HIST 391
When India was the World: Trade, Travel and History in the Indian Ocean Fall 2013
Division II
Cross-listed ASST 391 / INST 391
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Can historians study oceans rather than lands? Is it possible to think about an aquatic space as an integrated cultural region rather than simply focusing on terra-centric empires and societies? What can we learn about human interactions in the past through the study of oceanic histories? This course seeks to answer these questions by focusing on the oldest maritime highway in history: the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean connected diverse regions, cultures and communities for millennia, thus making it a vital element in the birth of globalization. South Asian ports and port cities remained the fulcrum of the Indian Ocean world throughout its history; traders, travellers, nobles, scholars, pilgrims and pirates from all over the world travelled to the Indian coast in search of adventure, spices, knowledge and wealth. Thus we will primarily focus on India’s role in the Indian Ocean roughly from the rise of Islam in the seventh century CE through the intrusion of various European communities in the region and the subsequent rise of the global economy and colonialism in the nineteenth century. Rather than following a strict temporal chronology we will concentrate on themes such a travel and adventure; trade and exchange; trust and friendship; religion and society; pilgrimage; piracy; the culture of port cities; and food across time.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 25
Expected: 15-20
Class#: 1974
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on participation, response papers based on primary sources, and two essays
Prerequisites: none; open to all
Enrollment Preferences: none
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
HIST 391 Division II ASST 391 Division II INST 391 Division II
Attributes: HIST Group B Electives - Asia
MAST Interdepartmental Electives

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