ABSTRACT
It is relatively easy to distinguish the structure of a global system from above. It is composed of center-periphery relationships thereby embracing a number of societies, in different positions and of different types. A continuous evolution of the global system has taken place during the last 5,500 years. At the same time, decentralizations of industrial production and capital accumulation have produced recurrent regional shifts, accompanied by local collapses. As we usually study situations where the global system is already at work we are able to take certain processes and mechanisms as given. I shall in this chapter go back to the very early process of social evolution in southern Mesopotamia where we can follow the primary evolution of the state within the framework of an emerging global system. Here it is possible to study the transition from ‘non-coercive’ to ‘coercive’ power (cf. Clastres 1974), the establishment and transformation of hierarchical levels, the use and extension of rhizomes (structures that spread horizontally between political units), and perhaps the primary separation of economy and politics as well.
