On Thursday, 28th and Friday, 29th of November 2013, the SFB Visions of Community: Comparative Approaches to Ethnicity, Region and Empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism (400-1600 CE) (VISCOM, F42) will organize the interdisciplinary conference:
Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia
The discussion about the many Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia stands at the core of the SFB Visions of Community. As such, it will also form the backbone of this conference. On the one hand, the first results of the comparative approaches undertaken over the past years will be presented by members of the project, and on the other, these results will be commented upon by a group of international scholars whose goal it will be to raise as many new questions as there will be solutions proposed. "Community" is a multi-faceted concept, after all. Although it is challenging to formulate ready answers to the question how communities may have emerged as a result of the interaction between universal religions and different alternating identities – be they local, civic, regional, ethnic or imperial – it is equally important to acknowledge these multiplicities, and to arrive at a level of complexity that incorporates the internal varieties of each of the cultural spheres studied within VISCOM. The papers given during this conference reflect this diversity. By sketching out the many shades of the meaning of "community", they will catalyze a further debate on the ideals and realities behind it at different times and in different spaces.
The conference is hosted by the Institute for Social Anthropology (ISA)
Seminar room 1+2/Ground Floor, Apostelgasse 23, 1030 Vienna
