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The Spatial Ecology of Power: Long‐Distance Trade and State Formation in Northeast Africa
Author(s) -
MAKKI FOUAD
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2011.01394.x
Subject(s) - dominance (genetics) , economic geography , economics , autonomy , ecology , social relation , economic system , power (physics) , geography , economy , sociology , political science , biology , social science , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , gene , law
This study examines the longue durée pattern of state formation in northeast Africa by situating its determinate dynamics within a wider constellation of social‐property relations and inter‐regional exchange networks. Given the social dynamics of tributary relations, increases in surplus extraction typically took the form of extensive territorial expansion rather than intensive augmentation of production, and the supply of means of coercion (weapons) and means of persuasion (luxury goods) with which to build retinues and alliances was a crucial determinant of the persistent oscillations between centralized rule and periods of pronounced regional autonomy. The sustained spatiality of power in the region was consequently shaped by the uneven and combined dynamics of production and exchange relations rather than by any simple dominance of one over the other. Within the more inclusive spatiotemporal framework adopted here, it is their historical imbrications rather than their idealized juxtapositions that calls for critical analysis and social explanation.