Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Bilig, cilt.2025, sa.114, ss.1-23, 2025 (SSCI)
Historical and anthropological analysis of commodity exchange under gift status in the social and diplomatic structure according to the ethnographic model makes excellent contributions to understanding the evolutionary process of social structure and international relations. The determination of the symbolic and cultural value of gift-giving in the diplomacy-trade model that became perfect in the tenth and eleventh centuries AD on the Silk Road reveals the permeability between Silk Road societies, the process of building a standard trade model, and the existence of exchange not only in commercial but also in cultural and linguistic fields. Gifts were a prerequisite for establishing diplomatic relations, commercial mobility, and, in a sense, human and commodity motility on the Silk Road. The reception of diplomatic letters and embassies was shaped by the material and symbolic value of gift exchange; shared lexical roots across languages reflect this cultural practice. This study aims to explain, on an ethnographic and historical basis, the impact of the gift-giving tradition along the Silk Road, centred on Turfan, on the social structure, trade model, and diplomatic rules, and the economic changes caused by the gift through diplomatic, commercial or personal letters and records in the Dunhuang manuscripts.