Beastly Badges: the art of adaptive political cultures in nomadic regimes"

Summary: Nomadic polities are conventionally treated as loose and fragile regimes, adept at far-reaching conquests yet inept at managing the resulting large realms or extensive constituencies. In order to provide a more constructive and robust narrative of nomadic regimes, this talk elucidates strategies of political culture developed by the Xiongnu Empire of Inner Asia (ca. 200 bce- 100 ce), as manifested in the array of belt ornaments that served as badges of personal prestige and emblems of political participation in the steppe empire. Just as adaptations of long-standing traditions of steppe art in the early era served to bolster claims of legitimacy over the entirety of Inner Asia, so did significant alterations that emphasized exotic components allow the imperial nomads of the later era to adapt their political culture not only in response to challenges of interior politics but also to capitalize on the expanding resources of cross-continental exchanges via the Silk Roads.

About: Bryan Miller is a Lecturer in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the archaeology of empires in East Asia, with particular focus on nomadic regimes of Inner Asia. His research includes investigations of hybrid art and practices in the course of culture contact, as well as the interface between local elites and ruling factions, and he is currently completing a book on the Xiongnu nomadic empire.