4
Cores, Peripheries, and Civilizations
David Wilkinson
The
terminology of "core" and "periphery"
allows
us to address substantive issues of
interest
to the study of world politics, of
world
systems, and of civilizations: issues
of
geographic differentiation, inequality, and
uneven
change. Power, pelf, prestige, prog-
ress,
population and piety are significantly
centric:
spatially located, concentrated,
radiating
outwards, radially diminishing. To
some
degree, but not completely, their spatial
distributions
overlap, creating the sense of
historic
"cores" for macrosocieties; at some
timescales,
cores seem stable, at some longer
scales
they move in apparently nonrandom ways.
Reprise.
This is one in a series of papers
exploring
the relationship of civilizations
theory
to world politics. In this series
(e.g.,
Wilkinson, 1987) I have defined "a
civilization"
using criteria of level-and-
politicomilitary-connectedness
rather than
the
more customary criteria of level-and-
cultural-uniformity. Screening a list of some
seventy
candidates yielded a list of fourteen
entities
which appeared to be societies at a
civilized
level (criteria: cities, record-
keeping,
economic surplus, non-producing
classes,
etc.) which were also connected
world-systems
-- militarily closed, geotechno-
logically
isolated social-transactional net-
works
with an autonomous political history
during
which they did not take or need not
have
taken much account of the possibility of
conquest,
invasion, attack -- or alliance and
cooperation
-- from any outsiders, although
the
members of each such system did recurrent-
ly
conquer, invade, attack, ally with, com-
mand,
rule, legislate, cooperate with, and
conflict
significantly and effectively with
(and
only with) one another.
Table 1 gives the resulting roster of
civilizations/world
systems.
Table
1. A Roster of Fourteen Civilizations
(listed
in their approximate order of incorporation into Central Civiliza-
tion)
CivilizationDuration Terminus
1. Mesopotamian before 3000 B.C. - c. 1500 B.C.Coupled with
Egyptian
to form
Central
2. Egyptianbefore 3100 B.C. - c. 1500
B.C.Coupled with
Mesopotamian
to form
Central
3. Aegeanc. 2700 B.C. - c. 560 B.C.Engulfed by
Central
4. Indic
c. 2300 B.C. - after c. A.D. 1000Engulfed
by
Central
5. Irish
c. A.D. 450 - c. 1050 Engulfed
by
Central
6. Mexicanbefore 1100 B.C. - c. A.D.
1520Engulfed by Central
7. Peruvianbefore c. 200 B.C. - c. A.D.
1530Engulfed by Central
8. Chibchan? - c. A.D. 1530 Engulfed by Central
9. Indonesianbefore A.D. 700 - c. 1700Engulfed
by Central
10.
West Africanc. A.D. 350 - c. 1590
Engulfed
by
Central
11.
Mississippianc. A.D. 700 - c. 1700
Destroyed
(Pestilence?)
12. Far
Easternbefore 1500 B.C. - after c. A.D. 1850Engulfed by Central
13.
Japanesec. A.D. 650 - after c. 1850Engulfed by Central
14.
Centralc. 1500 B.C. - present ?
Figure
1 is a chronogram showing the lifespans
and relative
(Mercator) locations of the
civilizations
in the roster.
The most striking effect of the new defini-
tion on
accustomed lists of civilizations is
that
such accustomed entities as Classical-
Hellenic/Greco-Roman
civilization, Hittite
civilization,
Arab-
ian/Magian/Syriac/Iranic/Islamic
civiliza-
tion(s),
Orthodox Christian civilization,
Russian
civilization, and even our own famil-
iar
Western civilization, must be reclassified
either
as episodes of or as regions within a
previously
unrecognized social-network entity,
by my
definition both a civilized society and
a world
system, hence a single civilization.
This
civilization I have labeled Central
civilization.
Central civilization was created in the
Middle
East during the 2nd millennium B.C. by
an
atypical encounter between two pre-existing
civilizations. Civilizations may coexist,
collide,
break apart or fuse; when they have
fused,
they have typically done so by an
asymmetric,
inegalitarian engulfment of one by
the
other. But the linking of the
previously
separate
Egyptian and Mesopotamian civiliza-
tions
through Syria was an atypical, relative-
ly symmetric and egalitarian
"coupling" which
created
a new joint network-entity rather than
annexing
one network as a part of the other
entrained
to its process time. The new Cen-
tral
network, in an unbroken existence and
process
since then, has been atypical in
another
way: it has expanded, slowly by the
reckoning
of national and state turnover
times,
but quite rapidly by comparison to
other
civilizations, and in that expansion has
engulfed
all the other civilizational networks
with
which it once coexisted and later collid-
ed. Now expanded to global scale, Central
civilization
constitutes the single contem-
porary
instance of the species "civilization."
Figure
1 shows "Greco-Roman" and "Western" as
epochs
of regional dominance within Central
civilization;
these dominant regions in fact
constituted
long-lived, but impermanent, cores
of
Central civilization. The Near Eastern,
Medieval
and global phases of Central civili-
zation
also possessed cores, but they were
larger
and less culturally homogeneous than
the
Greco-Roman and Western cores.
Civilizations considered in their political
aspect
(and as world systems, in their world-
political
aspect) ordinarily have one or the
other
of two political structures: the states
system
(= state system = multi-state system =
system
of many independent states) and the
universal
empire (= universal state = world
state =
one-state system). Figure 2 is the
chronogram
from Figure 1, complicated by
symbolization
of the states-system periods,
the
epochs of universal empire, and the cur-
rently
unclassifiable eras of each civiliza-
tion.
About
twenty-three universal empires and about
twenty-eight
states systems may be identified.
The
universal empires of the fourteen civili-
zations
are listed in Table 2 (see also Wilk-
inson,
1988), the states systems in Table 3.
Table
2. The World States of the Fourteen Civilizations
CivilizationState Span Duration
1. Mesopotamiana. Akkadianc. 2350 - c. 2230
B.C.120
b. Third Dynastyc. 2050 - c. 1960
B.C. 90
of Ur
c. Babylonianc. 1728 - c. 1686 B.C. 42
2. Egyptiana. Old Kingdomc. 2850 - c. 2180
B.C.670
b. Middle Kingdomc. 1991 - c. 1786
B.C.205
c. New Kingdomc. 1570 - c. 1525 B.C.
45
3. Aegeana. Minoan c. 1570 - c. 1425 B.C.145
4. Indic
a. Maurya c. 262 - c. 231
B.C.
31
5. Irish None?
6. Mexicana. Aztec c. A.D. 1496 - 1519
23
7. Peruviana. Inca c. 1470 - 1533 63
8. Chibchan
None?
9. Indonesiana. Srivijayac. A.D. 695 - late 13th
C.600
b. MadjapahitA.D. 1293 - 1389 96
10.
West Africana. Ghana c. A.D.
950
?
b. Mali c. A.D. 1330 ?
c. Songhai c. A.D. 1500 ?
11.
Mississippian None?
12. Far
Easterna. Ch'in-Han221 B.C. - A.D. 184405
b. Sui-TangA.D. 589 - 750161
c. Mongol-Ming-A.D. 1279 - 1850571
Manchu
13.
Japanesea. Taiho A.D. 702 - 1336634
b. Hideyoshi-A.D. 1590 - 1868 278
Tokugawa
14.
Central
Near Easterna. Neo-Assyrian663 - 652 B.C.
11
Phase
b. Persian-525 - 316 B.C.209
Macedonian
Greco-Romanc. Roman 20 B.C. - A.D. 235
255
Phase
Table
3. The States Systems of the Fourteen Civilizations
CivilizationStates
SystemsNotable StatesDuration
1. MesopotamianA. Pre-SargonidUruk, Kish,
Nippur, Ur,
Lagash, ?
to c. 2350 B.C. Umma, Elam, Mari, Agade
B. Pre-Urnammu Agade, Guti, Erech,
Ur, Lagash,
180
c. 2230 - c. 2050 B.C. Uruk, Elam, Assyria
Table
3. Continued
CivilizationStates
SystemsNotable StatesDuration
1. MesopotamianC. Pre-Hammurabic Ur, Uruk, Isin,
Elam,
Lagash, 232
(continued) c. 1960 - c. 1728 B.C.
Eshnunna, Larsa,
Babylon,
Mari, Kassites,
Assyria
D. Post-HammurabicBabylon, Sea
Lands, Kassites,
___
c. 1686 - c. 1500 B.C. Hittites
(becomes 14A)
2. EgyptianA. Pre-NarmerUpper Egypt, Lower
Egypt ?
to c. 2850 B.C.
B. First IntermediateHeracleopolis,
Thebes 189
c. 2180 - c. 1991 B.C.
C. Second IntermediateThebes, Xois,
Avaris
216
c. 1786 - c. 1570 B.C.
3. Aegean(A. Pre- Thalassocracy(Knossos,
Phaistos, Mallia?)
___
to c. 1570 B.C.?)
B. Post-ThalassocracyMycenae,
Knossos, Pylos, ___
c. 1425 - c. 560 B.C. Troy, Athens, Thebes,
(merging into 14A) Tiryns, Miletus, Samos, Sparta,
Corinth, Phrygia,
Lydia
4. Indic
A. Pre-Asoka Maghada, Kosala,
Ujjain,
?
to c. 262 B.C. Vamsas, Kalinga
B. Pre-Engulfment Maghada, Bactria, Sakas,
1231
c. 231 B.C. - Kushana, Andhra, Kanauj,
Palas,
c. A.D. 1000 Gurjara-Prathiharas, Pallavas,
Chalukyas, Pandyas,
Rashtrakutas,
Cholas, Ghaznavids
5. Irish
(A. Pre-Engulfment (Tara,
Dublin,
Munster, ?
to c. A.D. 1050?) Ulster, Connaught?)
6. MexicanA. Pre-Montezuma Tenochtitlan, Texcoco,
?
to c. 1496 Tlacopan,
Azcapotzalco, Mixtecs,
Zapotecs,
Tarascans, Tlaxcala
7. PeruvianA. Pre-Huayna CapacCuzco, Charcas,
Chimu, Quito
?
to c. 1470
8. Chibchan(A. Pre-Engulfment(Tunja, Bacata?)
?
to c. 1530?)
9. IndonesianA. Pre-SrivijayanSrivijaya,
Malayu, Kalah
?
to c. A.D. 695
B. Pre-Madjapahit Srivijaya, Singosari,
?
(late 13th C. A.D.) Madjapahit
C. Pre-Engulfment Madjapahit, numerous
Malay ___
c. 1389 - c. 1550 States
Table
3. Continued
CivilizationStates
SystemsNotable StatesDuration
10.
West AfricanA. Pre-Ghana Ghana, Songhai
?
to 10th C. A.D.?
B. Pre-Mali Diara, Soso, Mossi, Manding,
?
11th C. A.D. - 1325 Songhai
C. Pre-Songhai Manding, Songhai,
Tuaregs
60? A.D. 1433 - 1493
11.
Mississippian(A. Pre-Natchez?)
?
(B. Post-Natchez?)
?
12. Far
EasternA. Pre-Ch'inCh'in, Chin, Han, Chao, Wei,
550
771 - 221 B.C. Ch'u, Ch'i, Lu, Sung, Yen
B. Pre-Sui 3
Kingdoms, W. Chin, 6
174
A.D. 184 - 589 Dynasties, 16 Kingdoms,
N. Wei, E. Wei, W.
Wei, N. Ch'i,
N. Chou, S. Ch'en,
Sui, Annam,
Champa, Nan-Chao, Tu-yu-hun
C. Pre-Mongol Uighurs, Tufan, Nan-chao, 5
529
A.D. 750 - 1279 Dynasties, 10 Kingdoms,
Khitans,
(Liao), Hsi-Hsia,
N. Sung,
Jurchen, (Ch'in), Ch'i, S. Sung,
Annam, Khmer,
Champa, Wu
Yueh, Mongols,
Koryo
13.
JapaneseA. Pre-Taiho Koguryo, Paekche, Silla, Imna,
402
c. A.D. 300 - 702 Yamato
B. Pre-Hideyoshi Ashikaga, Yoshino,
Enryakuji, 254
c. A.D. 1336 - 1590 Ikko, Various daimyo
14.
CentralA. Pre-AssurbanapalEgypt, Mitanni, Hittites,
Elam, 837
c. 1500 - 663 B.C. Babylon, Assyria, Urartu,
Damascus, Israel,
Tyre, Judah,
Ethiopia, Media,
Nubia
B. Pre-Darius Assyria, Armenia, Elam, 127
652-525 B.C. Babylonia, Media, Anshan,
Persia, Lydia, Egypt, Libya,
Ionia, Judah, Tyre,
Meroe
C. Pre-AugustanSyracuse,
Carthage,
296
316 - 20 B.C. Macedonia, Rome,
Seleucids,
Egypt, Pontus,
Armenia, Parthia
D. Post-Roman
A.D. 235 - presentRome, Persia,
Byzantium, 1750+
Arab Caliphate,
Frankish
Empire, Holy Roman
Empire, Mongol
Khanate, Ottoman Sultanate, Spain,
Austria, France,
Britain, Germany,
Japan, Russia,
America
Both
universal empires and states systems
ordinarily
have cores. The core in a univer-
sal
empire will usually be the metropolitan
territory
and people which conquered, united
and
governed the world system; the core in a
states
system will ordinarily include its
great-power
oligarchy.
Terminology and assumptions. At this
point,
it seems useful to stipulate some
definitions,
which will in due course become
issues,
since definitions contain the bones of
revered
but unnamed ancestral theories, and
disturb
the spirits rendered thereby non-
ancestral. In this case the terminology
offered
will contain and embody explicit
theoretical
assumptions, which (being assump-
tions)
will be expounded, but not defended.
An ideal-type civilization / world-system /
macrosociety,
because its characteristics are
unequally
distributed over space; and, because
they
are distributed centrically; and, because
their
unequal distributions overlap; and,
because
the inequalities are connected intrin-
sically
to its past history of expansion (for
civilizations
tend strongly to expand, Central
civilization
being an extreme rather than an
exceptional
case) characteristically possess-
es:
(1)
a core (central, older, ad-
vanced,
wealthy, powerful)
(2)
a semiperiphery strongly con-
nected
to the core (younger, fring-
eward,
remote, more recently attached, weaker,
poorer, more backward), and
(3)
a weakly connected periphery
(nomads;
peasant subsistence pro-
ducers
not yet attached to a city; and other
civilizations that trade but do not
habitually
fight or ally with the subject
civilization).
Civilizations usually begin in a geographi-
cally
restricted area composed of cities and