Crop Migrations as a Globalising Process: The Case of Tropical Asian Crops in Ancient East-West Networks

This paper, using the case of tropical Asian crops in ancient east-west networks, contends that the creation of a common “ecolanguage”, that is coherence in crop and consumptive cultures, was the basis for further political and cultural cohesion. Using a number of case-studies, I will characterise the development of this “ecolanguage” as a dynamic, non-linear globalising process which was both random and deliberate. In this regard, the second part of the paper considers questions of agency in this globalising process and attempts to wean off commerce-centric models of pre-modern connectivity.