ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines a number of issues concerning the process of elite formation in the peripheries and/ or hinterlands of large-scale systems, and offers an alternative model of elite formation which resolves some contradictions which he find between archaeological interpretation and the ethnographic record. One of the early outcomes of process archaeology has been the recognition of intra-site and intra-regional variation in the archaeological record, in contrast with the tendency of the normative approach to focus on similarity. The author suggests that Service's model is inappropriate for dealing with the evolution of society outside Oceania. He also suggests as a primary factor in the formation of elite systems in the periphery the phenomenon of the cultural mediator and/or cultural broker, which he draw from both the peasant literature and culture contact studies. Virtually every study in culture contact involving states and non-states reveals the development of the cultural mediator and social ranking.
