Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exchange Networks From Close-Up: The Case Of Lipari Obsidian, Andrea Vianello, Robert Tykot

Anthropology Faculty Publications

A systematic study on obsidian tools in Calabria and Sicily carried out by the authors have revealed the uniqueness in the patterns of production, exchange and consumption of Lipari obsidian. The study has concentrated on the Middle Neolithic primarily, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts recognised at a later stage in the research since many contexts, especially in Sicily, have been excavated by pioneering archaeologists, some over a century ago, or were mislabelled. The chronology is Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, with very few materials dating Middle Bronze Age. A review of chronological contexts is in progress, which …

Supranational Networks: States And Firms, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The nation-state systems that seem to dominate the global landscape are not necessarily the pinnacle of evolution. A conglomeration of interacting factors spelled doom for the traditional colonialism of previous centuries while providing an ideal environment for multinational firms operating above the level of nation-states to play an important role in the generation of a new politico-socio-economic system better described by network models than by ordinary political models. Previously existing units and subunits, in the course of adjustment and adaptation to changing circumstances, change their relations with one another and are, sometimes, newly integrated in a novel manner such that …

Supranational Networks: States And Firms - Expanded Version, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Deals with question: Why have so few scholars recognized the supranational system as something that is truly above the level of the state? Argues that my anthropological colleagues are, like others, bound by our own culture, traditions and narratives to such an extent that they are unable to study these pehnomena with the same "objectivity" and "relativism" with which they study the institutions of cultural systems with which they are less familiar. See especially the section on "Difficulties of Thinking Anew" (pp 3-5).

The Multinational Corporation As A Form Of Sociocultural Integration Above The Level Of The State, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper presents considerably more detail on the system, the title implying that a multinational corporation is, per se, a "form of integration" above the level of the state whereas the "form" referred to is the system generated by the interaction of multinational corporations, families, states, cities, etc.

Multinational Enterprise And Urbanism, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the possibility that, in the future, cities may experience greater independence of nation-states than has been the case heretofore. The weakening of states relative to other institutions involved in the development of a supranational level of sociocultural integration makes possible a new kind of interdependence between multinational enterprises and urban communities. In this developing future, cities can provide the loci for certain operations of what is essentially a supranational system based on function rather than on territory.

The first part of the paper is a reminder that in anthropology the city has been seen primarily as a …

Emergence Of Global Society: Introduction, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Supranational Organization Of Production: An Evolutionary Perspective, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Traces human "modes of production" from primate tool use through a number of stages "upward" to the supranational system, seen as the latest "mode of production." This article presents theoretical aspects pretty well, but was widely misunderstood -- capitalists still thought I was bringing down the West, and Marxists throught I was being too kind to the corporations.

Tanzania-Zambia Railway: Escape Route From Neocolonial Control?, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Case histories describes the joint attempt of Tanzania and Zambia to escape from the supranational network that controlled southern Africa, by expanding links across the Indian Ocean by building a railroad that would give Central Africa a way to export minerals outside the control of the southern African system. Author warned "the extraction and processing of ores is, in all circumstances, an interdependent part of a larger scale world industrial system" (p. 102).

Economies In Bondage: An Essay On The Mining Industry In Africa, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Explains how mining companies are organized "in a network of overlapping groups so that even though a company may compete directly with another at one level, their higher-level supranational organization emphasizes their common interests" (p. 19). African states were constrained to use Western advisors whose counsel was "likely to be limited to the purely technical (in either law, or economics, or engineering -- and conceived in the context of status quo," whereas the crucial problems are surely political, so that "the context of African decision-making should be oriented toward a future world system quite different from today's" (p. 19).

An Essay On The Mining Industry In Relation To The African Revolution, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Testimony On United States-South African Relations, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

In my testimony before the US House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Africa (Tuesday, May 17, 1966, Committee on Foreign Affairs) I detailed some of the financial networks at work in US - South African relationships. The subcommittee met at 2 :30 p.m., in room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, the Hon. Benjamin S. Rosenthal (acting chairman) presiding.

Capital And The Congo, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Describes ways in which the "Congo Economy" was completely embedded within the supranational system. Shows how the firm, Societe General de Belgique, "cam to control a much larger segment of Congo industry than their risk, in terms of actual capital investment, warranted" (p.368). In consequence, "this Belgian company is in a stronger position than its investment warrants in the supranational system of mining enterprises that involves such giants as Tanganyika Concessions, Rhodesian Selection Trust, De Beers Consolidated Mines, Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa, and the British South Africa company" (p. 368).

The African Mineral Industry: Evolution Of A Supranational Level Of Integration, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

First publication in which the development of a supranational system is recognized as a major evolutionary saltation. The authors writings along this line upset American financial interests and the United States government which were at the time obsessed with the "Cold War." On April 4, 1963, the New York Times reported that a leading American industrialist, Clarence Randall, had denounced me for what he called "a scandalous attack" against the mining industry of Southern Africa and by implication the entire mining industry of the West.

The Team Rules Mining In Southern Africa, Alvin W. Wolfe

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.