The Xiongnu Empire (c. 200 BC – AD 100) was the first instance of imperial level organization by nomadic groups of the Mongolian steppe. Over a century of historical and archaeological research has produced a large body of scholarship on the political, military, and sociocultural structures of Xiongnu society. This study adds to the growing body of recent bioarchaeological research by using multiple lines of evidence to address the impacts of empire formation on the physical health of those who lived under the influence of Xiongnu rule. Models of Xiongnu empire formation posit stable access to Chinese agricultural goods and reduction in violent conflict as major motivating factors in establishing imperial-level organization among Mongolian nomadic groups. By gathering data from the skeletal remains of 349 individuals from 27 archaeological sites and analyzing the frequency of 10 dietary and health indicators, this study addresses these claims. The Xiongnu imperial expansion and administration resulted in the movement and/or displacement of nomadic groups, consequences that are documented in Chinese historical texts, but its impact on population structure is poorly understood. Craniometric data collected from this skeletal sample were used to conduct a model-bound biological distance analysis and fit to an unbiased relationship matrix to determine the amount of intra- and inter-group variation, and estimate the biological distance between different geographic and temporal groups. This skeletal sample includes individuals from 19 Xiongnu-period sites located across the region under Xiongnu imperial control. Individuals from eight Bronze Age sites in Mongolia were included to establish pre-Xiongnu health status. One agricultural site within the Han empire, contemporaneous with the Xiongnu, was included for comparison. The results of this study indicate that Xiongnu motivations for creating a nomadic empire were considerably more complex than current models suggest. Although historical texts document that the Xiongnu received agricultural products as tribute from China, dietary markers indicate the Xiongnu diet was more similar to that of their Bronze Age predecessors than to their agricultural Han neighbors. The movement of people across the Mongolian steppe during the Xiongnu period created a more phenotypically homogeneous population structure than that of previous Bronze Age groups.

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This dissertation examines the ways that slaves and free blacks participated in and shaped the Bourbon Reforms in New Spain (Mexico and Central America) during the period of 1750-1808. By framing the Bourbon Reforms in this part of the Americas through an Atlantic World perspective, centered on the importance of slavery to European empire-building efforts in the eighteenth century, this dissertation argues that the politics of difference was vital to these imperial ambitions even in places where the slave population was relatively small. In the context of the slave and free black populations, the Spanish Empire determined its politics of difference on prejudices against blacks informed by skin color. Slaves and free blacks, nonetheless, actively participated in Bourbon imperial projects through litigation, forcing negotiations by escaping slavery, giving service in the militias defending the frontiers, borderlands, and imperial cities, and forging important kinship ties that shaped their identities and social networks that they used to negotiate their position in the imperial order. I argue that a pivotal moment when racism exacerbated the relationships of slaves and free blacks with the Crown was the Haitian Revolution. Although racist attitudes were already present against blacks, the Haitian Revolution demonstrated that slaves could eradicate slavery and the colonial order associated. The impact of this revolution was profound and even affected regions of the Americas that had small slave populations.

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Cette thèse est une étude d’histoire culturelle sur les processus de construction des appartenances. Le cadre spatio-temporel de départ est la ville d’Alexandrie entre la fin du XIXe siècle et le premier tiers du XXe. Son statut compliqué d’interface entre plusieurs horizons politico-culturels (ottoman, arabe, européen) en fait un terrain privilégié pour analyser les notions d’étranger, égyptien, ottoman, local, national, cosmopolite comme catégories mouvantes, façonnées par les acteurs. Dans la volonté de faire de l’imaginaire un objet d’histoire, ces catégories sont appréhendées à travers les textes littéraires (en arabe, français, italien, anglais) produits par les acteurs de la vie culturelle alexandrine. Une étude de leurs trajectoires personnelles, des sociabilités qui se nouent (ou pas) dans les milieux littéraires citadins et des critères sur lesquels se font et se défont les réputations littéraires permet de lier la dimension individuelle de ces acteurs à une dimension collective, sociétale. Pour prolonger le débat dans l’actualité, on propose enfin une approche socio-historique de la survie ou de la disparition de ces réputations littéraires au-delà du cadre spatio-temporel de départ. Réfléchir aux milieux dans lesquels une réputation d’auteur construite dans l’ère des empires survit, ou ne survit pas, au passage à l’ère des États-nations, ou à celui de la période coloniale à l’époque des décolonisations, permet d’explorer le champ de la mémoire sur des bases autres que celles de la nostalgie ou de l’idéologie. / This dissertation is a cultural-history study of the building up of categories of belonging. The spatio-temporal context is the city of Alexandria between the late 19th century and the first third of the 20th. Being a field of confrontation between several cultural and political horizons (ottoman, Arab, European), Alexandria is a privileged field to study the notions of foreigner, Egyptian, ottoman, local, national, cosmopolitan as shifting categories, built-up by actors. In the aim of treating imagery as a historical object, these categories are investigated through a set of literary texts (in Arabic, French, Italian, English) produced by the actors of Alexandrian cultural life. By studying their trajectories, the sociability that emerges (or not) in Alexandrian literary milieus and the criteria on which literary reputations are built up, we can link the individual scale to a societal dimension. In conclusion, to extend the perspective, this dissertation proposes a socio-historical analysis of the survival or disappearance of these literary reputations beyond the space and time firstly considered. Analyzing the milieus in which an author reputation built up in the age of empires survives, or not, through the age of Nation-states, or from the colonial epoch to the age of decolonization, is offering an approach to the field of memory which is not based on nostalgic or ideological positions.

Doctor of Philosophy / The relationship between the Angkorian Empire and its capital is important for understanding how this state was sustained. The empire’s political economy is studied by analysing data from Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions in aggregated form, in contrast to previous studies which relied mainly on detailed reading of the texts. The study is necessarily broad to overcome the constraints of having relatively few inscriptions which relate to a selected range of topics, and are partial in viewpoint. The success of the pre-modern Khmer state depended on: its long-established communication and trade links; mutual support of rulers and regional elites; decentralised administration through regional centres; its ability to produce or acquire a surplus of resources; and a network of temples as an ideological vehicle for state integration. The claim that there was a centrally controlled command economy or significant redistribution of resources, as for archaic, moneyless societies is difficult to justify. The mode of control varied between the core area and peripheral areas. Even though Angkor did not have money, it used a unit of account. Despite being an inland agrarian polity, the Khmer actively pursued foreign trade. There are indications of a structure, perhaps hierarchical, of linked deities and religious foundations helping to disseminate the state’s ideology. The establishment of these foundations was encouraged by gifts and privileges granted to elite supporters of the rulers. Contrary to some views, Angkor was not excessively rigid or unusually hierarchical and autocratic when compared with contemporary analogous states. Its political economy is marked by three simultaneous cycles indicative of changing power relationships: cycles of royal inscriptions; of non-royal inscriptions; and fluctuating control over peripheral territories. Its processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure as an empire for approximately six centuries, despite internal and external disturbances.

Doctor of Philosophy / The relationship between the Angkorian Empire and its capital is important for understanding how this state was sustained. The empire’s political economy is studied by analysing data from Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions in aggregated form, in contrast to previous studies which relied mainly on detailed reading of the texts. The study is necessarily broad to overcome the constraints of having relatively few inscriptions which relate to a selected range of topics, and are partial in viewpoint. The success of the pre-modern Khmer state depended on: its long-established communication and trade links; mutual support of rulers and regional elites; decentralised administration through regional centres; its ability to produce or acquire a surplus of resources; and a network of temples as an ideological vehicle for state integration. The claim that there was a centrally controlled command economy or significant redistribution of resources, as for archaic, moneyless societies is difficult to justify. The mode of control varied between the core area and peripheral areas. Even though Angkor did not have money, it used a unit of account. Despite being an inland agrarian polity, the Khmer actively pursued foreign trade. There are indications of a structure, perhaps hierarchical, of linked deities and religious foundations helping to disseminate the state’s ideology. The establishment of these foundations was encouraged by gifts and privileges granted to elite supporters of the rulers. Contrary to some views, Angkor was not excessively rigid or unusually hierarchical and autocratic when compared with contemporary analogous states. Its political economy is marked by three simultaneous cycles indicative of changing power relationships: cycles of royal inscriptions; of non-royal inscriptions; and fluctuating control over peripheral territories. Its processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure as an empire for approximately six centuries, despite internal and external disturbances.

Comprendre les présupposés qui fondent les rapports au monde des individus selon leur appartenance civilisationnelle nécessite des outils et une méthode permettant de répondre à trois questions principales. D’abord, comment aborder le rapport que des individus et leurs collectivités entretiennent avec le monde et avec l’Autre selon leur propre système d’interprétations et d’explications de ces réalités? Ensuite, comment penser la diversité des collectivités humaines qui établissent de tels rapports? Finalement, comment aborder les dimensions collectives à travers les discours limités d’individus? Deux outils m’ont permis de prendre du recul face à ma subjectivité et d’accéder à un certain niveau de réalité et de validité quant aux faits rapportés et aux résultats atteints. Dans un premier temps, le réseau notionnel articulant les conceptions du monde (Ikenga-Metuh, 1987) comme phénomènes de civilisations (Mauss, 1929) accessibles par l’analyse des représentations sociales (Jodelet, 1997) permet de définir et d’étudier l’interface entre l’individuel et le collectif. Dans un deuxième temps, l’opérationnalisation de la recherche permet de cerner le XVIe siècle comme moment de rencontre propice à l’étude des civilisations andines et occidentales à travers les représentations du Soi espagnol et de l’Autre inca du chroniqueur Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. Finalement, la méthode d’analyse de discours (Sabourin, 2009) lève le voile sur une grammaire sociale polarisante entre le Soi et l’Autre, laquelle traverse les trois univers de sens (religieux, intellectuel et politique) observés dans le discours de Sarmiento. La mise à jour des positions théologiques, intellectuelles et politiques de l’auteur ouvre à son tour sur les récits et discours collectifs propres aux civilisations occidentales et andines de son époque, et permet un questionnement nouveau : cette polarisation est-elle unique à la localisation sociale de Sarmiento ou constitue-t-elle un phénomène civilisationnel proprement occidental ? / Understanding the assumptions underlying the relationships between individuals and the world according to their civilizational affiliation requires tools and a method to address three main questions. First, how to approach the relationship individuals and their collectivities maintain with the world and with the Other according to their own set of interpretations and meanings of these realities? Second, how to envision the diversity of human collectivities which establish such relations? Finally, how to approach the collective dimensions through limited individual discourse? Two tools enabled me to distance myself from my own subjectiveness and to attain a certain degree of reality and validity as to the stated facts and the achieved results. First, the notional network linking worldviews (Ikenga-Metuh, 1987) as a civilizational phenomenon (Mauss, 1929) accessible through the analysis of social representations (Jodelet, 1997), enables the identification of an interface which can be studied between the individual and the collective. Secondly, research operationalization makes it possible to identify the sixteenth century as a significant crossroad for the study of Western and Andean civilizations through Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa’s representations of the Spanish Self and the Inca Other. Finally, discourse analysis (Sabourin, 2009) unveils a polarizing social grammar between the Self and the Other which involves the three realms of meaning (religious, intellectual and political) observed in Sarmiento’s discourse. The author’s theological, intellectual and political positions thus revealed lead, in turn, to the collective stories and discourses which prevailed in Western and Andean civilizations at the time, and invites a further question: Is this polarization unique to Sarmiento’s social location or does it constitute a truly Western civilizational phenomenon?

Le but de cette recherche est celui d’analyser le développement structurel d’une présence coloniale courte, chronologiquement successive. À partir d’une étude d’histoire comparée, on entend décrire le processus d’installation, création et gouvernance d’une double administration coloniale européenne, celle de l’Italie fasciste et de la France, installée au Fezzan, région du désert sud-occidental libyen. Nous montrons d’abord, dans une perspective de longue durée, comment l’urgence de contrôler les espaces amples du Sahara libyen détermine, du côté des Empires, la nécessité stratégique de créer une macro-région coloniale, à gérer uniquement par l’élément militaire. Le noyau central de la thèse analyse la manière dont les structures de ces administrations ont été conçues et mises en place par les militaires européens, ainsi que leur impact réel sur le tissu social de la région. Enfin, en guise de conclusion, nous évoquons les éléments de rupture et de continuité parmi les deux expériences, et les conséquences de l’action des administrations coloniales en termes de construction idéntitaire de la Libye indépendante. / Desert Libya’s region of Fezzan presents an interesting case of a consecutive colonial military administration. A fascist italian period of ten years is followed by a french shortest-term direct administration of eight years. The research highlights the emergence to bridge an historical gap. In the framework of a comparative study, the main goal of the thesis is to investigate the development of the administrative changeover from fascist Italy to France in the region, illustrating the establishment of the double administration managed by soldiers of the two colonial powers, its impact toward the social regional structures and its elements of continuity and change. The period we take into consideration extends from 1930 to 1951, between the full realization of the italian colonization of Libya, through the so-called fascist “pacification”, and the transition process of the Independent Libyan State. This leads to explore a final understanding hypothesis, concerning the repercussion of this military continuum administration on the independence process of Libya. / Il presente studio analizza lo sviluppo strutturale di una breve presenza coloniale, temporalmente consecutiva. Nel quadro di una ricerca di storia comparata, l’obiettivo è quello di descrivere il processo di instaurazione, esecuzione e governance di una duplice amministrazione coloniale europea: quella dell’Italia fascista e della Francia nel Fezzan libico. Si tratta anzitutto di precisare in che modo le zone desertiche del Sud libico divengono, progressivamente, un oggetto di contesa strategica tra le potenze imperiali, tali da rendere necessaria l’urgenza del ricorso ad una gestione amministrativa a carattere esclusivamente militare. Il nucleo centrale dell’elaborato indaga sulla maniera in cui dette strutture amministrative sono state concepite e messe in pratica da parte dei rispettivi militari impegnati sul posto, e il loro effettivo impatto sul tessuto sociale regionale. Nelle conclusioni, si evocano gli elementi di continuità e discontinuità tra le due esperienze; inoltre, tenuto conto del periodo storico preso in considerazione, compreso tra la piena realizzazione del colonialismo italiano in Libia e l’avvio del processo di transizione che porta il Paese nord africano verso l’indipendenza, si analizzano le conseguenze della gestione amministrativa in termini di costruzione identitaria dello Stato postcoloniale.