Deck 2: The Comparative World-Systems Approach

Question 1

The kinship-based modes of accumulation

A) Primarily rely on normative regulation
B) Never allow people to marry their cousins
C) Always reckon descent in the female line
D) Always organize exchange as trade in which money is used to buy commodities
E) Use social media during family gatherings

Answer 1

A

Question 2

A world-system, as defined and discussed in Chapter 2, is:

A) A global transportation and communications conglomerate
B) A set of human interaction networks that connect polities with one another
C) The ways in which people conceptualize the cosmos
D) An international sports association
E) All life forms on the Earth

Answer 2

B

Question 3

As discussed and defined in Chapter 2, a polity is:

A) A special interest group
B) An association of entertainers who specialize in topical themes
C) A human authority structure that is theoretically autonomous and sovereign
D) Never a tribe or a chiefdom.
E) Always smaller than and empire

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Core/periphery differentiation exists when:

A) Groups with different average height are engaged in warfare
B) Polities with different population densities are interacting with one another
C) When polities with the same average population densities are trading with one another
D) When hill people think that valley people are fat and lazy.

Question 5

The word "world" in "world-systems" refers to:

A) The planet Earth
B) Europe
C) A group of polities that are importantly interconnected.
D) The World Series
E) The ways in which places are conceptualized by people.

Question 6

The modern world-system is:

A) A single integrated global economy
B) The connectedness among peoples in Latin America
C) Smaller than the Mongolian Empire
D) A system that emerged because China rose to hegemony
E) A system in which the tributary modes of accumulation are predominant.

Question 7

Core powers in the modern world-system are:

A) All inhabited primarily by people of European descent
B) The countries with the highest levels of economic development
C) All the member states of the United Nations
D) Have legitimate authority over all the peoples of the world
E) Have always been the most important power centers on Earth

Question 8

The countries in the modern semiperiphery are:

A) Either relatively large or smaller but with medium levels of economic development
B) Mostly concentrated in Africa
C) All former colonies of European states
D) All countries that contain relatively high concentrations of natural resources
E) Are ripe for revolution and ready to challenge the global centers of power
F) Stealing intellectual property.

Question 9

The hegemonic sequence in the modern world-system refers to:

A) The succession of moral supremacy as designated by the Pope of Rome
B) The acquisition of a map to the human genome
C) The rise and fall of economic power and leadership of three polities that were formerly semiperipheral
D) The incorporation of Asia into the modern world-system
E) A pact among the Great Powers to cooperate with one another.

Question 10

The spatial boundaries of world-systems:

A) Got larger as communications and transportation technologies developed
B) Include important types of interaction that may have different spatial ranges
C) Are often smaller for low-value goods than for high-value goods
D) Include networks of fighting and allying polities
E) All of the above.

Question 11

Normative regulation based on consensually-held values does not work well by itself to allow elites to extract surplus from direct producers because:

A) Commoners just want to get fat and have babies
B) Elites often squabble amongst themselves
C) Non-elites can easily contest the ideologies that mandate them to turn over their surplus product to elites
D) People cannot migrate to regions with lower taxes
E) Stored food spoils

Question 12

A commodity, as defined in Chapter 2, is:

A) something that is produced for the purpose of providing gifts
B) a good that is unique
C) produced for sale in a price-setting market for purposes of making profit
D) something that cannot be exchanged for money
E) a good that is owned by the community as a whole.

Question 13

Semiperipheral development, as discussed in Chapter 2, is

A) the emergence of avant garde artistic styles
B) the implementation of adaptive technologies and organizational forms in some semiperipheral polities
C) the emergence of greedy politicians in city-states
D) the advocacy of flagellation as a means of spiritual purification
E) technologies that allow people to see themselves more clearly.

Question 14

Modes of accumulation are qualitatively different logics of social change.

Question 15

Core/periphery relations are important in all world-systems.

Question 16

Prestige goods are more important in some world-systems than in others.

Question 17

Core polities always have the most territory.

Question 18

The polities with the largest settlements always exploit people with smaller settlements.

Question 19

Population pressure is a frequent cause of conflict.

Question 20

Hierarchy formation and technological development often occur in a context of relatively high conflict and population pressure.

Question 21

Some world-systems get stuck in a vicious cycle of conflict and population pressure.

Question 22

The United States is the most spectacular case of upward mobility in the modern core/periphery hierarchy.

Question 23

Nations and ethnic groups are both groups of people who identify with one another and share common cultures.

Question 24

Peripheral countries have mainly capital-intensive agriculture.

Question 25

The categories of core, periphery and semiperiphery, as defined in Chapter 2, are understood as designating relative position in a multidimensional hierarchy.

Question 26

All world-systems have been multicultural.

Question 27

The international system of states is the Political/Military Network of the modern world-system.

Question 28

Discuss and critique the concept of "modes of accumulation" as presented in Chapter 2.

Question 29

Explain the conceptual distinction between core/periphery hierarchy and core/periphery differentiation and the reasons why this distinction is useful.

Question 30

Explain the iteration model of sociocultural evolution presented in Chapter 2 that relates population growth to hierarchy formation and technological change.

Question 31

Explain the idea of settlement systems and give examples.

Question 32

Discuss explanations for the transition from nomadism to sedentism.

Question 33

Discuss the spatial bounding of world-systems.

Question 34

Discuss the idea of semiperipheral development and how this may have been involved in the emergence of horticulture.

Question 35

Why is it desirable to study groups of interacting polities rather than single polities one at a time?