WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY 2219
WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY
P Nick Kardulias, The College of Wooster, Wooster,
OH, USA
ã 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Glossary
incorporation The complex process whereby peripheral groups
become members of a world-system dominated by a core. The
core typically exerts pressure on peripheries in the attempt to
extract raw resources and labor, but the level of involvement in
the world-system varies on a continuum from weak to strong.
ingot A block of metal produced by smelting of ore and cast into
a shape that facilitates storage or transportation.
In the search for comprehensive explanatory models,
archaeologists have turned to a number of different
approaches. Overall, we can divide these approaches
into those that espouse a broader, generalizing per-
spective that is applicable to many times and places
and others that stress the particular ways that spe-
cific groups structured their lives in the past. World-
systems theory is one of the former approaches.
World-systems analysis covers a broad range of issues
and topics, but this article concentrates on a basic
definition of key terms, and some problems, and sug-
gested alterations in the theory to accommodate the
work of archaeologists, especially in terms of core/
periphery relations and the process of incorporation.
World-systems theory shares with other models that
emphasize intersocietal interaction the basic tenet that
past cultures did not exist in pristine isolation; rather,
constant contacts, both direct and indirect, affected
groups involved in exchange networks. Where world-
systems theorists differ with other interaction models
is in the geographic extent they consider, the stress
on the hierarchical nature of systems with a focus on
economics, and for some, the desire to outline long-
term cycles of expansion and contraction in system
structure and intensity.
World-systems theory developed as a generalized
approach to the study of intersocietal contact, and
originated with the work of Immanuel Wallerstein,
who studied the emergence of modern capitalism.
According to him, world-systems ‘‘. . . are defined by
the fact that their self-containment as an economic-
material entity is based on extensive division of labor
and that they contain within them a multiplicity of
cultures.’’ He uses the term ‘world’ to refer to inter-
acting politico-economic units, and not some global
entity. Furthermore, he distinguishes between two
types of world-systems; world empires and world
economies; the difference is the presence in the former
of a single political structure over a vast area. Further-
more, the operation of a world economy requires
the presence of core-states and peripheral areas.
Core-states possess complex political structures (stra-
tified class systems with large bureaucracies) and, by
means of superior technology, exercise control over
the major facilities of production, transportation, and
communication. Political organization in peripheral
areas is at the pre-state or incipient state level and is
relatively weak compared to that in core-states. Core-
states incorporate peripheral areas into the capital-
ist world economy because these peripheral regions
often contain important natural resources. Through
political and economic control of the system, Waller-
stein contends, core-states exploited the labor and
material resources of peripheral areas and received
a disproportionately large share of the surplus or
benefits. He argues further that European nation-
states, through colonization, competed among them-
selves for control or access to peripheral areas in
order to increase profits. Interposed between cores
and peripheries are semi-peripheries which often act
as intermediaries between the two extremes of the
system. Over the past three decades, various scholars
have significantly augmented the original world-systems
formulation in order to address a series of issues.
Wallerstein’s study of the relationship between
core-states and peripheral areas provides an excellent
model of European expansion in the early modern
period. One problem, however, is his treatment of
incorporation into a world economy as one-sided.
Thomas Hall, among others, argues that one must
study the local conditions in peripheral areas as well
as the capitalist economy in core-states in order to
understand fully the nature of incorporation. Hall
notes that incorporation into a world economy is a
matter of degree and that nonstate peripheral soci-
eties play a more active role than generally believed.
This aspect is particularly true for various periods in
antiquity when complete domination of a peripheral
zone was technologically and politically impossible. As
a result, incorporation was less encompassing in antiq-
uity. Furthermore, some scholars note that people on
the periphery can at times negotiate effectively because
they control access to a key resource.
Peripheries exhibit variation. In general, peripheries
tend to have decentralized political and economic
systems, especially when compared to core regions.
Furthermore, there are several types of peripheries.
2220 WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY
One type is an extraction zone that supplies raw
materials to core-states. In such places, indigenous
populations perform most of the labor required to pro-
cure raw materials, and can be identified by the pres-
ence of quarry pits, but with minimal evidence of
processing (e.g., metal quarries with initial processing
of ores into ingots, but not finished products). Second,
a fully incorporated periphery will have evidence of
foreign installations that indicate the incursion of a
core-state, complete with administrative structures and
central storage facilities. A third type is the contested
periphery between competing cores. In such areas,
there may be fortified outposts facing each other in
strategic locations; barrier walls may also be present.
A major issue for archaeologists is the degree to
which the world-systems model applies to the ancient
world. Wallerstein suggests the world-system was
an outgrowth of capitalism and is thus a creation of
the sixteenth century. Archaeologists have applied the
approach to Mesoamerica, the American Midwest,
and other regions. For the Old World, Philip Kohl
has modified world-systems theory to fit ancient
conditions. In a critique of the primitivist views of
M. I. Finley and others, Kohl cites many examples
of price fixing, inflation, and market mentality that
demonstrate the complexity of ancient economies.
He builds a strong argument for the existence of an
intricate multicentered world system during the
Bronze Age in Southwest Asia. Unlike many modern
technologies, ancient ones were often portable and
could be moved easily from core to periphery. This
fact, along with the lack of major colonization, made
it possible for peripheries to retain their autonomy and
precluded the exploitation and underdevelopment
characteristic of the modern world system. Kohl
argues that the barbarian peripheries had a significant
impact on how core regions developed. Gunder Frank
argues that areas on the margins of the Near East,
while important as regions of economic interaction,
were subject to the influences of the ‘super powers’ of
the time: Egypt, Assyria, the Hittites, and other states in
Mesopotamia. Frank contends that an Afro-Eurasian
world system has existed for 5000 years, since the ori-
gins of the state in Mesopotamia and Egypt. In addition
to the long history of the world system, Frank lists
five other theoretical premises: (1) the seminal impor-
tance of long-distance trade relations, (2) the accumu-
lation of capital (‘cumulation of accumulation’) drives
history, (3) core/periphery structure is a key trait,
(4) shifting hegemony and rivalry characterizes the
world system, and (5) economic development of the
system occurs in long cycles of alternating ascending
(or A) phases and descending (or B) phases.
Reviewing world-systems applications, Edward
Schortman and Patricia Urban suggest the units of
study should be society and ethnicity, which are
connected by the flow of information. Their archaeo-
logical work in Mesoamerica stresses the role of elites
(see Social Inequality, Development of) who used re-
gional interaction to generate and sustain their elevat-
ed status. Christopher Chase-Dunn and T. D. Hall
go further and argue that change occurs not within
individual societies, but in world-systems. Their goal
is to provide a comparative matrix within which to
study contacts for all societies, even stateless foraging
groups. Of special relevance is their definition of two
kinds of core/periphery relationships. What they call
core/periphery differentiation involves groups of vary-
ing sociopolitical complexity that engage in active
interchange. Core/periphery hierarchy refers to the
situation in which one or more groups dominate others
in the system. They argue this distinction is necessary
because exploitation does not necessarily characterize
all interactions between cores and peripheries.
Chase-Dunn and Hall also propose a typology of
world-systems based on societal complexity and
mode of production: (1) kin-based mode dominant,
(2) tributary modes dominant (urban cultures),
(3) capitalist mode dominant, and (4) socialist mode
dominant. Category 2 includes both primary empires
and multicentered world systems in which peripheral
zones, empires, and autonomous states interact. One
important hypothesis derived from this model is that
social innovation occurs readily in semiperipheral
zones because they receive input from cores and per-
ipheries and are not burdened by excessive core con-
trols. Chase-Dunn and Hall have issued a call for case
studies by archaeologists to provide the comparative
database necessary to test this hypothesis. They also
suggest that world-systems are multiscalar, providing
a means to examine large empires and ‘small world-
systems’ of foraging or horticultural societies, such as
the Wintu of Northern California.
In addition, Hall and Chase-Dunn suggest that there
are four types of boundaries in world-systems; these
parameters rarely coincide. The boundaries are: (1) a
boundary of information or cultural flows; (2) a bound-
ary of luxury or prestige goods flows; (3) a boundary
of political/military interaction; and (4) a boundary of
bulk goods flows. Mundane materials, which often
constitute the majority of bulk goods, are typically
embedded in the information and prestige nets, yet are
distinct from the military net.
Prehistorian Andrew Sherratt has used the term
‘margin’ to refer to a zone that does not interact
directly with a core, but does provide materials that
are critical to the operation of a world-system.
He points to the role of amber from the Baltic region
and various metals from Central Europe in the
Mediterranean trade system. The urban core of the

Near East and the Aegean in the Bronze Age stimu-
lated the exchange (see Exchange Systems) of many
commodities through multiple links, without mem-
bers from either geographical extreme ever coming
into direct contact. Parts of this system go back to the
Neolithic. Sherratt implies that the Bronze Age is
aptly named, not simply because of the artifacts, but
because this metal alloy fueled the economic ex-
pansion on which many early states depended. More
recently, Mitch Allen has added the notion of con-
tested peripheries, that is, those areas in the interstices
between empires that the latter struggle to control
(see above). On occasion, people in the contested
region have the ability to negotiate with the contend-
ing parties to gain the best deal for themselves.
One of the important aspects of world-systems
theory is its ability to crosscut disciplines in an at-
tempt to determine the nature of cultural change over
time. The approach brings together sociologists
(Chase-Dunn, Hall, Wilma Dunaway), political scien-
tists (David Wilkinson, William Thompson), histor-
ians (Richard L. Slatta), economists (A. G. Frank),
archaeologists (Kohl, Sherratt), and others in the ex-
amination of intersocietal interaction, often with a
focus on antiquity. In this way, world-systems theory
acts as a bridge among the social sciences. Volumes
that demonstrate this interdisciplinary nature include
works by Chase-Dunn and Hall, Frank and Gills, Hall,
and Kardulias.
See also: Exchange Systems; Social Inequality, Devel-
opment of.
Further Reading
Blanton R and Feinman G (1984) The Mesoamerican World
System. American Anthropologist 86: 673–682.
World Wide Web See: Internet, Archaeology on.
WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY 2221
Chase-Dunn C and Anderson EN (eds.) (2005) The Historical
Evolution of World-Systems. New York and London: Palgrave.
Chase-Dunn C and Hall TD (eds.) (1991) Core/Periphery Relations
in Precapitalist Worlds. Boulder: Westview.
Chase-Dunn C and Hall TD (1997) Rise and Demise: Comparing
World-Systems. Boulder: Westview.
Gunder FA (1993) Bronze age world system cycles. Current
Anthropology 34: 383–429.
Hall TD (2000) A World-Systems Reader. Lanham, MD: Rowman
and Littlefield.
Hall TD (2006) [Re]periphalization, [re]incorporation, frontiers,
and nonstate societies: Continuities and discontinuities in globali-
zation processes. In: Gills BK and Thompson WR (eds.) Glob-
alization and Global History, pp. 96–113. London: Routledge.
Hollis S (2005) Contact, incorporation, and the North American
Southeast. Journal of World-Systems Research 11(1(July)):
95–130.
Kardulias PN (1999) World-Systems Theory in Practice: Leader-
ship, Production, and Exchange. Lanham, MD: Rowman and
Littlefield.
Kohl PL (1989) The use and abuse of world systems theory: The
case of the ‘‘pristine’’ west Asian state. In: Lamberg-Karlovsky
CC (ed.) Archaeological Thought in America, pp. 218–240.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pailes RA and Whitecotton JW (1975) The Greater Southwest
and Mesoamerican ‘world’ system. In: Savage WW and
Thompson SI (eds.) The Frontier: Comparative Studies, 2,
pp. 105–121. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Peregrine P (1992) Mississippian Evolution: A World-System Per-
spective. Madison: Prehistory Press.
Schortman EM and Urban PA (1987) Modeling interregional inter-
action in prehistory. Advances in Archaeological Method and
Theory 11: 37–95.
Shannon TR (1996) An Introduction to the World-System Perspec-
tive. 2nd edn. Boulder: Westview.
Sherratt A (1993) What would a Bronze-Age world system look
like? Relations between temperate Europe and the Mediterra-
nean in later prehistory. Journal of European Archaeology 1(2):
1–57.
Wallerstein I (1974) The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agri-
culture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the
Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
Wallerstein I (2004) World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.