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

我们的研究旨在绘制出奥斯曼社会文化边界的概念。我们理解语义学和实践在构建社会文化差异中的作用，因为它们是反映特定认识论纠缠的知识库存。一旦追踪到关于社会文化边界的思想在时间、空间以及不同社会和文化背景之间的运动，这些纠缠就变得显而易见。因此，一个特定的互动框架被访问，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该项目的主要目标。对社会文化差异的描述以及在奥斯曼背景下绘制和跨越边界的过程指向一个复杂的语义场，在本项目的过程中，依靠概念史领域的方法论支持，对该语义场进行了记录和分析。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，该项目追踪了概念和含义随时间的变化，注意到翻译策略，以及正在发挥作用的改编和挪用，并记录了奥斯曼使用中各种体裁和背景之间的差异。在此基础上的实证数据，奥斯曼语义学的变化过程和机制的假设有关的社会文化边界进行了探讨。两个关键的假设是在这些审议的基础上：第一，奥斯曼语义有关的社会文化边界的变化可能与奥斯曼社会内部更广泛的变革。因此，对这些语义学的分析可以为奥斯曼帝国内部更大的创新和变革进程提供指针。第二，奥斯曼社会文化边界语义学的存在并不脱离更广泛的发展，而是持续交流和转移的产物，需要在跨奥斯曼的互动框架内进行追踪。本项目的进一步目标是在概念史的框架内讨论边界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.