Entangled Objects? The Material Culture of Diplomacy in Transcultural Processes of Negotiation in the 18th Century
Final Report Abstract
The project examined, from an intercultural perspective, the variable forms, functions, and politico-legal semantics of object use in early modern diplomacy. Our knowledge interest was primarily defined by the complex interplay of ideas (concepts of rule, ideologies, and political core values), operational interests (policy aims in specific contexts of negotiation), and the – all too often pre-arranged – use of artifacts in the diplomatic encounters between European and Non-European actors in European and Non-European regions. Two sub-projects investigated artifact-related practices in the diplomatic interaction between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire (1699-1739), on the one hand, and that of Native Americans, Great Britain, and France in colonial North America (1713 -1763), on the other. Indebted to an understanding of material culture as “the totality of man-made and man-modified artifacts […] used by humankind to cope with the physical world, to facilitate social intercourse, to delight our fancy, and to create symbols of meaning” (Schlereth 1985, 6), the project critically tested the epistemological potential of approaches from Material Culture Studies to develop new perspectives and patterns of interpretation regarding the forms, practices, and rationales of early modern diplomacy. The 18th century was chosen as a suitable period for our study, as many rules of ‘modern’ diplomacy were established between the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the mid-1770s in the context of emerging and consolidating state systems. In addition, the intensified process of European expansion brought diplomatic agents increasingly into contact with non-European cultures and their concepts of state and rule, legal systems, and logics of the use of things. Both sub-projects analyzed important individual objects, specific object groups, and the entire material settings used during transcultural diplomatic encounters concerning their complex materiality, their multi-functionality, their material worth, their practical uses, their quality as a resource of cultural meaning, and their role as creators of political and social relations. Special emphasis was put on diplomatic situations in which the use of objects and their meanings were contested and in which artifacts were used to prevent, intensify, moderate, or disguise political conflicts between the negotiating parties. By systematically taking approaches from Material Culture Studies to the field of early modern diplomacy, the project defined a new field of research that, going well beyond the well-researched topic of gift-giving, opens many new and enlightening perspectives on the history of diplomacy in the early modern period.
Publications
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Materialities, Spaces, Emotions. The Leuthkauff Album Amicorum as an Entangled Object and the Challenges of Researching the Material Culture of Diplomacy. Objects in Conflict, eds. Depkat and Rudolph.
Rudolph, Harriet
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„English Liquor, Indian Corn: Food Diplomacy and Defective Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Haudenosaunee Relations.” Objects in Conflict, eds. Depkat and Rudolph.
Diepold, Markus
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„The Material Politics of Diplomatic Lodgings: Revisiting the Ottoman and Habsburg Diplomacy through Furniture and Decorative Artefacts in the Early Modern Period.“ Objects in Conflict, eds. Depkat and Rudolph.
İlaslan Koç, Gamze
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Mythos oder Modell für die Entwicklung der europäischen Diplomatie? Venedig als diplomatische Metropole. Italien als Vorbild? Ökonomische und kulturelle Verflechtungen europäischer Metropolen am Vorabend der 'ersten Globalisierung' (1300-1600), hg. Jörg Oberste/Susanne Ehrich, Regensburg, 19-42.
Rudolph, Harriet
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33. Die materielle Kultur des Friedenschließens. Handbuch Frieden im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit / Handbook of Peace in Early Modern Europe, 649-674. De Gruyter.
Rudolph, Harriet
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Stand, Rang und Status. Feste als Medium höfischer Repräsentation in reichischen und europäischen Hierarchiegefügen. Jahrbuch der Stiftung Thüringer Schlösser und Gärten 23, 73-93.
Rudolph, Harriet
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"Ambassadorial Entrance Ceremonies between the Habsburg and Ottoman Diplomacy: A War of Decibels" (Internationaler Doktoranden-Workshop “New trends in research of the history of Habsburg imperial diplomacy (16th–19th centuries)” Universität Pardubice, Tschechien, 16. September 2021).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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"The Soundscape of Ottoman-Habsburg Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century" (Universität Bern, Schweiz, Tagung „Sounds of Power“, 18. Juni 2021).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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Was ist höfische Repräsentation? Aktuelle Forschungsansätze zu einem alten Thema. Schütz-Jahrbuch 42, 7-18, 162-167.
Rudolph, Harriet
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Objektwelten und Objektkulturen vormoderner Hospitäler. Zur Einführung in den Band, in: Spitalobjekte, ed. Dirmeier/Drascek/Rudolph, Regensburg, 11-26.
Rudolph, Harriet
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Spitalobjekte. Die materielle Kultur des Spitals in der Vormoderne (Schriftenreihe des Archivs des St. Katharinenspitals Regensburg 16), hg. mit Artur Dirmeier/Daniel Drascek, Regensburg
Rudolph, Harriet
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“Polishing the Kaswenta: The 2013 Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign in the Context of Haudenosaunee Cultural Traditions and Historical Scholarship” (Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS), University of Tübingen, 10. Juni 2022).
Diepold, Markus
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“‘No Knife Near Our Dish’: The Material Culture of Food, Hospitality, and Commensality in Eighteenth-Century Haudenosaunee-European Diplomacy” (Re-Presentations and Uses of the American Revolution in Past and Present, Young Scholars’ Forum, Bayerische Amerika-Akademie, Amerikahaus München, 8. Juli 2022).
Diepold, Markus
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"The Material Culture of Habsburg-Ottoman Diplomacy in the 18th Century" (Lehrstuhl für Ost- und Südosteuropäische Geschichte, Kooperation mit Kolloquium Prof. Julia Schmidt-Funke, SOG, Universität Leipzig, 13. Dezember 2023).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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"The Politics of Space: Reconstructing the Diplomatic Residences of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires in the 18th Century" International Conference, Objects in Conflict. The Material Culture of Intercultural Diplomacy (1600-1830), (Internationale Tagung „Objects in Conflict“, Universität Regensburg, 17. Februar 2023).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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"The Politics of Space: Reconstructing the Diplomatic Residences of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires in the 18th Century," (Early Modern Ottoman Studies Conference, Ankara, Türkei, 14. Juli 2023).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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“English Liquor & Indian Corn: Food, Diplomacy, and Conflict in 18th-Century Anglo- Haudenosaunee Relations” (Objects in Conflict. The Material Culture of Intercultural Diplomacy (1600-1830), University of Regensburg, 17. Februar 2023).
Diepold, Markus
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“‘For they fed lustily, drank heartily, and were very greasy before they finished their dinner’: Food and Drink in Eighteenth-Century Haudenosaunee-European Diplomacy” (Food and Body in Colonial Contexts in Pre-Modern Times (1600-1900), Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies (GSOSES), University of Regensburg, 5. Mai 2023).
Diepold, Markus
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“‘No Knife Near Our Dish’: The Material Culture of Food, Hospitality, and Commensality in 18th-Century Haudenosaunee-European Diplomacy” (Contested Mobilities in U.S. History: Annual Conference of the Historians of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS), Young Scholars’ Forum, Akademie für politische Bildung, Tutzing, 7. Mai 2023).
Diepold, Markus
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"Revisiting Ceremonial Embassies: Gift-giving Practices of Early Modern European Courts and Ottomans" Tagung für Türkisch-Ungarisches Kulturjahr (Universität Istanbul, Türkei 5.-6. November 2024).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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"Roundtable—Early American Studies outside the United States: Views on the International Scholarship" (27th Annual Conference - Vast Early America: A Transcontinental Conversation, Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, Université de Poitiers, 19. Juni 2024).
Diepold, Markus
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"Setting up the Tent: Display of Gift-Giving between the Ottomans and Habsburgs" Workshop, Travels and Interactions between Turkey and Austria” (Österreichisches Konsulat in Istanbul, Türkei 19.-22. November 2024)
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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De arte culinaria. Herzog Albrecht V. von Bayern, 207-232. De Gruyter.
Rudolph, Harriet
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Diplomatische Objekte?. Franz Steiner Verlag.
Rudolph, Harriet
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What’s All this Noise?. Sounds of Power, 25-48. Böhlau Verlag Köln.
Rudolph, Harriet
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“Politics of Miscommunication in the Encounters of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires in the 18th Century” (Middle East Studies Association, USA, 11.-16. November 2024).
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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„An Untold Battle of Music and Banners. Ambassadorial Entrance Ceremonies between the Habsburg and Ottoman Diplomacy“, in: Tül Demirbas et al. (eds): The Sounds of Power. Sonic Court Rituals In- and Outside Europe in the 15th-18th Centuries, Köln, 123-146.
Ilaslan-Koḉ, Gamze
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“For They Fed Lustily, Drank Heartily, and Were Very Greasy Before They Finished Their Dinner”: The Material Politics of Hospitality at the Lancaster Treaty of 1744. Food and History, 23(1), 87-106.
Diepold, Markus
