ABSTRACT
Transregional phenomena have, for a long time, captured the attention of scholars. Even the mobilities of humankind’s direct ancestors have been analysed as transregional phenomena, and recent DNA sequencing has allowed for astonishing new insights into how far reaching such mobilities have been. Debates on Black Athena and Alexander the Great’s march into India may serve as signs of the transregional connections during antiquity. Arab seafarers exploring the Indian Ocean, Tamerlan’s westward expansion from Central Asia, or the many confrontations between autochthonous populations and invaders from different continents in the Caribbean and Central America are other prominent examples that are closer to our times. Such happenings are evidently marked not only by a fast-growing number of transregional connections but also by the legacy of remembrance of previous ones – often presented in a Eurocentric manner that places their origins and impetus in the so-called Western world. When examining the Ngramm Viewer’s results for ‘transregional’, an initial interest is observable in the 1940s, a revival in the 1950s, and a massive upward trend in the 1980s that even accelerated in the 1990s. Transregional phenomena were eagerly addressed in many academic disciplines, and more recently they have been accepted as an important part of our lives, irrespective of whether we are from and/or in the West or not. Following the end of the Cold War, transregional phenomena increasingly drew attention within academia specifically, as well as society in general, because they connect seemingly separate worlds – read as world regions – transcending them and contributing to their transformation.
