DeepSummary
The podcast episode features an interview with archaeologist David Wengrow, co-author of the book 'The Dawn of Everything'. Wengrow discusses how the book challenges traditional narratives about the origins of inequality and the emergence of hierarchical societies. He argues that the standard view of an 'agricultural revolution' leading to inequality is inaccurate, and that diverse social arrangements existed among hunter-gatherers and early farming communities.
Wengrow contends that many early cities were organized on egalitarian principles, contradicting the assumption that scaling up necessitates hierarchy. He proposes the concepts of 'three elementary freedoms' - freedom to move, disobey orders, and remake social relations - which were widespread in the past. The book aims to open up new questions about human history rather than provide definitive answers.
The discussion covers topics like the Indigenous Critique of European society, myths surrounding the origins of inequality, and reexamining the traditional stages of social evolution. Wengrow emphasizes the playfulness and diversity of human experiments with social organization throughout history.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The book 'The Dawn of Everything' by David Wengrow and David Graeber challenges conventional narratives about the origins of inequality and hierarchical societies.
- Wengrow argues that the idea of an 'agricultural revolution' leading to inequality is overly simplistic and inaccurate based on archaeological evidence.
- Many early cities were organized on egalitarian principles, contradicting the assumption that scaling up necessitates hierarchy.
- Wengrow proposes the concepts of 'three elementary freedoms' - freedom to move, disobey orders, and remake social relations - that allowed for diverse social arrangements in the past.
- The book aims to open up new questions and present a more diverse and playful understanding of human history, rather than provide definitive answers.
- Wengrow refutes the idea of 'hunter-gatherer brains' being limited to small groups, arguing that early humans had the cognitive capacity for large-scale, complex social systems.
- The Indigenous Critique of European society played a significant role in shaping Enlightenment thought and challenging assumptions about 'civilized' societies.
- The book presents human history as filled with diverse experiments in social organization, rather than a linear progression towards hierarchy and the nation-state.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “What it does look like is actually incredibly interesting and actually a lot more hopeful, I think, than these kind of dismal tales of innocence loss, you know, and so on.“ by David Wengrow
- “I think there's a very important clue there about why we've been looking in the wrong place. I mean, actually, I think this is one of the most stubborn misconceptions about human history, and it finds its way into so many different areas of life and thought, you know, everything from evolutionary psychology to theories of work and organization.“ by David Wengrow
- “But the obvious question here, you know, the elephant in the room, if you like, is what exactly do we mean by hunter gatherer brains? Actually, if you look at the latest studies in the Journal of Human Evolution, for instance, they completely blow this idea to pieces that our brains are adapted to live in these tiny insular groups.“ by David Wengrow
- “I could give you any number of examples from South Asia, Eastern Europe, or the Americas, where you have, what, by general, entire cities with no evidence of things like monarchy or central administration or even marked inequalities of wealth.“ by David Wengrow
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Episode Information
Srsly Wrong
Srsly Wrong
10/18/21