Final answer:
The subsistence system most identified with mega-states is industrialism, characterized by global capitalist influence and governmental control over production. This system has major implications for political and economic organization, leading to the displacement or transformation of previous subsistence modes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subsistence system most identified with mega-states is industrialism, which encompasses global capitalism and impacts all other modes of subsistence. Immanuel Wallerstein's world systems approach and Elman Service's evolutionary social theory show a transition from stateless societies practicing gathering-hunting, pastoralism, and horticulture to state societies that manage multiple modes of subsistence, combined with extensive trade, taxation, bureaucracy, and military conquest.
Mega-states typically exhibit governmental ownership of production, significant bureaucratic structures for managing social orders, and large forces for defense and expansion. These states often absorb or marginalize other forms of political and economic organization, leading to a global system where nearly all land is claimed by one state or another. Anthropologists note that the appearance of these states, around 5,000 years ago, marks a significant shift in political organization and economic subsistence patterns that have lasting impacts on the lifeways of indigenous societies.