The weak and the powerful: a longue-durée and comprehensive perspective on diasporas

Abstract

The essay examines the model case, the stateless Jewish diaspora, and asks why a dispersed powerful people like “the” Romans is not analyzed as diaspora. Do people, who establish institutions of rule far from their core and mythical place of origin, Rome in Italy in this case, and who impose their power, not form diasporas? Other ethnic, professional, and religious groups established diasporic connectivity: the Normans, men and women of Christian faith, Indian Ocean merchants as well as, from mid-15th century the Southeast Asian “Chinese” It is argued that specific socio-economic rather than ethno-cultural groups from specific locations form translocal rather than transnational communities and engage in cultural transformations along the routes.