World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

2024 marks 50 years since the publication of Immanuel Wallerstein’s seminal volume on world-systems theory (WST). Wallerstein focused on the emergence of the capitalist world-system in the sixteenth century, but his model attracted the attention of archaeologists, historians, and others who applied the approach to precapitalist societies. Through reconfiguring of concepts such as core, periphery, semi-periphery, and incorporation, and the development of additional elements, most notably globalization, these researchers expanded the application of WST to periods reaching far back into antiquity. WST has evolved into a broader paradigm encompassing theories that share a focus on intersocietal interaction and the myriad ways that is expressed in the political, economic, social, and religious spheres. The term world-systems analysis (WSA) has been adopted to describe this more expansive perspective. In addition to the concepts developed by Wallerstein, Frank, Hall, Chase-Dunn, and others, notions concerning globalization, the nature and function of frontiers, network analysis, small worlds, and deep history have come to play major roles in WSA. This session examines the status of WSA and related approaches as frameworks that explain cultural conditions through time. Participants explore such linkages in East and Central Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas and also consider future directions.