ON THE LIMITATIONS OF CIVILIZATION: THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF GLOBAL SYSTEMS

ion "society" of social formation and the more elementary concept of mode of production. In the present framework, mode of production and the corresponding social formation can only refer to a partial system, a localized segment of a larger system. This is because the components of the mode of production model are all derived from the local forms of exploitation and control but not from the total context within which ex? ploitation must maintain itself. The restriction of the model to the production process and the social structures based upon it does not correspond to the totality by which such structures are reproduced and transformed. I would suggest, here that marxism and his? torical materialism are not coterminous phe? nomena. Marx was not a system, and in spite of numerous attempts by marxologists of various political persuasions to so transform him, he remains an individual who engaged in many different and often mutually contra? dictory types of activity. Subsequent develop? ment has only magnified the diversity to over? whelming proportions, historical materialism 0304-4092/80/0000-0000/$ 02.25 ?1980 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company This content downloaded from 207.46.13.94 on Sat, 21 May 2016 05:28:26 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms