Pre-modern societies tolerated layered loyalties that sovereign states suppress

Evidence

The idea of complex space (in contrast to the discourse of a borderless world37) is in my view a fruitful way of thinking about the intersecting boundaries and heterogeneous activities of individuals as well as of groups related to traditions. Unlike the modern, secular world of nation-states, medieval Christendom and Islam recognized a multiplicity of overlapping bonds and identities. People were not always expected to subject themselves to one sovereign authority, nor were they themselves sovereign moral subjects. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 874

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘complex space’ against both borderless-globalization talk and the unitary sovereign-state frame.
• XREF: Complicates the vaulted Cooper argument: Asad implies the modern secular state’s demand for single sovereignty is itself a contingent construction parallel to the Christian-normativity Cooper critiques. — connects to: Pre-nineteenth-century empires ruled indirectly through autonomous regional power-holders. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 182