Sabine Schmidt: Conflict and violence at the local level 17
of a world-system, or at least regarded as having similar patterns of external relations.
Their reactions toward the establishment of German colonial rule in the area was very
different though, whereas Chagga resistance was low-key (Cornevin 1969: 409), the
Hehe under their chief Mkwawa waged a fierce war of resistance against the Germans
(1891â1898). From this example as well as the results of the cross-cultural testing it ap-
pears to be warranted to state that world-system position by itself, or formulated more
cautiously, as measured in the cited study, cannot account for the differences in war-
fare patterns.
Why does world-system position fail to explain patterns of warfare?
If we do not want to discard the notion of external factors as being important in the ex-
planation of internal phenomena, the above results are in need of explanation. Several
reasons might account for the obtained non-correlation of the variable measuring
world-system position and the warfare variables. (1) In the conceptualization of
world-system theory the internal variation within the zones is disregarded. Some
authors (Smith 1978: 575; Hechter 1975: 30f.) have noted that the hierarchical organi-
zation of the world-system is also to be found â on a smaller scale â within a zone, the
core for instance can be subdivided into a periphery and semiperiphery as well.
(2) World-system position reflects many different dimensions of integration, which
might have disparate effects on warfare patterns. In the study of White and Moore
(1988) the emphasis is on economic integration. It should be noted, however, that in-
tegration into a world-system or world-economy is based on a multitude of interac-
tions and touches on different cultural domains, the economic and political sphere re-
presenting just two. Hannerz (1989: 209) comments on the transfer of ideas and ideo-
logies and the impact on indigenous meaning systems. The connection of ideology
transfer with modes of conflict management is established by Skocpol (1979: 23). In
explaining social revolutions she argues that the knowledge of past events can serve as a
model and option for action in a revolutionary setting. (3) Snyder and Kick (1979) have
suggested, that itis the interplay of 'exogenetic' (i. e. world-system position) and âonto-
geneticâ (i. e. internal features of a social unit) variables which accounts for economic
growth of nations, this argument can be transferred to the question of warfare patterns
as well. The latter two possible explanations will be explored in turn.
(1) In operationalizing world-system position, five measures of involvement with
arger economic networks have been used in the study of White and Moore (1988, see
above). Even a cursory inspection of these measures reveals, that the potential impact
of any of these aspects of integration on warfare patterns might be very different, e. g.
Whereas one aspect of integration (i. e. imposition of taxes, introduction of forced la-
bor) can be perceived as having a positive effect on warfare, another (i. e. introduction
of legal institutions) might reduce warfare. In addition, the relationship of the varia-
bles to internal and external warfare might also be different. The variable measuring