Page 127 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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quite specific when using the concepts of a market system. Market systems are
those regulated by prices set by the simultaneous competition of buyers for sellers
and sellers for buyers. Modern market systems are those where development is
dictated by a capital market or more properly "capitalism." TTie world economic
system which emerged in the sixteenth century has been increasingly dominated by
capital markets (Wallerstein 1974). We are largely concerned with the simpler,
precapitalistic market system.
Because Bahrain can be identified as entrepot in historical writings and
because foreign influences have always been strong, Polanyi’s paradigm of market
trade development has been chosen as an organizing device (Polanyi 1957, Dalton
1975, Smith 1976). TTiis paradigm considers external forces as important factors in
the development of domestic economies. Development originates in long distance
trade between foreign groups where economic maximization by traders interacts
with the social system of the host culture (Smith 1976). Renfrew (1975), reiterating
Childe*s ideas to explain the exogenous growth of secondary civilizations, conceives
of implanted colonial enclaves or intrusive communities which interact strongly
with their parent communities. TTiis interaction is solidified by frequent and
intensive trade and, in turn, affects the host population through the development of
an increasingly intense economic organization. Renfrew views such interactions as
having led to the development of civilizations without a major adoption of the
customs or the beliefs of the colonial powers by the host population. In a second
form of interaction, emulation, "external trade brings exotic prestige artifacts
which confer status on those individuals controlling the supply" (Renfrew 1975:33).
This reinforces rank hierarchies or gives rise to ascriptive ranking in societies
where rank was heretofore achieved (Wheatley 1975). In this case, the values and
social procedures of the outside group are emulated as signifying greater
sophistication and prestige. Renfrew objects to the use of simplistic models such
as Childe*s primary versus derived civilizations and claims that complex societies
cannot be characterized in terms of single variables such as population,
subsistence, technology, social organization, or cognitive structure. He makes
clear, however, that isolation of a single variable from this complexity does not