ABSTRACT
The terms core, semi-periphery and periphery have been taken up by archaeologists, with a certain lack of criticism, from the concepts of political economy applied to the recent historical world. The dangers of transferring models based on capitalist economies to the study of pre-capitalist socio-political formations are self-evident. However, it should be recalled that although Wallerstein primarily directed the term world economy towards a modern world system, he explicitly mentioned the existence of world economies that pre-dated the political and economic structure of the modern world (Wallerstein 1974, p. 16). Generalized processes allied to the coreperiphery phenomenon may be detectable in pre-capitalist contexts, even if they are somewhat different in form (cf. Paynter 1981, p. 238). Nevertheless, the use of the terms core and periphery in a formative phase of socio-political development, prior to the politically unified, imperial world systems that Wallerstein specifically noted, remains a dangerous step.
