The aim is to investigate by whom and how foreignness was addressed in administrative contexts under the conditions of xenocracy and how foreignness was ascribed in various fields of action; which criteria (language, religion, origin, regional origin, etc.) were used to define foreignness; and which intersectional entanglements of these differentiations were particularly typical and how they related to social hierarchization processes.

We want to examine how xenocracy was symbolically mediated within local administrative contexts and areas and how xenocratic administration was inscribed into different areas.

We ask about the role that officials played in the process of localizing xenocracy through administration, and about their positioning as mediators between the ruled and (foreign) rulers. In connection with this, the relationship between vertically organized administration and acephalously organized administration must be clarified.

We ask to what extent, on the one hand, xenocratic administration intervened in existing patterns of order and social boundaries and, on the other hand, to what extent this triggered transculturation processes that permanently changed these patterns of order.