Concepts of Boundaries and the Construction of Sociocultural Difference in (Trans)Ottoman Contexts: Circulation of Knowledge, Conceptual Changes and Transfers, 16th to 19th Centuries.

我们的研究旨在描绘出奥斯曼帝国社会文化边界的概念。我们理解语义学和实践在社会文化差异构建中的作用，作为反映特定认识论纠缠的知识清单。一旦对社会文化边界的思想运动进行时间、空间和不同社会文化背景之间的追踪，这些纠缠就变得清晰可见。因此，一个特定的互动框架被访问，它延伸到奥斯曼帝国的领土边界之外。勾画出这个交互框架是这个项目的主要目标。社会文化差异的描述以及在奥斯曼语境中绘制和跨越边界的过程指向了一个复杂的语义领域，在这个项目的过程中，依靠概念历史领域的方法论支持，对其进行了记录和分析。我们认为奥斯曼帝国的边界概念是具有特定谱系和轨迹的复杂语义配置。因此，该项目追溯了概念和意义随时间的变化，它注意到翻译策略，以及在游戏中的改编和挪用，并记录了奥斯曼语中各种体裁和上下文之间的差异。在此经验数据的基础上，关于奥斯曼语义学与社会文化边界变化的过程和机制的假设进行了探索。两个关键假设是这些讨论的基础：首先，奥斯曼语义学与社会文化边界有关，可能与奥斯曼社会内部更广泛的变革有关。因此，对这些语义的分析可以为奥斯曼帝国内部更大的创新和变革过程提供指引。其次，与社会文化边界相关的奥斯曼语义学并不是脱离更广泛的发展而存在的，而是持续交流和转移的产物，需要在跨奥斯曼的互动框架中进行追踪。该项目的另一个目标是在概念历史的框架内讨论边界的概念和与之相关的奥斯曼语义学。

Our research aims to map out Ottoman concepts of sociocultural boundaries. We understand semantics and practices at work in the construction of sociocultural difference as inventories of knowledge which reflect specific epistemological entanglements. These entanglements are rendered visible once the movement of ideas about sociocultural boundaries is traced is time, space and between different social and cultural contexts. Thereby, a specific framework of interactions is accessed which extends beyond the territorial borders of the Ottoman Empire. Sketching out this framework of interactions is a principal goal of the project. Descriptions of sociocultural difference and processes of drawing and transgressing boundaries in the Ottoman context point to a complex semantic field, which is documented and analyzed in the course of this project, relying on methodological support from the field of conceptual history. We regard Ottoman notions of boundaries as complex semantic configurations with specific genealogies and trajectories. Therefore, the project traces changes over time in concepts and meanings, it takes note of strategies of translation, and of adaptions and appropriations at play and it documents differences between various genres and contexts in Ottoman usage. On the basis of this empirical data, hypotheses about processes and mechanisms of changes in Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries are explored. Two key assumptions are at the basis of these deliberations: First, Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries are subject to changes which might be related to broader transformations within Ottoman society. An analysis of these semantics can therefore provide pointers to larger processes of innovation and change within the Ottoman Empire. Second, Ottoman semantics pertaining to sociocultural boundaries do not existed detached from wider developments, but are products of continuous exchanges and transfers which need to be traced within a trans-Ottoman framework of interactions.A further objective of the project is to discuss the concept of boundaries and the Ottoman semantics pertaining to it within the framework of conceptual history.