Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS)
University of California-Riverside

This study proposes a general set of decision rules for specifying the spatial and temporal boundaries of interpolity systems. What is needed is a systematic method for separating significantly (high bar) independent cases that can be the basis of comparative analysis and for determining when and where regional systems merged with one another to become the global system that we have today. We try to specify rules that will work across the anthropological spectrum of human polities from nomadic foraging bands to the single global society of today. For this goal, we discuss the concepts, "systemness," "place-centricity," "fall-off" and "exogenous impacts." We also specify rules of thumb for systemic connectedness for four types of interaction that typically have different spatial scales: "bulk goods networks," "political-military networks," "prestige goods networks" and "information networks."