The good thing about world as an idea is that, one may detect infinite perceptions of it. I do not think that there ever was a consensus on a monolithic world system as such. Many third world writers including some leading Indians on the subject - Chudhury comes to mind, always believed in the existence of many other systems under the hegemonic layer. Those systems had to adjust to the demands and manipulations of the existing hegemonic world system, but I do not think they ever vanished from the equation.
So, in fact the regional divisions of labour was always there, albeit in constant struggle to survive. So, we may not go back to the dark ages, but just to where many many poles in human scale interacted with each other, and not under one hegemon. This will in fact take the monopoly out of capital and all will be fine happily ever after!!
Absolutely again! And yes speaks to the point about how even hegemony does not infiltrate all the spaces in this world and erase their dna. It is a matter of interactions and reactions, subsystems, and microcosms. And just as the lived material world (resources, space, geography) varies so greatly, so do people's conceptions of it. And yes there are ancient worlds still with us pushing back against the "development" index.
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