Linking Multiple Scales in Time and Space: Small Worlds and World-Systems Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This contribution proposes that world-systems analysis could benefit from greater consideration of a local-scale, or “small world,” perspective. These maritime and terrestrial small worlds, defined by face-to-face interaction and often deeply embedded social and economic ties, are building blocks that can illustrate key aspects of how local-scale entities are constituted and how they might operate within a world system. Particularly, at this scale, we can observe the variability in the way that small worlds operate internally (e.g., hierarchically or heterarchically) and how they form linkages to external worlds, using a network approach that identifies the strong ties that bind them and the weak ties that link them to other (often larger) networks. It is also to be recognized that many small worlds within zones, such as the Aegean, that are engaged in the interactions that define a world system, are marginally or not at all integrated into those world systems. Several examples from the Bronze Age Aegean illustrate potential insights that might be derived from the small world perspective.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39660.0