Globalization and the Gift in the Pre-modern Mediterranean: Byzantine Silk and Sumptuary Laws
In an attempt to examine how the concept of globalization is configured in the pre-modern Mediterranean world, my paper will investigate the restricted circulation of silk in relation to the central Byzantine imperial administration in Constantinople. By tracing the “disjunctive flows” of particular examples of luxury silk, this paper will focus on two related concepts: (1) sumptuary laws aiming at prohibiting circulation in order to raise demand and desire and (2) the idea of uniqueness in objects, silk in particular, made for circulation. Through this study, I hope to explore how the art object, distinct from specie or goods conventionally understood as commercial, can create a sense of courtly cosmopolitanism traditionally understood within the modern context of globalization.