pp. vii-viii)
in 1954. See also
it with
in 1936 and had begun writing
the aid of research grants
book
in uThe Rise of theWest
after Twenty-five
reflections
McNeill's
Years," Journal ofWorld His
1-21.
tory 1 (1990):
3Later
in his book Huntington
"For more
this point:
than three thousand
softened
some excep
the contacts
them were, with
first emerged,
among
years after civilizations
or limited or intermittent
P. Hunting
and intense." See Samuel
tions, either nonexistent
ton, The Clash
of Civilizations
and the Remaking
ofWorld
Order
(New York,
1996),
pp. 21, 48.
Bentley:
Two
Hemispheric
Integration,
features
of historical
500-1500
scholarship
of this notion. One
ing the persistence
I call "modernocentrism"?an
239
go a long way toward explain
is a kind of modernist
bias that
enchantment
of modern
the processes
ce.
with
the modern
world
and
that has hindered
from
many historians
history
in
interactions
of
earlier
the
cross-cultural
recognizing
significance
states and indi
times. The other is the powerful
influence of national
vidual societies, which professional
historians have taken almost exclu
have paid insuf
sively as the focus of their work. As a result, historians
across
to processes
their influence
that have worked
states and individual
societies and that
lines of national
to
toward integration.
This article will draw attention
instances
it
several specific
of modernocentrism
and the distortions
not
it
has caused for the analysis of the period 500-1500
and
will
ce.,
to trespass the boundary
in the
hesitate
lines of individual
societies
interests of outlining
the effects and the significance
of large-scale his
torical processes.
cross
A rapidly expanding
literature explores
body of scholarly
ficient
attention
the boundary
push societies
interactions
that transcend
and processes
individual
states,
and
cultural
This
literature
confirms
the conviction
societies,
regions.
of Hodgson
and McNeill
that a hemispheric
and
perspective
deepens
enriches
the understanding
of the past before modern
times. More par
it throws light on the political
and social structures
that
ticularly,
served as foundations
for cross-cultural
and it illuminates
interactions,
such as long-distance
and cul
processes,
trade, biological
diffusions,
tural exchanges,
that profoundly
influenced
the lives of individuals and
the development
of their societies
the eastern hemisphere
throughout
?
ce.
the
millennium
the
the col
500-1500
during
period between
such as the Han and Roman
societies,
lapse of classical
empires, and
in early modern
the establishment
of a genuinely
times.
global economy
Taken
this
literature
that
interactions
cross-cultural
suggests
together,
in the eastern hemi
brought about an impressive degree of integration
cultural
sphere well
before modern
times.
the viewpoint
of structures that supported cross-cultural
interac
ce.
two
the
into
falls
tions,
period 500-1500
fairly equal halves.4 For
the first half-millennium,
both political and economic
foundations
facil
were the large,
interactions.
itated cross-cultural
Political
foundations
From
stable societies
4 For a historical
Cultural
(1996):
Interaction
749-70
organized
by centralized
from a global
periodization
inWorld
and Periodization
imperial
point
states?particularly
the
of view, see Jerry H. Bentley,
"Cross
101
American
Review
Historical
History,"
JOURNAL
240
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
and the Abbasid
and
Tang empire in China
empire in southwest Asia,
to a lesser extent
the Byzantine
empire in the eastern Mediterranean
in western
basin and even the Carolingian
empire
Europe. The eco
were
nomic foundations
the overland
trade networks
linking east Asia
and the eastern Mediterranean
region by the silk roads and the emerg
trade networks
of the Indian Ocean
basin. The
ing maritime
imperial
states promoted
in a way similar to
overland
trade and communication
the Han, Kushan, Seleucid,
and Roman
Parthian,
empires of an earlier
a great deal more cross-cultural
interaction
than
era, but they promoted
their classical
the exception
With
of the Carolingian
predecessors.
that were far more productive
empire, they all presided over societies
than their predecessors.
of transportation
Furthermore,
technologies
re
lowered
trade: the camel
the costs of long-distance
increasingly
as
the
the
beast
horse
of
thus
the
burden,
increasing
placed
principal
of overland
of sea lanes and
transport, and the establishment
efficiency
in the Indian Ocean
of maritime
the development
trade networks
to travel and trade.5
opened new and cheaper avenues
The framework
sketched here works best for temperate and tropical
to the eastern Mediterranean
Eurasia from east Asia
region; it has a
more limited application
for outlying areas, including Japan, the islands
of southeast Asia, western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. These
lands
in
sometimes
the
economy,
larger hemispheric
participated
although
to the same extent as the societies
embraced by
indirectly and never
links brought Japan and the islands
the large imperial states. Maritime
influence of China:
of southeast Asia under the economic
already by
demand drove a thriving market
the late fourth century ce. Chinese
in the fine spices (cloves, nutmeg,
from Maluku,
and mace)
and by the
in regular trade with China
seventh century Japan engaged
and Korea.
more
Western
Europe and sub-Saharan Africa
participated
indirectly
in the larger hemispheric
economy, Europe by way of Frisian and Scan
intermediaries
and west Africa by way of trans-Saharan
camel
dinavian
caravan.
to promote cross-cultural
interaction
Large imperial states continued
in the half-millennium
from iooo to 1500 ce., but the states in ques
structures
tion were transregional nomadic
empires rather than political
5On
see Richard W
camel
and theWheel
The Camel
Bulliet,
transport
(Cambridge,
or Eurasian Transpor
H. McNeill,
"The Eccentricity
of Wheels,
1975); and William
in Historical
1111-26.
American
Historical
Review 92 (1987):
On
the
Perspective,"
see K. N. Chaudhuri,
in the Indian
Trade and Civilisation
Indian Ocean
trading network,
Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge,
1985).
Mass.,
tation
Bentley:
Hemispheric
Integration,
500-1500
ce.
241
societies. From the tenth through the
arising from settled agricultural
sixteenth
century, nomadic
Jurchens, Tanguts, Mon
Saljuqs, Khitans,
and others embarked on
Safavids,
gols, Timurids, Ottomans,
Mughals,
a remarkable round of empire building
that shaped Eurasian affairs from
seas to the Danube River. The nomadic
the China
empires had a mixed
trade. They brought
turmoil and destruction
legacy for long-distance
to settled agricultural
in
China
and southwest
societies,
especially
Yet
of the
lost considerable
Asia, which
many
capacity.
productive
nomadic
empire builders placed high value on trade and diplomacy,
to merchants
and their states offered special protection
and other trav
the volume
of overland
trade across Eurasia prob
elers. On balance,
nomadic
empires. And
ably increased during the era of transregional
seas and the Indian Ocean
as
maritime
trade in the China
burgeoned,
in
nautical
and
commercial
organization
improvements
technology
to sea transport.
increased efficiencies
brought
Enhanced
the outlying
lands of Japan, the
transport
integrated
western
southeast Asian
and
sub-Saharan
Africa more
islands,
Europe,
into
before
the
than
Increased
economy.
larger hemispheric
directly
east
into
drew
Africa
southeast
and
sub-Saharan
Asia,
Japan,
shipping
seas and the Indian Ocean,
the trade networks
of the China
while
increased trade and
larger and more frequent camel caravans
nication with sub-Saharan west Africa.
European merchants,
took advantage
of the Mongol
aries, and diplomats
empires
lands,
throughout much of Eurasia. In most of these outlying
of regional states.
trade helped finance the establishment
commu
mission
to travel
increased
structures supported a range of cross
and commercial
These political
cultural interactions
that influenced
individual
lives and social organ
ization throughout
Here the focus will fall on
the eastern hemisphere.
to do with
interactions
exchanges?commercial,
having
biological,
societies.
and cultural exchanges?between
peoples of different
The
interactions
is long
best
studied
of these cross-cultural
distance
trade. Yet the understanding
of cross-cultural
trade in the
ce.
cur
suffers from a bit of conventional
wisdom
period 500-1500
rent among economic
times. While
of modern
historians
acknowledg
over
in
that
trade
distances
times, many
ing
passed
long
premodern
that it was relatively
for one reason or an
have held
insignificant
other. Economic
historians
have argued variously
that the volume of
trade was too small to have economic
that it mostly
significance,
rather
than
basic
involved
that it was
commodities,
"luxury" goods
an
economic
affair
of
and
elites, and that it did not
largely
political
JOURNAL
242
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
a division
of labor or lead to the restructuring
of economies
generate
and societies.6
This view assumes an anachronistic
against the stan
comparison
to
it
dard of modern
and
leads
of cross
commerce,
misunderstanding
in premodern
times. For one thing,
cultural trade and its significance
economic
modernocentric
historians
overlook
the point
that cross
far beyond economics.
Trade facilitated
implications
and
cultural
that profoundly
exchanges
biological,
technological,
in
influenced
all societies
cross-cultural
trade.
Besides
that,
engaged
commodities
and luxurious
served as markers
rare, exotic,
expensive,
and social status. Even
if its economic
value was slight,
of political
enormous
in
in
trade
and social significance
luxury goods had
political
cultural
premodern
trade had
times.7
the volume of premodern
economic
historians
have
trade was much
larger than
Scat
generally
recognized.
survive about individuals
like the merchant
tered bits of information
of C?rdoba
who made his hajj in 908, then trav
scholar al-Marwani
on
ventures. His profits amounted
commercial
eled to Iraq and India
to 30,000 dinars, all of which he lost in a shipwreck during his return
to al-Andalus.8 Even more impressive was the experience
of the twelfth
Furthermore,
modernocentric
Ramisht
of Siraf, who amassed a huge per
century Persian merchant
and enjoyed a repu
sonal fortune from long-distance
trading ventures
tation as the wealthiest
of his age. One
and most prestigious merchant
less prosperous
than Ramisht himself, once
of his clerks, who was much
a cargo
to China
to Siraf from a commercial
with
returned
voyage
a new
a
Ramisht
million
dinars. In 532/1137-38
worth half
provided
cover
cost
him 18,000 Egyp
for the Ka'ba that reportedly
Chinese
silk
6 Some
trade seriously:
take premodern
studies
see, for example,
Philip D. Curtin,
A Mediterranean
Trade inWorld History
Cross-Cultural
1984); S. D. Goitein,
(Cambridge,
in the Documents
of the Cairo
Society: The Jewish Communities
of the Arab World as Portrayed
The
6 vols. (Berkeley,
Geniza,
Janet L. Abu-Lughod,
1967-93);
Before European Hegemony:
The Traditional
World
(New York,
System, A.D. 1250-1350
1989); and C. G. F. Simkin,
that premodern
trade was a
wisdom
Trade of Asia
(London,
1968). Yet the conventional
of the point from radi
remains
strong. For several expressions
activity
fairly insignificant
see Immanuel Wallerstein,
The Modern World
theoretical
perspectives,
cally different
How
It All Began:
1:19-21,
39-42; W. W. Rostow,
(New York, 1974-89),
System, 3 vols.
A Concise
(New York, 1975), pp. 14-15; Rondo Cameron,
Economy
Origins
of theModern
Economic History
of theWorld from Paleolithic Times to the Present (New York, 1989), pp. 32
Societies (Oxford,
and Patricia Crone,
Pre-Industrial
33-34.
33, 78, 121-22;
1989), pp. 22-24,
7For
see Bentley,
and
"Cross-Cultural
Interaction
of these points,
discussion
expanded
in World
of Jane
See also the important
article
Periodization
pp. 752-56.
History,"
a Pre-capitalist
World
"Was There
Schneider,
System?" Peasant Studies 6 (1977): 20-29.
8Olivia
Remie Constable,
Trade and Traders inMuslim
Spain: The Commercial
Realign
ment of the Iberian Peninsula,
goo-1500
1994), pp. 36, 80.
(Cambridge,
Bentley:
Hemispheric
Integration,
500-1500
ce.
243
tian dinars, and he also founded a hospice
and a religious sanctuary in
also
Mecca.9 Numerous
textual descriptions
testify that cities such as
Quanzhou,
Guangzhou,
Palembang,
Cairo, Constantinople,
Alexandria,
centers.
mercial
Calicut, Cambay, Baghdad, Aden,
com
were bustling
and Venice
have shed revealing
the texts, archaeologists
light
beyond
sites of premodern
trade by digging up their remains, and the
size of postclassical
trading centers reflects high levels of commercial
a port city on the Persian
at Siraf, for example,
activity. Excavations
south of Shiraz, have revealed
Gulf coast of Iran about 220 kilometers
a thriving city surrounded
exclu
by desert, whose wealth
depended
Going
on some
of Siraf traded in India before the
sively on commerce. The merchants
in China
and
and
eighth century,
they probably began to trade directly
east Africa
On
the
basis
of
this
about the mid-eighth
trade,
century.
the eighth and the twelfth centu
between
Siraf flourished
especially
was probably
in the tens of
its
ries. In the ninth
century
population
its
walls
embraced
about
hectares
and
thousands,
(almost one
250
the population
of Siraf in
square mile) of space. Apart from merchants,
cluded shipwrights, weavers, metalworkers,
and
potters. One
jewelers,
kilns.
the
ninth
of Siraf
had
residents
pottery
century
thirty
During
built a great mosque
and a bazaar, and they set their tables with
from China.
the port of Dorestad
porcelain
imported
Similarly,
at
of
located
the
confluence
the
Lek
and Rhine
(Duurstede),
(Kromme
near
a
site
Rivers
of
modern
about 250 hectares
Utrecht,
Rijn)
occupied
in the eighth
centuries. Alongside
the rivers there were
and ninth
merchants'
leading to the waters, which
shops with plank wharves
to the North
Sea and the
and Carolingian
linked Dorestad
Europe
Baltic Sea.10
societies of China,
In the large, settled agricultural
India, south
west Asia,
and the eastern Mediterranean
trade
region, long-distance
was voluminous
to
the
of
industrial
organization
enough
help shape
to Mark Elvin, the thriving market economy
of
production.
According
to
"a
and
China
the
Chinese
become
peasantry
Tang
Song
encouraged
class of rational,
adaptable,
profit-oriented,
petty
entrepreneurs."
Partie
9
S. M. Stern, "Ramisht of Siraf, a Merchant
Millionaire
of the Twelfth Century,"
Jour
nal of the Royal Asiatic
10-14.
Society (1967):
10
On Siraf see two articles by David Whitehouse:
"Siraf: A Medieval
Port on the Per
2 (1970):
sian Gulf," World Archaeology
and "Siraf: A Medieval
141-58;
City on the Persian
see Richard
Storia d?lia citt? 1 (1976):
On Dorestad
and David
40-55.
Gulf,"
Hodges
and theOrigins of Europe: Archaeology
and the Pirenne
Whitehouse,
Mohammed,
Charlemagne
see also Richard Hodges,
Thesis (Ithaca,
Dark Age Economics:
pp. 133-41;
1983), especially
600-1000
The Origins of Towns and Trade, A.D.
(New York, 1982), especially
pp. 74-77.
244
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I 998
ularly in southern
tion of foodstuffs
or manufacturing
sometimes
China
the cultiva
abandoned
peasants
in favor of producing
and ramie textiles
silk, hemp,
paper, porcelain,
lacquer wares, or iron tools. Song
mention
records
individuals
who
industrial enter
built private
dynasty
on
a
Li
scale:
for
prises
large
remarkably
Fang,
example, who main
in his house,
tained 500 looms for the weaving
of silk damask
and
ran
an
some
who
that
Ke,
500
Wang
iron-smelting
foundry
employed
not counting miners, woodcutters,
furnace workers,
char
presumably
no doubt went
to
coal burners, and others. Much
of this production
domestic
but large quantities
of silk, porcelain,
and lac
consumers,
found their way to destinations
Eurasia
quer, in particular,
throughout
and the Indian Ocean
basin. Alongside
these luxury items, Chinese
included bulk commodities,
such as rice, sugar, copper, and
exports
iron goods. Some regions consciously
oriented production
of goods (for
and
the
toward
market.11
silk, porcelain,
export
example,
lychees)
structures also in India,
trade helped
Increasing
shape economic
southwest Asia,
and the eastern Mediterranean
region. K. N. Chau
dhuri has surveyed the geography of Asian
industrial production?par
drawn
ticularly in textiles, but also in metals,
glass, and ceramics?and
on
to
the
of
prominence
persuasively
central-place
analysis
explain
in India and China,
in the
steel production
silk production
cotton
in
River
manufacture
and
the
Yangzi
valley,
Punjab, Gujarat,
coast.12 Again,
and the Coromandel
cross-cultural
trade did
Bengal,
not account
in the large settled
for all of this economic
specialization
encour
economies
societies of Eurasia: sizable domestic
by themselves
rein
But
for
the
market.
cross-cultural
trade
certainly
aged production
iron and
forced
the tendency
toward
and fostered
increasing
specialization
eastern
in
economic
the
integration
hemisphere.
Cross-cultural
trade had both political
and economic
implications
that were centers of
also in lands beyond
the large settled societies
Demand
for raw materials,
industrial production.
luxury goods, and
economies
exotic products helped
local
and
forth timber
called
shape
from Japan; spices, exotic bird feathers, and tortoise shells
and mercury
from southeast Asia;
and slaves from northern
amber, furs, honey,
and gold, ivory, animal
skins, and slaves from sub-Saharan
Europe;
Africa. Because of high demand for these products,
trade
cross-cultural
soci
of states that organized
the building
these outlying
encouraged
11
Past: A Social and Economic
Mark
Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese
Interpretation
pp. 164-75.
(Stanford,
1973), especially
12K. N.
Asia before Europe: Economy
and Civilisation
Chaudhuri,
of the Indian Ocean
1990), pp. 297-337.
from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge,
Bentley:
Hemispheric
Integration,
500-1500
ce.
245
southeast Asia and east Africa,
ruling elites in port cities
to ensure a continu
their hinterlands
trade and organized
trade
finance Funan,
flow
Wealth
of
by
ing
helped
generated
goods.
in strategically
states
in
southeast
and
other
Srivijaya,
Asia?particularly
well as the
located sites in Java, Sumatra, and the Malay peninsula?as
east
Africa
after
the
twelfth
of
Swahili
century.13
city-states
independent
trade likely played a role also in the political
Cross-cultural
organ
eties.
In both
controlled
and David White
of early medieval
Europe. Richard Hodges
of
Bolin
that the Caro
the
Sture
house have recently revived
argument
on
Abbasid
silver
obtained
through
heavily
lingian empire depended
in exchange
for wine,
Frisian and Scandinavian
intermediaries
jugs,
in the Rhine valley. Frisian and
glassware, and stone querns produced
in their own
the Carolingian
Scandinavian
traders consumed
products
ization
for
the silver in the Abbasid
and obtained
empire in exchange
primary products and slaves from the north.14
it is clear, first, that contrary to conven
From these considerations
economic
trade was an affair of considerable
tional wisdom, premodern
society
that cross-cultural
trade integrated
the for
and, second,
significance
tunes and experiences
of societies
the eastern hemisphere.
throughout
trade goes far beyond economics.
Yet the significance
of cross-cultural
trade had
and cultural exchanges
leveraged by cross-cultural
Biological
and social effects of com
effects at least as important as the economic
merce
itself.
trade influenced
the struc
Integration
sponsored by cross-cultural
of societies and economies
the eastern
tural development
throughout
had mas
Integration
resulting from biological
exchanges
hemisphere.
sive demographic
and social effects similar to those that followed from
in later centuries. As in the case of cross-cul
the Columbian
exchange
a modernist
has
bias in historical
tural trade, however,
scholarship
in premodern
times.
the significance
of biological
obscured
exchange
once spoke of a microbial
Le Roy Ladurie,
for example,
Emmanuel
unification
of the world, which he dated to the period about 1300
1730 ce. because of the dramatic
spread of bubonic plague throughout
followed by the transmission
much of the eastern hemisphere,
of small
and Oceania.15
pox and other diseases to the Americas
13Kenneth
in Early Southeast Asia
R. Hall, Maritime
Trade and State Development
and Thomas
(Honolulu,
1985); Derek Nurse
Spear, The Swahili (Philadelphia,
1985).
14Sture
and Ruric,"
Scandinavian
Economic History
"Mohammed,
Bolin,
Charlemagne
1 (1953):
Review
and Whitehouse,
and the Origins
5-39; Hodges
Mohammed,
Charlemagne
of Europe.
15Emmanuel
Le Roy Ladurie,
"L'histoire
Annales.
Economies,
Soci?t?s,
immobile,"
Civilisations
29 (1974):
673-92,
especially
pp. 679-84.
246
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
1998
uni
These diseases certainly had dreadful effects, but the microbial
fication of the world and the exchange
of biological
species was a long
term process that began long before the fourteenth
century. Smallpox,
bubonic plague, and perhaps cholera, as well as other diseases,
measles,
all traveled
the trade routes and took heavy demographic
tolls from
ancient
times onward. The earliest persuasive
evidence
of smallpox
comes from three Egyptian mummies
dated between
1570 and 1085
or
for hundreds
B.c.E., and the disease may well have been in existence
even thousands of years by that time. It spread readily to complex
soci
eties throughout
India during the first millennium
Eurasia, reaching
and China
b.c.e.,
by the fifth century
by the third
commentators
Ancient
often confused
smallpox with
and the earliest clear distinction
between
the two came about
measles,
in the work of the Persian physician
Rhazes.
But Rhazes
910 ce.
ear
El
centuries
who
three
the
lived
Yahudi,
Jewish physician
quoted
before
the
tenth
lier, and it is clear that measles
ranged widely
long
in Sumer as early as
Indeed, measles may have originated
century ce.
to
the
River
Indus
3000 b.c.e. and may have
valley by 2500
spread
b.c.e. and to the Ganges River valley and the Mediterranean
basin by
1000 b.c.e.
It was most
the
diseases
that
caused
among
epi
likely
B.c.E., Greece
century b.c.e.
in China
in the second,
and the Roman
third, and
empire
ce.
it
fourth centuries ce.
had
500
By
certainly
spread throughout
is less clear. Some
Eurasia. The case of cholera
scholars believe
that
true cholera caused by Vibrio cholerae bacteria did not depart its home
land of India for a career in the larger world until the pandemics
of the
survive
but
of
nineteenth
from
choleralike
maladies
century,
reports
are
seems
to
and
there
of
what
many
tenth-century
Iraq,
descriptions
demics
in early modern
have been true cholera
Europe.16 In spite of gaps in
it is clear
the historical
that by the fourteenth
record,
century
as
well
had
crossed
microbes
and other biological
species
political
long
and cultural boundary
lines and had influenced
the development
of
societies throughout
the eastern hemisphere.
16On
see Donald
inHistory
R. Hopkins,
Princes and Peasants:
(Chi
Smallpox
see Andrew
and Mat
Cliff, Peter Haggett,
pp. 13-21. On measles
especially
An Historical Geography
Measles:
Viral Disease
Smallman-Raynor,
of a Major Human
H. McNeill,
(Garden
(Oxford,
pp. 45-54; William
Plagues and Peoples
1993), especially
in
and Robert
"Measles,"
pp. 117-18,
133-35;
J. Kim-Farley,
City, N.Y.,
1976), especially
F. Kiple,
Kenneth
ed., The Cambridge World History
(Cambridge,
1993),
of Human Disease
see Dhiman
in Cholera,
ed. Dhiman
On cholera
pp. 871-75.
Barua, "History of Cholera,"
smallpox
cago,
thew
1983),
Barua
and William
Asiatic
Cholera
1996),
"The
B. Greenough
III (New York, 1992), pp. 1-36; and G. C. Cook,
in
An Historical
of Human Genomic
and Social Structure,"
Determinant
Cholera:
ed. B. S. Drasar
and B. D. Forrest
and the Ecology of Vibrio
cholerae,
(London,
pp. 18-53.
Bentley:
Hemispheric
Integration,
500-1500
ce.
247
two kinds
of biological
involved
the
important
exchange
especially
transfer of food and industrial crops from tropical lands to new envi
in the subtropical
and temperate
ronments, mostly
regions of the east
ern hemisphere.
In one case information
survives to throw light on the
to the eleventh
circumstances
of biological
exchange.
According
During
the millennium
had
500-1500
ce.,
effects.
The
first
monk
Shi Wenying,
the Song emperor Zhenzong
rice from
learned about drought-resistant
ce.)
998-1022
to
and dispatched
(central Vietnam)
envoys
bring seeds to
Champa
rice had probably already reached China,
In fact, Champa
but
China.
its spread. As it turned out, Champa
facilitated
imperial encouragement
rice not only resisted drought but also grew in poorer soil and ripened
in China. Champa
in
rice matured
faster than the strains cultivated
to 150 days for Chinese
about 100 days, as opposed
rice, and selective
century
Buddhist
(reigned
in 60-80
in strains that matured
resulted
days. (Indeed, by
breeding
in 30 days.)
the nineteenth
there were strains that ripened
century
it had a very low gluten content
and did not store well,
Although
rice vastly increased harvests because cultivators
could grow
Champa
it on terraced hillsides
had gone unplanted,
that previously
and they
rice with other crops. In the far south they
could double-crop
Champa
even triple-cropped
sometimes
rice. Increased supplies of rice
Champa
to a demographic
contributed
where
the population
surge in China,
in the course of two centuries,
in
almost doubled
rising from 60 million
a century later and 115 million
the year 1000 to 100 million
1200.17
by
Other
westward
after the seventh
crops spread mostly
century,
or
to
from
Asia
southeast
southwest
India
the
Mediterra
Asia,
moving
nean basin, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. Although
often there is
it
little precise
information
about the circumstances
of their diffusion,
is clear
that they traveled
the realm of Islam.
readily
through
soldiers, administrators,
diplomats,
pilgrims, missionaries,
and others
traveled
the region from
migrants,
refugees,
throughout
India to Spain and Morocco.
The ground-breaking
work of Andrew
Watson
shows how their movements
facilitated
the spread of food and
industrial
in
the Islamic world. The
crops throughout
transplants
cluded staples, such as sorghum, sugarcane, and hard wheat; vegetables,
such as spinach, artichoke,
and eggplant;
tropical fruits, such as lemon,
Merchants,
17
On
see Ho Ping-ti,
rice and its effects
in China,
in
Rice
Champa
"Early-ripening
Economic History Review,
2nd ser., 9 (1956):
Mark Elvin, The
200-218;
History,"
Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford,
and Hugh R. Clark, Community,
1972), pp. 121-24;
Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century
Trade, and Networks:
(Cam
and Richard
bridge,
1991), pp. 153-55. The population
figures come from Colin McEvedy
(Harmondsworth,
Jones, Atlas ofWorld Population History
1978).
Chinese
248
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
lime, sour orange, banana,
and industrial
crops, such
coconut
and mango;
palm, watermelon,
as cotton,
The
food
indigo, and henna.
in
enriched diets throughout
the Islamic world and beyond
transplants
Mediterranean
and west Africa, while cotton had
Europe, east Africa,
economic
considerable
and commercial
of
Since many
significance.
to
it
the transplants
made
grew well only in hot weather,
they
possible
cultivate
lands in southwest Asia,
the southern Mediterranean,
and
Africa
and as
that formerly had lain fallow during the summer months,
a result they contributed
to increased agricultural
yields. As in China
of Champa
after the diffusion
rice, population
surged in the Islamic
world after the spread of these crops; land came under more
intense
and cities burgeoned.
of Baghdad may
The population
cultivation,
i million
in the ninth and tenth centuries,
have reached or exceeded
while
Isfahan,
and
of Cairo
stood at about 500,000,
and Merv, Nishapur,
Damascus
and
all
had
between
100,000
Basra,
populations
that
500,00o.18
not only from biological
benefited
Africa
exchanges
the
realm
of
but
also from pre-Islamic
mediated
diffusions
Islam,
by
across
The most
of
the Indian Ocean.
them
involved
important
which
accelerated
bananas,
migrations
encouraged
by Bantu-speaking
in
First domesticated
fuel demographic
expansion.
peoples and helped
in the early centuries ce.
and
southeast Asia, bananas entered Africa
the continent
between 500 and 1000. Malay
seafarers
spread throughout
to
east
sites
Africa
when
visited
coastal
bananas
probably brought
they
between
about 300 and 500 ce.
and colonized Madagascar
(Their voy
Sub-Saharan
continued
until about
ages to Madagascar
varieties
had become
well
of bananas
a nutritious
central Africa. They provided
1200.) By about 500 several
in eastern
established
and
to
of
the
diets
supplement
it
Bantu
and
also
made
for
the
cultivators,
they
possible
Bantu-speaking
to expand
into heavily
forested regions where yams did not grow well.
of sub-Saharan Africa clearly reflected the significance
population
human
there
numbers
of bananas. At
the turn of the millennium,
11 million.
ce.
risen
the
had
the
exceeded
year 500
By
population
12
1000
to
million.
after
banana
cultivation
had
about
ce.,
By
slightly
The
the continent,
sub-Saharan
population
spread throughout
22 million,
and by 1500 it stood at 35.5 million.19
of food crops underwrote
The diffusion
demographic
had passed
expansion,
18Andrew M.
Innovation
in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion
Watson,
of
Agricultural
700-1100
1983).
(Cambridge,
Crops and F arming Techniques,
19On
see
in
in
Paths
the
of bananas
sub-Saharan
the significance
Africa,
Jan Vansina,
in Equatorial Africa
(Madison,
1990), espe
of Political Tradition
Rainforests: Toward a History
and Jones, Atlas ofWorld Popu
figures are from McEvedy
cially pp. 61-65. The population
lation History.
Bentley:
Hemispheric
Integration,
unintentional
but a second,
so kind to human populations.
500-1500
type
The
ce.
249
was not
of biological
exchange
most dramatic cases of microbial
in the millennium
involved
the transmission
of
500-1500
exchange
case of bubonic plague was
bubonic plague. The first well-documented
the so-called plague of Justinian that broke out in 541 and ravaged the
Mediterranean
basin until the late eighth
century. Contemporaries
case it may have
that
the
plague came from Egypt, in which
reported
in the
trade routes from a focus of infection
traveled
trans-Saharan
or it might have arrived from India
Great Lakes region of east Africa,
and the Red Sea.
aboard merchant
ships sailing the Indian Ocean
its precise route, Justinian's plague spread rapidly through
Whatever
as
out the Mediterranean
basin and soon (in 547) sparked epidemics
at Constanti
far away as England and Ireland. It raged for four months
to Procopius,
nople, killing as many as 10,000 people per day, according
and claiming 300,000 victims, by the account of Evagrius Scholasticus.
of Tours reported that plague ravaged the Frankish kingdom
Gregory
in the 580s and 590s, striking Narbonne,
Marseilles,
Lyons, Bourges,
and Nantes,
among other places, and he men
Dijon, Avignon,
Angers,
at St.
the bodies of plague victims
tioned
that on a single Sunday
estimate
Peter's basilica in Clermont
numbered
that
300. Demographers
its
initial
the
reduced
the
(in 541-44)
during
onslaught
plague
popula
tion of Mediterranean
the eighth century
Europe by 20%-25%. After
the plague tailed off, but it did not entirely disappear: isolated epidemics
of plague struck Italy, southern France, and Spain between
the eleventh
centuries. Moreover,
and the early fourteenth
spread also to
plague
chroniclers
recorded five great
southwest Asia and east Asia. Muslim
in Iraq and Syria between
outbreaks of plague
627 and 717, and evi
some of them likely
dence
also survives of many
other epidemics,
or
the
caused by plague. By
late sixth
early seventh century plague had
reached coastal China, most
likely by way of Arab and Persian mer
chant ships, and periodic epidemics flared in port cities and in Guang
until at least the ninth
(in southern China)
century.
dong province
to Korea, Japan, and Tibet dur
its
extended
reach
Meanwhile,
plague
ing the seventh
century.20
20On
see
before the fourteenth
Justinian's
century,
plague and other plague epidemics
Pauline Allen,
"The 'Justinianic'
49 (1979): 5-20; J.-N. Bira
Plague," Byzantion
in the Early Middle
in Biology of Man
in
"The Plague
Jacques Le Goff,
Ages,"
ed. Robert
Forster and Orest Ranum
W.
(Baltimore,
History,
1975), pp- 48-80; Michael
in theMiddle East (Princeton,
Dois, The Black Death
1977), pp. 13-35; McNeill,
Plagues and
and Josiah C. Russell,
"That Earlier Plague," Demography
5 (1968):
pp. 123-28;
Peoples,
For Gregory
of Tours's reports, see his History
(New
174-84.
of the Franks, trans. E. Br?haut
especially
ben and
York,
1916),
early plague
4:31, 6:14, 9:21, 10:23, and 10:25, pp. 92, 154, 218,
see McNeill,
in China,
outbreaks
Plagues and Peoples,
244-45,
p. 134.
respectively.
On
JOURNAL
25?
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
1998
The pandemic
of the fourteenth
century iswell enough known that
it does not require extensive
discussion
here. Perhaps the most
impor
tant points for present purposes are, first, that fourteenth-century
plague
to northern
almost certainly
China
China
spread from southwestern
and then along the silk roads to central Asia,
southwest Asia,
the
was
it
north
Mediterranean
and
that
basin,
Africa,
and, second,
by no
an isolated event. Wherever
means
it struck, its demographic
effects
interactions
of cross-cultural
for the expe
testified to the significance
eastern
riences of human
societies
in pre
the
throughout
hemisphere
times. The population
modern
of China,
under
the
impact of
reeling
as
as
1200
to 85
in
well
fell
from
million
115
conquest
Mongol
plague,
in 1300 and 75 million
in 1400 (a 35% decrease over two cen
same pair of challenges
Asia
faced
Southwest
the
and under
turies).
went
less drastic but still noticeable
from 19.5
decline,
population
in 1300 and 16.4 million
in 1400 (a
in 1200 to 18.35 million
million
16% decrease over two centuries). Although
largely unafflicted
by the
severe
faced
and
popu
Europe
Mongols,
plague epidemics
experienced
million
lation
losses
decrease
over
from
one
79 million
in 1300
to 60 million
in 1400
(a 24%
century).21
commercial
and biological
the eastern hemi
Alongside
exchanges,
interactions
witnessed
cultural
of
also
large significance
during
sphere
ce. And here, too, a peculiar kind of modernist
the period 500-1500
bias has sometimes
skewed the understanding
of premodern
experi
ences. Literary analyses have recently associated European
representa
tions of other peoples with an orientalizing
project and have argued for
on the
a close relationship
between European
travel and travel writing,
on the other. John B. Friedman,
one hand, and imperialism,
for exam
ple, has lodged the charge of orientalism
maps marginalized
foreign peoples. More
in light
travel writing
has read medieval
became
America:
crusade;
"Pilgrimage
ended in the conquests of Mexico
Cathay
were military
soldiers, many missionaries
were
conquistadors.
So
21On
in following
because
medieval
European
pointedly, Mary B. Campbell
of
of the European
conquest
Polo's
the search for Marco
and Peru. Many pilgrims were
spies, most
the early history
early explorers
of travel writing
see McNeill,
in the fourteenth
and later centuries,
Plagues and
pandemic
plague
studies include Michael
W. Dois, The Black Death
pp. 149-98. Regional
Peoples, especially
in theMiddle East (Princeton,
Panzac, La peste dans l'empire ottoman,
1700
1977); Daniel
in
and Human Disaster
S. Gottfried,
The Black Death: Natural
1985); Robert
1850 (Louvain,
Medieval
Platt, King Death: The Black Death and Its After
(New York, 1983); Colin
Europe
Bubonic Plague inNine
math in Late-medieval
(Toronto,
1996); and Carol Benedict,
England
and Jones,
(Stanford,
1996). The population
figures are from McEvedy
teenth-century China
Atlas
ofWorld
Population
History.
Bentley:
Integration,
Hemispheric
500-1500
ce.
251
shadows of European
looking at the linguistic
examined
here
works
of
the
begin or end with
imperialism:
to
of the lands or peoples
the future conquest
references
explicit
will fade into
holocaust
described....
The
specter of the American
the whole."22
the background
of this study. But it haunts
were
ethnocentric
and that
that medieval
Granted
Europeans
we will
sometimes
be
several
to imperialist projects,
sometimes
contributed
travel and travel writing
interactions
it seems clear that long-distance
travel and cross-cultural
And when
the focus broadens
from
also had less sinister implications.
a narcissistic,
travelers to the analysis of
Eurocentric
study of European
as historical
interactions
cross-cultural
processes, a range of alternative
into view. Indeed, the cultural ramifications
of cross
patterns comes
cases of
were legion. Arnold
Pacey has explored
can
for
that
these
diffusion,
processes
arguing
example,
technological
as "technological
and
often be characterized more accurately
dialogue"
than as "technological
transfer." His analysis
dialectic"
"technological
to the role of cultural influences
in techno
draws attention
effectively
cultural
interactions
and it suggests the need to keep cultural consider
logical exchanges,
ations in view when examining
I shall
processes of interaction.23 Here
focus briefly on two kinds of cultural transformation
that came about
as a result of interactions
between peoples of different societies and that
of the eastern hemisphere.
illustrate the increasing cultural integration
interactions
The first has to do with ethnic identities. Cross-cultural
ran
to
construction
the
cultural
that
the
from
gamut
changes
provoked
to the disintegration
of ethnic
the transformation
identities. Fascinat
and migratory
such as
ing research has focused on nomadic
peoples,
the Franks and the Tanguts, whose
and
ethnic
transfor
ethnogenesis
mations
interactions.24 The
clearly reflect the influence of cross-cultural
22
in Medieval
in Implicit Under
World Maps,"
"Cultural Conflicts
John B. Friedman,
between Europeans
and Other
Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters
standings: Observing,
See
Era, ed. Stuart B. Schwartz
1994), pp. 64-95.
Peoples in the Early Modern
(Cambridge,
also Friedman, The Monstrous
Races inMedieval Art and Thought
1981),
(Cambridge, Mass.,
which
offers a similar analysis,
the category
of orientalism;
and
though without
invoking
Mary
1600
B. Campbell,
The Witness
and the Other Wbrid: Exotic European Travel Writing,
400
(Ithaca,
pp. 4, 7, for the quotations.
1988), especially
23Arnold
inWorld Civilization:
A Thousand-year
(Oxford,
History
Pacey, Technology
1990).
24On
the Franks
see David
and Religious
Revitalization
Harry Miller,
"Ethnogenesis
The Case
of Frankish Origins,"
Journal of World History
4
see the
the Tanguts
and Edward James, The Franks
(Oxford,
277-85;
(1993):
1988). On
on Tangut Ethnogenesis
"Who Are
studies of Ruth W. Dunnell:
and
the Tanguts? Remarks
18 (1984):
the Ethnonym
and
Journal of Asian History
"Politics, Religion,
Tangut,"
78-89;
in Eleventh
in the 1094
Xia: The Construction
of Tangut
Ethnicity
Century
Identity
Wuwei
and Inner Asian
"The Hsi
Stele
Central
Studies 7 (1992):
61-114;
Inscription,"
beyond
the Roman
Frontier:
JOURNAL
252
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
remarkable ethnic Odysseys of the Alans
illustrate especially well some
of the possibilities
in a world
for cultural
transformations
shaped by
mass migration,
of
and long-distance
campaigns
imperial expansion,
trade. The Alans were an identifiable
ethnic group of northern
Iranian
ter
nomads at least by the first century ce., when
raided
Roman
they
in
from
their
homeland
the
Russian
southern
In
the
ritory
steppes.
fourth century they allied with Huns attacking
the eastern empire and
in which
(in 378),
played a starring role at the battle of Adrianople
the invaders crushed the Roman
In
army and killed Emperor Valens.
to Arian
the fifth century some Alans
settled in Thrace
and converted
while
others
the Vandals,
invaded
Christianity,
joined forces with
on
estates
settled
from
seized
the Gallo-Roman
Gaul, and
population.
in the western
to
By the late fifth century Alans
empire had converted
Roman Catholic
into Gallo
and had largely assimilated
Christianity
societies.25
Roman
and Germanic
Those
the eastern empire, however,
underwent
dif
living beyond
an Alan
ferent kinds of cultural
transformation
while maintaining
allied with the Byz
identity. At least from the time of Justinian, Alans
antine empire and secured the Caucasus
region as a buffer zone beyond
to
the Byzantine
the tenth century
empire. About
they converted
a
as
Since they enjoyed
Orthodox
skilled crafts
reputation
Christianity.
men
and metalsmiths,
the interest of the Mongols,
who
they attracted
favor to them because of their talents and perhaps also because
to Mongol
submitted
rule. In any case, the Mongols
they voluntarily
to China,
of Orthodox
Christian
Alans
transported
large numbers
where they served as bodyguards
and military
forces. They were unable
to receive sacraments during their early years in China, however,
since
Chris
they refused to comply with the demand of the local Nestorian
tian priests that they submit to rebaptism before taking communion.
showed
When
teenth
without
Roman
century,
Catholic
missionaries
in the late thir
arrived in China
into their community
the Alans
they readily accepted
John of Montecorvino,
to Roman
20,000 Alans
rebaptism.
reportedly converted
of Khanbaliq,
archbishop
Catholic
and
Christianity,
et al., 15 vols. (Cambridge,
in The Cambridge History
ed. Denis Twitchett
of China,
in
and The Great State ofWhite
and High: Buddhism and State Formation
6:154-214;
Xia (Honolulu,
T. Alisen,
"Ever Closer
Encoun
1996). See also Thomas
Eleventh-Century
ters: The Appropriation
in the Mongol
of Culture
and the Apportionment
of Peoples
1 (1997):
Journal of Early Modem
2-23,
p. 17, where Alisen
History
Empire,"
especially
Hsia,"
1978-),
summarizes
the work of the Russian
scholar E. I. Kychanov.
25Bernard S.
A History of theAlans
in theWest
Bachrach,
(Minneapolis,
1973). See also
T. Sulimirski,
The Sarmatians
and C. Scott Littleton
and
(New York, 1970), pp. 142-203;
From Scythia to Camelot:
Linda A. Malcor,
A Radical Reassessment
of the Legends of King
the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (New York, 1994), pp. 3-57.
Arthur,
Bentley:
Hemispheric
500-1500
Integration,
ce.
253
the Mongols
they made up a large portion of his flock. When
departed
in 1368, their Alan allies left with them for an unrecorded
from China
into Turko-Mongol
involved absorption
society.26
destiny that probably
re
in the Caucasus
that remained
the Alan
Meanwhile,
community
com
into the modern Ossetian
faith and evolved
tained its Orthodox
that retains its Indo-Iranian
munity
language to the present day.
the spread of cultural
A second cluster of themes has to do with
the role
and religious traditions. In some cases it is possible to appreciate
in fostering
the spread of these traditions. Merchants,
of individuals
and pilgrims all
officials, missionaries,
soldiers, diplomats,
government
were prominent
travelers on the roads and sea lanes of the eastern
Even though they represented
only a fraction of the popu
hemisphere.
to their num
cultural influence out of proportion
lation, they wielded
of travelers such as Faxian,
and experiences
bers.27 The peregrinations
and Mansa Musa
Ibn Battuta,
illuminate
the pro
Xuanzang,
Yijing,
cesses by which
eastern
the universal
the
religions
spread throughout
and
Between
them, Faxian, Xuanzang,
Yijing brought
hemisphere.
texts from India to China
of Buddhist
and translated many
hundreds
into Chinese.
relics, statues, and ritual
They also introduced
to
communities
in
Buddhist
China
and laid a founda
paraphernalia
east
tion for the acceptance
of Buddhism
Asia.
Ibn Battuta
throughout
of them
in his efforts to promote
in the
did not always succeed
Islamic values
of
but
his
Maldive
Islands and the west African
Mali,
experi
kingdom
ences illustrate the process by which
the Islamic faith gradually trans
formed societies
far from its Arabian
birthplace. After his pilgrimage
to Mecca, Mansa Musa
to teach in
of Muhammad
invited descendants
new
stu
construction
of
the
and
financed
Mali,
mosques,
sponsored
in Fez.28 Long-distance
the esteemed
Islamic schools
dents attending
26
The Sarmatians,
Sulimirski,
pp.
Missionaries
by the Franciscan
and Frank W.
of the
194-203;
Ikl?, "The Conversion
in China
in the Fourteenth
in Papers in
Century,"
of Professor Woodbridge
1976), pp. 29-37.
Bingham, ed. James B. Parsons (San Francisco,
27
Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey
studies include Mary W. Helms,
Important
of
Ulysses'
Distance
and Geographical
The Witness
Power, Knowledge,
(Princeton,
1988); and Campbell,
and the Other World.
Recent
and contemporary
times suggest
analyses of travel in modern
some fascinating
for the study of travel in earlier eras: Victor Turner and Edith
possibilities
Alani
Honor
in Christian Culture:
(New York,
Image and Pilgrimage
Perspectives
Anthropological
(London,
1978); Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation
1992);
in the Late Twentieth Century
and James Clifford,
Routes: Travel and Translation
(Cambridge,
Mass.,
1997).
28On the
see Jerry H. Bentley, Old
in general,
traditions
spread of religious and cultural
in Pre-Modern
Contacts
World Encounters:
Cross-Cultural
and Exchanges
Times (New York,
travelers see also Sally Hovey Wriggins,
A Buddhist Pilgrim
individual
1993). On
Xuanzang:
on the Silk Road (Boulder, Colo.,
1996); and Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures
of Ibn Battuta: A
Turner,
Muslim
Traveler
of the 14th Century
(Berkeley,
1986).
254
JOURNAL
OF WORLD
HISTORY,
FALL
I998
travel not only facilitated
of trade goods and the diffu
the exchange
sion of biological
but
also
the awareness of cultural
species,
sharpened
identities and sometimes
the
promoted
spread of cultural and religious
to new lands.
traditions
a question
it becomes
of going beyond
When
the roles of individ
new
to
conversions
uals to explain
large-scale
religious faiths, the anal
more
of
cultural
becomes
Without
difficult.
ysis
exchanges
reducing
to decisions made out of purely material
cultural choices
I
interests,
think it is clear that large-scale cultural changes reflect political,
social,
as well as the appeal of cultural and reli
and economic
configurations
themselves.
gious traditions
important
Jacques Gernet's
study of the
in
economic
of
Buddhism
China
makes
this
significance
point persua
sively. The efforts of the Chinese
pilgrims show that Buddhism
appealed
converts
but a small circle of devout
individuals,
strongly to certain
a large-scale
does not
indicate
transformation
of an entire
cultural
that by stabilizing
Gernet's
work argues convincingly
rural
monasteries
the
Buddhist
of
translate
their faith
society,
helped
appeal
into terms meaningful
in the countryside
and thus facilitated
wide
in China.29
spread adoption of Buddhism
to account
difficult
of large-scale
cultural
for, processes
Although
society.
careful attention.
cross-cultural
Alongside
change call for historians'
trade and biological
they help to explain the social and cul
exchanges,
in which most of the world's peoples have led their
tural environments
as
as
the
of societies
well
the
lives,
increasing
integration
throughout
are elusive, but it is clear that
eastern hemisphere.30
The explanations
are crucial considerations
interactions
in the effort to
cross-cultural
understand
processes
of large-scale
cultural
29
inChinese
Buddhism
Society: An
Jacques Gernet,
trans. F. Verellen
Tenth Centuries,
(New York, 1995).
30
Bentley, O?d World Encounters.
change.
Economic
History
from
the Fifth
to the