60 Thomas D. Hall
Overall then, this is an excellent example of how WSA and study of the ancient world
can benefit each other. Parkinson and Galaty note (119) that Aegean states were unusual
in developing in the absence of competing chiefdoms, the more common process.
That the Aegean follows a less common pattern creates, in and of itself, an empirical
and theoretical puzzle that might best be solved by comparisons with secondary state
formation processes elsewhere. Also, they note that the specific organizations of those
“entities” that became states shaped the kind of states they formed. In short, there
is an intense interaction between local and world-systemic processes—the negoti-
ated peripherality—underscoring that world-systemic processes often work from the
bottom up.
The role of semiperipheral areas within a world-system is major topic in WSA.
Chase-Dunn and Hall (1997, Chapter 5) argued that there are many possible kinds of
semiperipheries:
- Regions that mix core and peripheral forms of organization
- Regions spatially located between core and peripheral regions
- Regions located between two or more competing core regions (contested semipe-
ripheries) - Regions in which mediating activities linking core and peripheral areas take place
- Regions in which institutional features are intermediate in form between those found
in adjacent core and peripheral areas
The number of, kinds of, and variations among semiperipheries are empirical and theoret-
ical issues that need further investigation. Semiperipheral areas, especially marcher states,
are frequent sites of system change. A marcher state located on the fringe of a system
might take over the system, and become a new core and shift the core both politically
and geographically. Such semiperipheral areas have distinct advantages. First, because
they are on the edge of a system, they need defense from only one direction. Second,
their contact with core areas often yields a solid command of core technologies and social
processes; yet, their elites are not heavily invested in them, so they are freer to experi-
ment, and to develop new forms of social organization. This is why semiperipheral areas
are frequently seedbeds of change.
A related problem is when and how core–periphery differentiation (wherein dif-
ferent kinds of societies are in interaction) might become hierarchically related, a
core–periphery hierarchy. Not all instances of core–periphery differentiation become
core–periphery hierarchies. How, why, and when such transitions do occur are open
questions, empirically and theoretically.
State formation is a system process that is closely connected to processes of incor-
poration of new areas and new peoples into world-systems. Hall (1989) argued that
incorporation is a complex continuum that has empirically fuzzy beginnings and is some-
what reversible, but does tend toward increased incorporation over time (see Figure 4.1).
This is a process where local peoples are able to resist or shape the process. Zones of incor-
poration are frontiers (Hall 2009, 2013) where all social relations are, to some extent, up
for grabs. Thus, it is on frontiers that active resistance, occasionally successful, of people
in peripheral areas is most visible. Among social relations that are most fluid in areas of
incorporation or frontier zones are ethnic and racial identities. That early English writers