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This article presents one way to approach the case study vs theoretically driven approach to teaching comparative courses. The goal is to actively engage students in doing international studies, not simply reading about the work of others. The method derives a broad set of case studies from some theoretical approach. Students then conduct & present their own case studies. Students then use their own case studies & those examined by the class as a whole as vehicles for interrogating, critiquing, & extending that theoretical approach. These final exercises in theory-building are a significant part of this approach. The specific example presented here uses world-systems analysis as the vehicle for organizing comparative study of frontiers. However, this method could readily employ other theoretical models to examine other theoretical &/or empirical puzzles via specific case studies. 86 References. Adapted from the source document.

An introduction to this special collection of articles offers a "quick & dirty" overview of Immanuel Wallerstein's (1974) world-systems theory in an attempt to demonstrate its continued relevance for contemporary scholarship. The disciplinary diversity of world-systems analysis is supported. Three types of world systems & stages in world-systems development are outlined. 200 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

Describes how world-systemic processes have guided the formation & disintegration of frontier areas across history. Of particular importance are processes of group formation & transformation on the frontier in the context of wider processes in world-system expansion; examples are offered of several American Indian tribes. The impact of these groups' incorporation into larger social, economic, & political systems is discussed, including the demise of ethnic identities & cultures; transformations in gender roles, spirituality, culture, & law are explored in detail. Comparative world-systems analyses in this area are summarized, & directions for further research are outlined, focusing on spatial & geopolitical analyses. 2 Figures, 169 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

An introduction to this special collection of articles offers a "quick & dirty" overview of Immanuel Wallerstein's (1974) world-systems theory in an attempt to demonstrate its continued relevance for contemporary scholarship. The disciplinary diversity of world-systems analysis is supported. Three types of world systems & stages in world-systems development are outlined. 200 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

This article discusses how incorporation into a world-system (ancient or contemporary) can create, transform, or destroy ethnic groups. It suggests that: (1) ethnically homogeneous states have never been common; (2) ethnicity has always been fluid with respect to identity, boundaries, cultural content, and membership; (3) ethnic processes cannot be understood without careful consideration of their interstate, or world-systemic, context; (4) contemporary ethnic conflicts have contemporary roots; (5) the differences between the contemporary and ancient worlds need further study; (7) the origin of the ideal of the ethnically homogeneous state and shifts in ethnic processes in the twentieth century lack adequate explanation.

This paper makes six arguments. First, socio-cultural evolution must be studied from a "world-system" or intersocietal interaction perspective. A focus on change in individual "societies" or "groups" fails to attend adequately to the effects of intersocietal interaction on social and cultural change. Second, in order to be useful, theories of the modern world-system must be modified extensively to deal with non-capitalist settings. In particular, changes in system boundaries marked by exchange networks (for information, luxury or prestige goods, political/military interactions, and bulk goods) seldom coincide,and follow different patterns of change. Third, all such systems tend to pulsate, that is, expand and contract, or at least expand rapidly and less rapidly. Fourth, once hierarchical forms of social organization develop such systems typically have cycles of rise and fall in the relative positions of constituent politics. Fifth, expansion of world-systems forms and transforms social relations in newly incorporated areas. While complex in the modern world-system, these changes are even more complex in precapitalist settings. Sixth, thesetwo cycles combine with demographic and epidemiological processes to shape long -term socio-cultural evolution.