The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity in Science and Inquiry

Aug 23, 2022 David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing

Shelves: archaeology, anthropology, sociology

This is a fascinating book about a new way of interpreting the evolution of social groups--our families, towns, cities, nations, and civilizations. It is co-authored by two eminent scholars: David Gaeber was a well-known anthropologist and iconoclast. David Wengrow is a professor of archaeology at University College, London. You can watch a marvelous Ted Talk about this book, given by David Wengrow:

The basic thesis of the book is an answer to this question:

"Was the

This is a fascinating book about a new way of interpreting the evolution of social groups--our families, towns, cities, nations, and civilizations. It is co-authored by two eminent scholars: David Gaeber was a well-known anthropologist and iconoclast. David Wengrow is a professor of archaeology at University College, London. You can watch a marvelous Ted Talk about this book, given by David Wengrow:

The basic thesis of the book is an answer to this question:

"Was the rise of monarchy as the world's predominant form of government inevitable? Is cereal agriculture a trap once the farming of wheat or rice or maize becomes widespread, or is it just a matter of time before an overlord seizes control of granaries and establishes a regime of bureaucratically administered violence?

The answer to this question, judging by pre-Columbian North America, is "no". Plains societies oscillated back and forth over the course of a year between bands and states. It is a myth that civilization and complexity come at the price of human freedom and inequality.

This book is written in an academic style, so at times it can be a bit dry. However, the amount of research that went into this book is absolutely overwhelming. The authors explore well-documented examples of societies from all over the world, from pre-historic to the modern day. There are lots of examples of societies that oscillated between two different political organizations during different seasons of the year; a laissez faire season and a hierarchical authoritarian season.

The real question for society should not be the origins of inequality. The real question should be, "how did we get stuck?"

Many of the first cities around the world had a "rigorous equality" in certain areas, while in other areas had a hierarchy. In Ukranian "mega-sites", Uruk Mesopotamia, and in the Indus Valley, cities did not have a "concentration of wealth or power in the hands of ruling elites." As one of many examples, the authors describe the MesoAmerican city Tlaxcala in diplomatic relations with the Spanish conquistadors. There was no king, but instead there were efforts to gain consensus about the next steps. The city initially refused to allow the Conquistadors into the city, to prevent an "enemy within", and from eating all the available food. Instead of putting it to a vote, they worked to achieve consensus. There was no central palace. Residences were of uniformly high quality. The authors hint that European explorers brought some "Enlightenment" back with them on their return to Europe.

The authors write, "If an empire is based largely on military force, it is relatively easy for a superior force of the same kind to seize control of its territory." On the other hand, decentralization makes conquest and rule much harder.

Kings used sovereignty to represent a symbolic break with moral order. Kings often commit some kind of outrage to establish themselves; they massacred brothers, married sisters, or gunned down random passers-by. Sort of reminds me of things that a recent president said and did!

Hermits might want to skip this book -- but I highly recommend this book to everyone who lives in a civilization, in a city or town. It really shows that a stratified society is not a foregone conclusion. ...more

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Dec 26, 2022 Mitchell Friedman rated it liked it

Shelves: history, library, liked-reviews, ebook, nonfiction, bc-tu-social, political, philosophy, anthropology

That was a tough read. I'm not sure it was improved reading it a chapter a week. But I'm not sure that I would have stuck with it without a book group to talk to about it regularly. Fascinating. And I feel like I learned a lot. But wow this book needed editing, needed to be teased into multiple books.

There were a couple of basic concepts, it is not clear that everyone would agree which was the most important. For me, it was that the basic science of anthropology and archaeology are not making i ...more

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Apr 26, 2022 Ryan rated it liked it

Shelves: anthropology, archaeology

Fascinating, but rather scattered.

Attempts to synthesize recent findings in their fields as a means of challenging accepted "evolutionary" trends in ideas surrounding "the state," "civilization," agriculture, etc. Suggests most theories of origin for human activities are relatively contemporary myths with many assumptions built in to the very language we have available to describe the past.

Offers salient counterpoints to "Sapiens," "Guns Germs & Steel," etc.

Not entirely successful at formulati ...more

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