Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The assumption of simple core/periphery relationships is under challenge. Not only are scholars like Kristian Kristiansen focusing increasingly on the cultural changes which peripheral' societies initiated in the core', but also, as this book shows, the mechanisms of domination necessary to manage the periphery are not archaeological apparent in practice in core' societies. The contributors to this volume reevaluate World Systems Theory in the light of work in the Old and New Worlds. Contents include: The changing structure of macroregional Mesoamerica: the Classic-Postclassic transition in the valley of Oaxaca (Gary Feinman); Negotiated peripherality in Iron Age Greece: accepting and resisting the East (Ian Morris); Production within and beyond Imperial boundaries: Goods, exchanges and power in Roman Europe (Peter Wells).
Synopsis
In the quarter century since Wallerstein first developed world systems theory (WST), scholars in a variety of disciplines have adopted the approach to explain intersocietal interaction on a grand scale. These essays bring to light archaeological data and analysis to show that many historic and prehistoric states lacked the mechanisms to dominate the distant (and in some cases, nearby) societies with which they interacted.