Archaeology and world-systems analysis

Abstract

Many archaeologists have criticized world-systems analysis (WSA) for being overly economistic, ignoring individual actors and importing modern analyses to ancient settings where they are inappropriate. Those criticisms are directed largely at Immanuel Wallerstein's original formulation that was explicitly developed to explain contemporary global inequalities within and among states. In that sense there is validity to these charges. We argue, however, that most of these critiques of WSA have been misplaced. They seem to be rooted in lack of attention to modifications and extensions of WSA over the last three decades intended to address these issues, and often demonstrate a lack of familiarity with a host of WSA studies since 1974. We further argue this newer comparative WSA is a work in progress, which can be useful to archaeologists in the study of regional interactions and long-term development, and to which archaeologists are the most qualified to contribute in order to further the modification and development of WSA.