Order Into Action

Book excerpt: Focusing on religious, political, and geographical ideas and models, this volume explores, how and to which extent pertinent large-scale concepts influenced or determined concrete actions in premodern cultures. "Ordering" objects, perceptions, and phenomena is not a neutral activity. The models and concepts that are used in this endeavor do not merely arrange the empirically available material, but they invest them with specific positions and values that are culturally determined. The activity of ordering relies on models that help us to perceive and categorize the information conveyed by experience and tradition alike. In turn, its results effectively influence the behaviour and actions of individuals and groups. With a focus on premodern societies in Europe, the Arab world and East Asia, this volume proposes new approaches to premodern models of world-order, by analyzing their effects on individual of collective actions. Examples include socio-religious concepts (Christianity, terra paganorum, dar al-harb), political ideas(empire) and geographical notions. A section dedicated to Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and Pre-Columbian America considerably broadens the geographic scope and provides innovative additional material for further comparative insights.