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Thomas Ray's Reviews > The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
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Thomas Ray's review
bookshelves: history, prehistory, trivia, at-library, india, guatemala, detailed-reviews, science
Mar 20, 2022
bookshelves: history, prehistory, trivia, at-library, india, guatemala, detailed-reviews, science
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Graeber (1961-2020) and David Wengrow (1972- ), 2021, 692 pages, Dewey 901, ISBN 9780374157357
The authors set out to write a history of inequality. They learned that there was never an original natural state of human society. People have been organizing themselves in a variety of political ways for 200,000 years. The current organization into states can't be thought of as inevitable.
Homo sapiens 200,000 BCE- p. 1.
No better way to get anthropologists denouncing each other than to mention Napoleon Chagnon. p. 16. (Chagnon said the Yanomami of Amazonia are violent, and that their case may indicate that so are we all. According to Steven Pinker, if not for Voltaire and police, academics would be actually stabbing each other in this debate.)
European missionaries to Native Americans in the 1600s struggled to translate concepts like "lord," "commandment," or "obedience" into indegenous languages. p. 44.
Robert Lowie and Pierre Clastres tell of Native American chiefs whose roles were to mediate quarrels, provide for the needy, and entertain with beautiful speeches. They weren't lawgivers, executives, or judges. Robert Lowie (1883-1957 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rober... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... and Pierre Clastres (1934-1977 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierr... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... , p. 114, 130).
Native Americans said, Europeans wouldn't need to coerce each other to behave well, if not for their system of money and property rights, that encourages them to behave badly. p. 54.
The political "right" and "left" originally referred to seating positions of aristocratic and popular factions in the French National Assembly of 1789. p. 69. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio...
A few powerful people are wrecking the world. How'd that happen? p. 76.
Egalitarianism can exist only if there's no possibility of accumulating any sort of surplus.--anthropologist James Woodburn p. 128. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Americans are free from having to obey the arbitrary orders of superiors--unless, of course, they have to get a job. p. 131.
When someone else's purpose in life is to interfere with you, he must be stopped, lest you become his slave, his pet. --an indigenous Californian, 1800s. p. 203.
We make our own history, but not under conditions of our own choosing. --Karl Marx. p. 206.
Çatalhöyük, Turkey, was first settled c. 7400 BCE. 13 hectares (32 acres, .05 sq mi, .13 sq km), 5,000 population. (100,000/sq mi, 156/acre). p. 212.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/K%C...
Practised flood-retreat farming. p. 235.
Harvesting wild plants and turning them into food, medicine and complex structures like baskets or clothing is almost everywhere a female activity. p. 237.
Settlements inhabited by tens of thousands of people make their first appearance in human history around 6000 years ago, on almost every continent, at first in isolation. p. 283. The largest early cities were in Mesoamerica. p. 285. Teotihuacan reached 100,000 largely of refugees of volcanic and seismic disasters, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. River floodplains settled in their courses, and sea level stabilized, around 7,000 years ago.
Ukrainian and Moldovan cities of over 1,000 500-square-foot houses, in a 750-acre built area, were inhabited 4100 - 3300 BCE. pp. 290-291. No evidence of social stratification.
From around 2800 BCE onward, monarchy starts popping up everywhere. p. 298.
Uruk is the first city for which we have extensive written records. p. 306.
Aristocracies, and maybe monarchy, first arose in opposition to the egalitarian cities of the Mesopotamian plains. Compare
Alaric vs. Rome,
Genghis Khan vs. Samarkand,
Timur vs. Delhi. p. 313.
Argives vs. Troy,
Attila vs. Europe p. 445,
Vikings vs. Europe,
whoever brought the war chariot there vs. India. p. 311.
[Let's continue the list:
British East India Company vs. India.
British Petroleum vs. Mosaddegh.
Chiquita vs. Árbenz.
Michelin vs. Vietnam.
Allen Dulles vs. JFK.
Kennecott Copper vs. Allende.
Al-Qaeda vs. US.
Putin vs. Ukraine.]
At Taosi, China, 2000 BCE, aristocracy was apparently overthrown; the city then increased in size over the next 200-300 years. pp. 325-326.
At least 100,000 people lived in Teotihuacan, which covered 8
square miles, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. No overlords nor kings.
Cortés in 1519 found no kings in Tlaxcala, a city of 150,000. p. 348. Governed by consensus of a city council. p. 353.
Elections often choose charismatic leaders with tyrannical pretensions. p. 356.
Control of violence, control of information, and individual charisma are the three possible bases of social power. p. 365.
As late as the 1780s, as Max Weber liked to point out, Frederick the Great of Prussia found that his repeated efforts to free the country's serfs came to nothing because bureaucrats would simply ignore the decrees or, if challenged by his legates, insisted the words of the decree should be interpreted as saying the exact opposite of what was obviously intended. p. 394.
People have an unfortunate tendency to see the successful prosecution of arbitrary violence as in some sense divine. p. 395.
Three freedoms: to relocate, to disobey, to make and break social alliances. p. 426, 503.
Minoan Crete, 1700-1450 BCE. No evidence of monarchy. Female political rule. Palaces unfortified. [The eruption of Thera (Santorini) has been estimated at around 1642 BCE, from Greenland ice cores.] Linear A writing hasn't been deciphered. p. 434-438. Greek mainland: walled citadels 1400 BCE, soon overtook Crete. p. 436. Linear B is Greek. p. 437.
3000 BCE - 1600 CE: miserable for farmers, great for barbarians. --James C. Scott. p. 445.
Karl Jaspers' "Axial Age," 800-201 BCE, Greek/Indian/Chinese philosophy appears in the wake of coinage. p. 450. Also the spread of chattel slavery. Which then declined as axial empires dissolved.
Cahokia, Illinois, 1050-1350 CE. City of 15,000, 6 square miles. Ritual mass killings and burials. Entire area abandoned. pp. 452, 465, 481-482.
Hopewell Interaction Sphere, 100 BCE to 500 CE, network tying nearly all parts of North America together, centered near Chillicothe, Ohio. p. 457.
Osage Missouri River trading empire, 1678-1803. p.476.
/Gayanashagowa/, Iroquois League of Five Nations' founding epic: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... p. 483.
To get a sense of a society's values, see what they consider the worst behavior. For the Haudenosaunee (League Iroquois: Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk), giving orders is almost as bad as cannibalism. pp. 483, 485.
1230 - 1375, Iroquois began to give up seasonal mobility, settle in palisaded towns of up to 2,000. p. 487.
Patriarchic rule may have originated as orphans, widows, and others in need relied on the hospitality of the chief. pp. 520-521.
Societies lacking both slavery and war were common outside the Eurasian Iron Age. p. 523. [1300 BCE, Caucasus foothills, Hittites first used iron weapons, so says Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Chronology of the World, p. 43. "Iron has been discovered for the evil of mankind." --Lichas the Lacedemonian, quoted in Herodotus' History, Volume 1.]
New truths replace old when old theorists die. --Max Planck. p. 525.
Quiz:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
Graeber wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David...
Wengrow wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David...
"Try to take over the world." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkT19u...
ERRATA
"around the year 0" p. 337. There was no year 0. Should say, "around the years 1 BCE / 1 CE."
The authors set out to write a history of inequality. They learned that there was never an original natural state of human society. People have been organizing themselves in a variety of political ways for 200,000 years. The current organization into states can't be thought of as inevitable.
Homo sapiens 200,000 BCE- p. 1.
No better way to get anthropologists denouncing each other than to mention Napoleon Chagnon. p. 16. (Chagnon said the Yanomami of Amazonia are violent, and that their case may indicate that so are we all. According to Steven Pinker, if not for Voltaire and police, academics would be actually stabbing each other in this debate.)
European missionaries to Native Americans in the 1600s struggled to translate concepts like "lord," "commandment," or "obedience" into indegenous languages. p. 44.
Robert Lowie and Pierre Clastres tell of Native American chiefs whose roles were to mediate quarrels, provide for the needy, and entertain with beautiful speeches. They weren't lawgivers, executives, or judges. Robert Lowie (1883-1957 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rober... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... and Pierre Clastres (1934-1977 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierr... https://www.goodreads.com/author/list... , p. 114, 130).
Native Americans said, Europeans wouldn't need to coerce each other to behave well, if not for their system of money and property rights, that encourages them to behave badly. p. 54.
The political "right" and "left" originally referred to seating positions of aristocratic and popular factions in the French National Assembly of 1789. p. 69. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio...
A few powerful people are wrecking the world. How'd that happen? p. 76.
Egalitarianism can exist only if there's no possibility of accumulating any sort of surplus.--anthropologist James Woodburn p. 128. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Americans are free from having to obey the arbitrary orders of superiors--unless, of course, they have to get a job. p. 131.
When someone else's purpose in life is to interfere with you, he must be stopped, lest you become his slave, his pet. --an indigenous Californian, 1800s. p. 203.
We make our own history, but not under conditions of our own choosing. --Karl Marx. p. 206.
Çatalhöyük, Turkey, was first settled c. 7400 BCE. 13 hectares (32 acres, .05 sq mi, .13 sq km), 5,000 population. (100,000/sq mi, 156/acre). p. 212.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/K%C...
Practised flood-retreat farming. p. 235.
Harvesting wild plants and turning them into food, medicine and complex structures like baskets or clothing is almost everywhere a female activity. p. 237.
Settlements inhabited by tens of thousands of people make their first appearance in human history around 6000 years ago, on almost every continent, at first in isolation. p. 283. The largest early cities were in Mesoamerica. p. 285. Teotihuacan reached 100,000 largely of refugees of volcanic and seismic disasters, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. River floodplains settled in their courses, and sea level stabilized, around 7,000 years ago.
Ukrainian and Moldovan cities of over 1,000 500-square-foot houses, in a 750-acre built area, were inhabited 4100 - 3300 BCE. pp. 290-291. No evidence of social stratification.
From around 2800 BCE onward, monarchy starts popping up everywhere. p. 298.
Uruk is the first city for which we have extensive written records. p. 306.
Aristocracies, and maybe monarchy, first arose in opposition to the egalitarian cities of the Mesopotamian plains. Compare
Alaric vs. Rome,
Genghis Khan vs. Samarkand,
Timur vs. Delhi. p. 313.
Argives vs. Troy,
Attila vs. Europe p. 445,
Vikings vs. Europe,
whoever brought the war chariot there vs. India. p. 311.
[Let's continue the list:
British East India Company vs. India.
British Petroleum vs. Mosaddegh.
Chiquita vs. Árbenz.
Michelin vs. Vietnam.
Allen Dulles vs. JFK.
Kennecott Copper vs. Allende.
Al-Qaeda vs. US.
Putin vs. Ukraine.]
At Taosi, China, 2000 BCE, aristocracy was apparently overthrown; the city then increased in size over the next 200-300 years. pp. 325-326.
At least 100,000 people lived in Teotihuacan, which covered 8
square miles, 100 BCE to 600 CE. pp. 286, 329, 336, 341-344. No overlords nor kings.
Cortés in 1519 found no kings in Tlaxcala, a city of 150,000. p. 348. Governed by consensus of a city council. p. 353.
Elections often choose charismatic leaders with tyrannical pretensions. p. 356.
Control of violence, control of information, and individual charisma are the three possible bases of social power. p. 365.
As late as the 1780s, as Max Weber liked to point out, Frederick the Great of Prussia found that his repeated efforts to free the country's serfs came to nothing because bureaucrats would simply ignore the decrees or, if challenged by his legates, insisted the words of the decree should be interpreted as saying the exact opposite of what was obviously intended. p. 394.
People have an unfortunate tendency to see the successful prosecution of arbitrary violence as in some sense divine. p. 395.
Three freedoms: to relocate, to disobey, to make and break social alliances. p. 426, 503.
Minoan Crete, 1700-1450 BCE. No evidence of monarchy. Female political rule. Palaces unfortified. [The eruption of Thera (Santorini) has been estimated at around 1642 BCE, from Greenland ice cores.] Linear A writing hasn't been deciphered. p. 434-438. Greek mainland: walled citadels 1400 BCE, soon overtook Crete. p. 436. Linear B is Greek. p. 437.
3000 BCE - 1600 CE: miserable for farmers, great for barbarians. --James C. Scott. p. 445.
Karl Jaspers' "Axial Age," 800-201 BCE, Greek/Indian/Chinese philosophy appears in the wake of coinage. p. 450. Also the spread of chattel slavery. Which then declined as axial empires dissolved.
Cahokia, Illinois, 1050-1350 CE. City of 15,000, 6 square miles. Ritual mass killings and burials. Entire area abandoned. pp. 452, 465, 481-482.
Hopewell Interaction Sphere, 100 BCE to 500 CE, network tying nearly all parts of North America together, centered near Chillicothe, Ohio. p. 457.
Osage Missouri River trading empire, 1678-1803. p.476.
/Gayanashagowa/, Iroquois League of Five Nations' founding epic: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... p. 483.
To get a sense of a society's values, see what they consider the worst behavior. For the Haudenosaunee (League Iroquois: Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk), giving orders is almost as bad as cannibalism. pp. 483, 485.
1230 - 1375, Iroquois began to give up seasonal mobility, settle in palisaded towns of up to 2,000. p. 487.
Patriarchic rule may have originated as orphans, widows, and others in need relied on the hospitality of the chief. pp. 520-521.
Societies lacking both slavery and war were common outside the Eurasian Iron Age. p. 523. [1300 BCE, Caucasus foothills, Hittites first used iron weapons, so says Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Chronology of the World, p. 43. "Iron has been discovered for the evil of mankind." --Lichas the Lacedemonian, quoted in Herodotus' History, Volume 1.]
New truths replace old when old theorists die. --Max Planck. p. 525.
Quiz:
https://www.goodreads.com/trivia/work...
Graeber wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David...
Wengrow wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David...
"Try to take over the world." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBkT19u...
ERRATA
"around the year 0" p. 337. There was no year 0. Should say, "around the years 1 BCE / 1 CE."
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prehistory
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india
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guatemala
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detailed-reviews
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