CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 34, Number 4, August-October I993 ? I993 byThe Wenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research. All rightsreserved OOII-3204/93/3404-0003$3.00 The world system and its cycles have long determined the economic, political, and cultural opportunitiesor limitationsfaced by regions,peoples, and theirpolitical Bronze Age World institutionsand leaders. Cyclically alternatingglobal warmingand ice ages probablyalso affectedeconomic System Cycles' and political fortunes.Even today,a risingeconomic sea liftsmost boats even if some capsize. A recedingworld economic tide or stormyweather sinks manymore ships of state,but the same crisis that generatestheir decline by AndreGunder Frank offersnew opportunitiesto (literal)upstarts elsewhere. The historicalreview offeredhere will show thatpoliti- cal-economic fortunesand hegemonic rivalryand its outcomes were alreadybeing vitallyaffected by partici- This essayexplores the geographicalextent of the worldsystem pation in a world system in the Bronze Age. Detailed and datesits cyclicalups and downsduring the Bronze Age and, demonstrationof how the system operated is left for in a preliminaryway, the earlyIron Age. The scope of thesetwin anothertime and/orto othersbetter qualified than I. It tasksis exceptionallywide and deep: wide in exploringa single worldsystem that encompasses much ofAfro-Eurasia, deep in may be usefultherefore to attemptto state at the outset identifyingsystemwide economic and politicalcycles since more what is and what is not proposedhere and to anticipate than5,000 yearsago. and answer some objections to both. The firstobjection may be that the task is impossible ANDRE GUNDER FRANK iS Professorof Development Economics to accomplish. In particular,it may be rightlyargued and Social Sciencesat the Universityof Amsterdam (his address: that I lack the professionaltraining or experiencein ar- H. Bosmansstraat57, 1077 XG Amsterdam,Holland). Born in Ber- chaeologyand historyfor it and have insufficientknowl- lin in i929, he was educatedin the UnitedStates and receiveda Ph.D. in economicsat the Universityof Chicagoin I957. He edge of the area, the period,the materials,and the prob- has taughtin departmentsof anthropology,economics, history, lems and pitfallsof their study. My use or citation of politicalscience, and sociologyof universities in Europe,North particularfacts, sources, and/or"authorities" may also America,and LatinAmerica. His earlierwork, primarily on de- appear objectionableon the groundsthat (supposedlyor pendenceand "the developmentof underdevelopment," became well knownfrom his Capitalismand Underdevelopmentin perhapseven reallyunbeknownst to me) theyhave been LatinAmerica (New York:Monthly Review Press, i967). Subse- discreditedby "the profession."Another objection (or quentwork on world-systemhistory, contemporary international perhapsanother version of the same one) is thateven the politicaleconomy, and social movementsis representedby the best archaeologistsand historianstoday lack the factual followingpublications, among others: World Accumulation evidence and analytical methods necessaryto establish I492-I789 (New York:Monthly Review Press, I978); Crisisin the WorldEconomy (London: Heinemann, ig80); and The Euro- or even indicate the extentof such a world systemand pean Challenge(Westport, Conn.: LawrenceHill, I983). The pres- its cyclical ups and downs. My perhapsinsufficient an- entpaper was submittedin finalform i 5 xi 92. sweris thatfools rush in where archangelsfear to tread. It is not that I can claim to know better,but perhapsin knowingless about the obstacles as well and bringing the freshand unencumberedperspective of an outsider to the task I am more willing and perhapseven able to try.Thus, I make bold to propose a new outline of the world system and older datings of its cyclical rhythm than have othersheretofore. In doing so, however,I can challenge othersmore competentthan I to test and re- vise my tentativefindings. A second objection will be that there was not one world systemin the BronzeAge but, if any,many. Even by the criteriaof participationin a single systemthat I shall set out below, there probablywere several such "systems" in Bronze Age and later times, and certainly none of them was world-encompassing.There is, how- ever, increasingevidence that one such world system did unite a vast arrayof regionsand peoples in a com- i. It is a pleasureto acknowledgethe help ofall themany authors whomI havequoted so muchabove, among them especially Mitch- mon historical process. Apparentlythis world system ell Allen, ChristopherEdens, Barry Gills, and ShereenRatnagar, was centered on West/CentralAsia and the Eastern who additionallysent me verydetailed written comments on a Mediterranean/NorthAfrica but extended far beyond previousdraft. They will recognizemy input of their help but per- this. Moreover, it was this central world system (as haps not much of theircriticism in this revision.Several friends and particularlyPhilip Kohl, KristianKristiansen, and Andrew Chase-Dunnand Hill [i99i], combiningthe designa- Sherrattalso helpedenormously by making not only their own but tions of Gills and Frank[I990, I99I] and Wilkinson also theirfriends' unpublished manuscripts available to me. [I987], suggestthat we call it) that eventuallyexpanded 383 This content downloaded from 158.109.185.101 on Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:58:12 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 384 1 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 34, Number 4, August-October 1993 to incorporateall the rest of the world into a world sys- Hard evidence on such (system-)widespread alternat- tem that now does include one and all. ing phases of more rapid and slower economic expan- A thirdobjection will be that,even if the existenceof sion, contraction,and/or crisis is, of course, hard to such a world system as early as the Bronze Age were come by. To my knowledge,prior to Gills and Frank admissible,it could hardlyhave experiencedsimultane- (i992) no one had even attemptedany such assemblyof ous systemwide cyclical phases of rapid economic evidence as is presentedbelow. For economic upswings, expansionand subsequentcontraction or slowergrowth. I examine evidence or at least assertionsregarding vari- Even today, however, some economic sectors (micro- ous regionsin Eurasia of economic expansionof produc- electronics,biogenetics) and regions (in East Asia) are tion and/or trade,population growth,increase in city out of step or phase with the systemwideeconomic cri- size, and even diplomatic missions. Conversely, for sis, but only an ostrich-likehead-in-the-sand view can downswingsor crises, I seek evidence or assertionsof deny the existence of that crisis. I shall marshal evi- absolutelyor relativelyreduced production and/or trade, dence that somethingat least analogous can be identi- population decline or reduced growth,decline in city fiedas farback as the earlyBronze Age. size, and abandonmentof cities. Other objections may focus on my failureto pursue For instance, I will draw on tests of the Gills and relatedinquiries into more conventionalquestions such Frank(1 99.2) datingof cyclicalphases independentlyper- as ecology,technology, state formation,class structure, formedby researchersusing data on changesin citysize. language,race, culture,and religion.At a time of nearly However welcome these are, their reliabilitymay be worldwide assertions of "ethnicity" and diversity,a compromisedby (i) my own interpretationof (2) their statementof world-systemunity in diversitymay also interpretationof (3) theirsource Chandler's (1I987)inter- seem to committedactivists "politically incorrect." So- pretation of (4) Chandler's sources of city-size data, cial theoristsmay find especially lacking a theoretical which (5) are incomplete and (6) may be erroneousand analysis of how the relations among all of these and probablyrecord more and greatercity sizes in West Asia otherfactors "make the systemtick." I do not denythe than in East Asia-all of which may be subject to still importanceof these and other internal/local/national/ other,unidentified problems, among themthe use ofthe societal, institutional,cultural, and voluntarist/agency city-sizemeasure because it is more readily available factors.However, those who emphasize themin practice than others.Thus, reliance on city-sizeand other data and theoryto the exclusion of the real world-systemic or assertionsis not meant to suggest that they are all and cyclical "outside" forcesbeyond them do so at their definitivelyreliable but only that I am doing the best I peril.This is because the latterdetermine the opportuni- can with everylittle bit that may help. ties and limitationsof the former.Therefore, all these More oftenthan not, also, I must compare,contrast, and othermore conventionalsociopolitical and cultural and combine statementsby others who have observed concernsand theoreticalproblems will only be touched economic growthor decline here and thereto tryto get on in the textand/or relegated to at best some suggestive a pictureof a world-systemwidepattern and sequence. questions and answers in the conclusion. Sometimes,direct economic evidenceof expansion and/ Nonetheless, I shall begin with a brief attempt to or contractionis not readily available, and I must try place the presentinquiry in the contextof certainongo- to inferit fromrecorded social or political events-for ing discussions. One of these discussions is about the example,the rise and decline ofempires, "civilizations," nature of and/orthe appropriateapproach to