How did the Silk Road alter the course of the history of climate change?
Type
presentation
Date Issued
2004-05-27
Author(s)
Abstract
I have been especially interested in scientific reports and travel accounts on "western China," which consists of Gansu, Xinjiang, both Mongolias, and Tibet and lies halfway between the Pacific seaboard and the Mediterranean coasts. This type of literature provides fascinating examples of fieldwork practices that must be investigated within an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. My goal is to understand how the iconography they provided on the environment of the Silk Road cultures has articulated the scholarly discourse between the two world wars. The interaction between the Silk Road and early 20th century technology and methodology yielded popular (but bogus) theories about race, the environment, the "pulse of Asia," and the spatial distribution of advanced civilizations. What do we remember today on the European and Chinese geographers, geologists, meteorologists, archaeologists and paleontologists who worked together? What did they think about the political dimensions of their work? How were they able to bring together scholarship and visual representation? Did they believe in global warming or in the decline of the West? An examination of the maps and images they produced would help with the reconstruction of the intellectual history of the Silk Road.
Language
English
Keywords
History of science
history of geography
environmental history
Silk Road studies
Chinese Central Asia
scientific expeditions
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
International Union of Academies, Institute of Catalan Studies
Event Location
Barcelona (Spain)
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
215212