Huth, Christoph
Grenzen, Räume und Identitäten: Der Oberrhein und seine Nachbarregionen von der Antike bis zum Hochmittelalter
A new, preferably unbiased view of spatial structures proves to be a decisive prerequisite for freeing research from rigid assumptions and models. This makes it possible to replace previous and necessarily highly simplified dominant narrative with complex reconstructions. Beyond large lines, spatial relationships and structures prove to be flexible and changeable. The contributions collected in this volume underline how different approaches and perspectives can be, even when they deal with the seemingly self-evident "space". In this opening beyond deterministic concepts and conceptions of space, which geography has long since completed, there are new opportunities for archaeological and historical studies.
Image, thought, and the making of social worlds
What is the status and role of image systems in human culture and history? This volume presents original studies examining the complex interplay between images, thought processes, and the making of social worlds from the pre-Columbian Americas to the ancient Mediterranean and early China. Moving beyond a notion of images as “merely illustrative” of propositions expressed in language or writing these studies draw insights from the civilisations of Amazonia, Oceania, and Central Africa to reveal the autonomy of image systems as intellectual devices in their own right, and their enduring role in the development of human societies across the traditional divide of “oral” and “literate” cultures.
