Special Issue: Textiles as Money on the Silk Road

摘要

In January 2013 we published our third special issue 'Perfumery and Ritual in Asia'. As I wrote in the Introduction to that group of articles, the Journal's broad remit, both in terms of historical period and geographical boundaries, affords us the privilege of exploring those elements of human activity that historically 'bind' or 'separate' different Asian cultures. By the beginning of 2013 we had already published two other special issues, one on a linguistic topic and the other on a politico/religious topic and so we felt it was appropriate to devote space to the exploration of 'material' culture, an equally powerful force in shaping a huge range of human interactions.