ABSTRACT
The extension of world-system theory to "precapitalist" settings necessarily raises questions about the distinctiveness of the "modern world-system" with respect to "precapitalist" world-systems. An examination of the historical evolution of the role of nomads in core/periphery hierarchies is one way to address the questions. Trade in vital goods, trade in luxuries, trade in captives, alliances for frontier buffering, recruitment of nomads for armies, or endemic warfare with other nomads probably have different implications for the historical evolution of core/periphery hierarchies. Since nomads produced little of interest or value to settled Chinese, nomads used threats of force to induce trade: trading and raiding were alternative means to the same ends. The formation of the Ottoman empire is of interest because it was built by the transformation of nomadic pastoralists into sedentary farmer-soldiers. The Mongol Empire never made a successful transition to a sedentary state.
