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Equally disturbing for the critics has been the economic-deterministic approach of the theory and the following disregard of complexities of socio-political structures and their nuances, which may manifest for example as syncretism and creolisation (Webster 1997; 2005), bilateral borrowing and adaptation of cultural elements (Price 2002), selective adaptation, abandonment and re-adaptation of cultural elements (Webster 1999; Nurmi 2009; Kuusela et al. 2016) or simply as internal factors within a society that drive cultural change forward (Stein 1999; 2002). Put simply, the critics point out that the theory enforces a "one size fits all"-model on a sweeping manner ignoring local unique circumstances and resulting historical processes (McGuire 1996, 51; Galaty 2011, 4). Alternatives and amendments Colin Renfrew was among the early and arguably most famous critics of the use of the worldsystem theory in archaeological research, and he presented an alternative model, which he termed peer polity interaction (Renfrew 1986). Peer polity interaction, like world-system theory (from an archaeological perspective), tackles the problem of culture change and interregional interaction, and like world-system theory it, too, acknowledges that the latter is an integral part in these dynamics, and it shares with the world-system theory a systemic approach to the relations of human societies (McGuire 1996, 54). Where it significantly differs is that it does not acknowledge a power asymmetry or a dominative relationship between interacting parties but, like its name denotes, assumes such interactions take place between autonomous peers (Renfrew 1986, 1).

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The authors thank the participants of the 2017 Workshop of Archaeology of Religion in Tvärminne for the much-needed guiding criticism. Also, professor Vesa-Pekka Herva's invaluable comments are always appreciated. Aki would like to dedicate this paper to his grandmother Laina, who, after a long and contented life, in accordance with the modern Finnish culture of death in 2016, was made to disappear.The study was partly funded by Otto A. Malm Foundation.