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Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2021
Print publication year:
2021
Online ISBN:
9781108974387
Creative Commons:
Creative Common License - CC Creative Common License - BY Creative Common License - NC Creative Common License - ND
This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/creativelicenses

Book description

Small-scale traders play a crucial role in forging Asian connectivity, forming networks and informal institutions separate from those driven by nation-states, such as China's Belt and Road Initiative. This ambitious study provides a unique insight into the lives of the mobile traders from Afghanistan who traverse Eurasia. Reflecting on over a decade of intensive ethnographic fieldwork, Magnus Marsden introduces readers to a dynamic yet historically durable universe of commercial and cultural connections. Through an exploration of the traders' networks, cultural and religious identities, as well as the nodes in which they operate, Marsden emphasises their ability to navigate Eurasia's geopolitical tensions and to forge transregional routes that channel significant flows of people, resources, and ideas. Beyond the Silk Roads will interest those seeking to understand contemporary iterations of the Silk Road within the context of geopolitics in the region. This title is also available as Open Access.

Reviews

‘Beyond the Silks Roads is a timely, original, and deeply researched portrait of the role of Afghan traders in forging new and important linkages among regions in Asia and to global circuits of exchange. Marsden’s fascinating multi-sited ethnographic research brings this story to life, revealing an unexpected but crucial dimension of inter-Asian connections.’

Robert D. Crews - Stanford University

‘Marsden brilliantly depicts the dynamic and shifting networks of Afghanistan-based traders and how they work with multi-ethnic, multi-national partners. His riveting ethnography of how they establish trust and predictability in uncertain, far-flung environments matches in significance and depth Shelomo Goitein’s classic A Mediterranean Society, depicting the Cairo-based Jewish trading communities and networks of an earlier historical era.’

Dale F. Eickelman - Dartmouth College

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Contents

Full book PDF
  • Beyond the Silk Roads
    pp i-i
  • Asian Connections - Series page
    pp ii-ii
  • Beyond the Silk Roads - Title page
    pp iii-iii
  • Trade, Mobility and Geopolitics across Eurasia
  • Copyright page
    pp iv-iv
  • Dedication
    pp v-vi
  • Contents
    pp vii-vii
  • Maps
    pp viii-viii
  • Acknowledgements
    pp ix-xii
  • Glossary
    pp xiii-xvi
  • Maps
    pp xvii-xx
  • Introduction: Beyond the Silk Roads
    pp 1-32
  • 1 - ‘Take Your Help Away and Leave Us in Peace!’
    pp 33-55
  • The Anthropology of Geopolitics as Lived
  • 3 - Inter-Asian Corridor of Connectivity (2): West Asia – China, the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey
    pp 86-121
  • 6 - An Alternative Eurasian Economic Geography: Afghanistan’s Role in Long-Distance Trade
    pp 189-220
  • Conclusion: Geopolitics, Critical Responsiveness and Navigational Agency in Eurasian Connectivity
    pp 254-266
  • Note on Fieldwork
    pp 267-268
  • References
    pp 269-288
  • Index
    pp 289-301
  • ASIAN CONNECTIONS - Series page
    pp 302-304

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