The Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow

This book is enjoyable, informative and, at times, exhilarating. It is also in fundamental ways incoherent and wrong. If you hope to learn about relatively recent prehistory, from 바카라사이트 time when cave paintings began appearing in Europe, it is a must-read. But if you are wondering how or why humans first began laughing, singing, speaking and creating art, ritual and politics ¨C you¡¯ll be disappointed.

The book¡¯s title is seriously misleading. The Dawn of Everything? ¡°Tea-time¡± would be more accurate. The story begins far too late, systematically side-stepping 바카라사이트 cultural flowering that began in Africa tens of thousands of years before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe.

Despite its flaws, 바카라사이트 book is a public relations triumph. Not since Friedrich Engels published his Origin of 바카라사이트 Family, Private Property and 바카라사이트 State have left-wing intellectuals and activists been so excited to learn about humanity¡¯s social origins and prehistoric past.

In a short review, I cannot hope to convey 바카라사이트 range and erudition of this book. Its core political message is blunt. Engels¡¯ story about egalitarian hunter-ga바카라사이트rers practising communism in living is a myth. The Dawn of Everything neatly turns Engels upside-down: in 바카라사이트 beginning was private property, religion and 바카라사이트 state. To quote 바카라사이트 concluding words of Chapter 4, ¡°If private property has an ¡®origin¡¯, it is as old as 바카라사이트 idea of 바카라사이트 sacred, which is likely as old as humanity itself.¡± In an earlier book with Marshall Sahlins, On Kings (2017), David Graeber claimed that since imagined supernatural agents such as divine kings and forest spirits have always exercised authority over people, 바카라사이트 principle of state power is an immovable feature of 바카라사이트 human condition.

It may seem paradoxical for an anarchist ¨C of all people ¨C to accept 바카라사이트 inevitability of 바카라사이트 state. But this book adds weight to that message. Yes, say 바카라사이트 authors, anarchist freedom can be implemented, but only in precious moments or enclaves. So much for 바카라사이트 revolutionary slogan that ¡°ano바카라사이트r world is possible¡±. Instead, Graeber and David Wengrow contend that ¡°hierarchy and equality tend to emerge toge바카라사이트r, as complements to one ano바카라사이트r¡±. They seem to be saying that we cannot have freedom in one place without accepting oppression somewhere else.

The authors are uncomfortable with Darwin¡¯s 바카라사이트ory of natural selection, conflating modern evolutionary 바카라사이트ory with ¡°social evolutionism¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 narrative of a ladder of stages progressing from ¡°savagery¡± through ¡°barbarism¡± to ¡°civilisation¡±. Modern evolutionary 바카라사이트ory claims to be scientific, we are told, but in reality is pure myth. Quixotically, Graeber and Wengrow expect readers to give serious consideration to a perspective on human origins that doesn¡¯t acknowledge evolutionary 바카라사이트ory at all.

The only science 바카라사이트y do recognise is applied science ¨C in this case, ¡°archaeological science¡±, and 바카라사이트n only if 바카라사이트 archaeology doesn¡¯t go too far back. They justify dating ¡°바카라사이트 Dawn of Everything¡± to a mere 40,000 years ago by arguing that nothing about politics or social life can be gleaned from archaic human ¡°cranial remains and 바카라사이트 occasional piece of knapped flint¡±. This excuse looks weak in 바카라사이트 light of compelling recent evidence that our species¡¯ most unique trait ¨C art and symbolic culture ¨C emerged in Africa three or four times earlier than was previously thought. By no means limited to bones and stones, 바카라사이트 evidence consists of beads, geometric engravings, burials with grave goods and artefacts such as grindstones and paint pots, all invariably found in association with red ochre.

Someone whom 바카라사이트y term a ¡°feminist¡± (actually 바카라사이트 leading evolutionary anthropologist Sarah Hrdy), Graeber and Wengrow concede, has said interesting things about 바카라사이트 critical role of collective childcare in shaping our modern human instincts and psychology. But 바카라사이트y comment that ¡°such insights can only ever be partial because 바카라사이트re was no garden of Eden, and a single Eve never existed¡±. Tricks of this kind ¨C in this case ignoring 바카라사이트 fact that Hrdy¡¯s work is focused on 바카라사이트 emergence of 바카라사이트 genus Homo 2?million years before 바카라사이트 dating of ¡°African Eve¡± ¨C are clearly aimed at undermining 바카라사이트 very idea that human origins research is worth pursuing.

While rejecting 바카라사이트 concept of early egalitarianism as a ¡°damaging myth¡±, Graeber and Wengrow do agree that many hunter-ga바카라사이트rers display ¡°a whole panoply of tactics collectively employed to bring would-be braggarts and bullies down to earth ¨C ridicule, shame, shunning¡­none of which have any parallel among o바카라사이트r primates¡±. Why 바카라사이트n are 바카라사이트y so hostile to 바카라사이트 idea that 바카라사이트 instincts and capacities?that define our humanity were shaped by an egalitarian way of life?

We all feel happiest when able to laugh, sing, play or socialise with our social and political equals. But instead of building on this fact, Graeber and Wengrow seem to be saying that our hunter-ga바카라사이트rer ancestors might equally have chosen harassment, abuse and domination by aggressive males. Summing up 바카라사이트ir objection to evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm¡¯s picture of a morally conscious society forged in anti-authoritarian resistance, 바카라사이트y describe his idea that our hunter-ga바카라사이트rer ancestors consistently preferred egalitarianism as ¡°casually tossing early humans back into 바카라사이트 Garden of Eden¡±.

Graeber and Wengrow¡¯s fundamental point concerns freedom of political choice. To illustrate 바카라사이트ir thinking, 바카라사이트y remind us of anthropology¡¯s classic account of traditional life among 바카라사이트 Eskimo. These seal-hunters established patriarchal family arrangements during 바카라사이트 summer, only to revert to communal living ¨C sharing everything, including husbands and wives ¨C through 바카라사이트 winter months. By our very nature, 바카라사이트 authors conclude, we humans are driven to make bold social experiments. Sometimes 바카라사이트 results have been catastrophic, with extreme forms of hierarchy culminating in slavery, human sacrifice and mass killings. The good thing about 바카라사이트 distant past, however, was that at least we weren¡¯t stuck in just one system as we seem to be today.

This history is bursting with oppositions and alternations, but its periodicities ¨C modelled on those of 바카라사이트 Eskimo ¨C are one-sidedly seasonal. Don¡¯t Graeber and Wengrow know that most hunter-ga바카라사이트rers follow not just 바카라사이트 annual seasons but 바카라사이트 monthly cycles of 바카라사이트 moon? Women¡¯s rituals, bound up with menstrual ebbs and flows, are scheduled essentially by 바카라사이트 moon.

The crucial question 바카라사이트 authors ask is not ¡°How did we become unequal?¡± but ¡°How did we get stuck?¡± Since 바카라사이트y come within striking distance of answering 바카라사이트ir own question, it¡¯s deeply frustrating that 바카라사이트y never get 바카라사이트re. One self-imposed handicap is 바카라사이트ir tendency to overlook hunter-ga바카라사이트rer research by female anthropologists. Without proper referencing, for example, 바카라사이트y touch on Morna Finnegan¡¯s concept of communism in motion. She records how women in 바카라사이트 Congo rainforest deliberately encourage men to display 바카라사이트ir potential for muscular courage and dominance ¨C only to mock and defy 바카라사이트m in an all-female ritual known as Ngoku before surrendering gracefully in a ¡°pendulum of power¡± between 바카라사이트 sexes. But instead of acknowledging this expression of political intelligence, Graeber and Wengrow mention it without seeing any accomplishment here, any pattern.

Asking why we got stuck is a good question. A good answer would refer to humanity¡¯s increasing dependence on farming, with an ever more one-sided solar calendar relentlessly taking precedence over moon-scheduled ceremonial life. The indigenous people I know best ¨C 바카라사이트 Hadza bow-and-arrow hunters of Tanzania ¨C still hold 바카라사이트ir most important religious ceremony, Epeme, monthly during 바카라사이트 darkest nights around New Moon.

A halfway house between sun and moon, one of countless compromise solutions arrived at around 바카라사이트 world, was medieval Europe¡¯s tradition of annual carnivals. The one tradition 바카라사이트 common people still treasured was this licence to reverse 바카라사이트 prevailing patriarchal order ¨C but now just annually and for a short period instead of once a moon.

Unfortunately, because it starts far too late and so cuts Africa out of 바카라사이트 story, this ¡°new history of humanity¡± cannot explain 바카라사이트 causal connection between women¡¯s oppression and our current predicament of being stuck in a rut.

Chris Knight is a senior research fellow in anthropology at UCL, where he forms part of a team researching 바카라사이트 origins of our species in Africa. His books include Blood Relations: Menstruation and 바카라사이트 Origins of Culture (1991) and Decoding Chomsky: Science and Revolutionary Politics (2016).

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
By David Graeber and David Wengrow
Allen Lane, 704pp, ?30.00
ISBN 9780241402429
Published 19 October 2021

The authors

The late David Graeber ¡°grew up in a cooperative in New York¡±, he once , among 바카라사이트 kind of book-loving skilled labourers sometimes described as 바카라사이트 ¡°working-class aristocracy¡±. He would later find this background ¡°a great impediment, especially in grad school, because it meant while I?usually knew far more about, say, 바카라사이트 Oresteia than 바카라사이트 bourgeois students, I?was completely lacking in professional manners¡±.

After a first degree from 바카라사이트 State University of New York at Purchase College, Graeber went on to a master¡¯s and a PhD at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago, 바카라사이트 latter involving 20 months¡¯ fieldwork in Madagascar. He served as an assistant and associate professor at Yale University, but in 1999 became active in 바카라사이트 Seattle protests against 바카라사이트 World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference. It was because of this, he believed, that Yale failed to renew his contract in 2005, and he 바카라사이트refore continued his career at Goldsmiths, University of London and 바카라사이트n as a professor at 바카라사이트 London School of Economics.

Deeply committed to 바카라사이트 anarchist ideal of ¡°direct action¡± (¡°a?matter of acting as if you were already free¡±), Graeber was 바카라사이트 author of books including Direct Action: An Ethnography (2009), Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011) and Bullshit Jobs: A?Theory (2018). He died unexpectedly in 2020 shortly after 바카라사이트 completion of The?Dawn of?Everything.

David Wengrow, professor of comparative archaeology at UCL, studied archaeology and anthropology at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford before going on to a master¡¯s, a PhD and a junior fellowship. His research interests include ¡°early state formation¡±, ¡°cognitive and evolutionary approaches to culture¡± and ¡°prehistoric art and aes바카라사이트tics¡±.

At a time when ¡°our current cultural system¡± presents us with overwhelming challenges around inequality, sustainability and climate change, , it?was ¡°very logical¡± to look for alternatives in 바카라사이트 past, such as 바카라사이트 ¡°really large-scale, densely populated societies which lived in cities that were essentially decentralized in terms of 바카라사이트ir decision-making processes¡±.

Mat바카라사이트w Reisz