10.2 The Dawn of Everything: How Graeber & Wengrow’s book sets us up to fail at politics |
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In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality.
In doing so, we look at the following: How the book’s underlying thesis: that human social structure is ultimately a matter of choice and experimentation, is fundamentally incoherent, and how this idea sets us up for future dramatic political failures, similar to those of Occupy Wall Street or the Great Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. What the standard narrative of human origins actually is, vs. the caricature elevator pitch version that Graeber & Wengrow claim to be debunking. Why most anthropologists believe that human beings began as egalitarian hunter-gatherers despite knowing about all of the evidence that Graeber & Wengrow present in order to argue the otherwise. How and why Graeber & Wengrow flush down the toilet the analytical tools that they need in order to answer their own questions about how we got stuck in dominance hierarchies. How social structure actually works. How Graeber & Wengrow’s arguments are great material for right wing talking points. Why there is room for deliberate social change in a world where social structure is largely a matter of conditions and relative bargaining power, rather than a matter of “choice”. *PLEASE* SHARE AND LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS SERIES!! I purposefully don’t monetize my channel in order to spare you the annoying ads, and it takes me weeks to make these, so please help if you can! PATREON PER EPISODE DONATIONS: https://www.patreon.com/whatispolitics KO-FI ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: ko-fi.com/whatispolitics PAYPAL ONE TIME OR MONTHLY DONATIONS: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XJ6HBHFJ6C3RU TRANSCRIPT: https://worldwidescrotes.wordpress.com/2021/12/15/10-2xcript/ BIBLIOGRAPHY: https://www.patreon.com/posts/60043152 (not paywalled) AUDIO PODCAST: https://www.podfollow.com/worbs or search for “worbs” on your podcast app RSS FEED: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WHATISPOLITICS ALL MUSIC BY *69 starsixnine.bandcamp.com https://spotify.link/x8XO9F2mkDb tweeter: @worbsintowords 0:00 Intro: 0:25 Why is it important to critique this book? Bad theory leads to political failure 1:39 Hierarchical societies always have bad political theory 4:28 The 1381 Peasant Revolt: how bad theory led to political failure 6:03 Occupy Walls Street: how bad theory led to political failure 13:35 The success and failure of The Dawn of Everything 15:06 The incoherent message of Dawn of Everything: social structure is a choice 18:51 The Dawn of Everything as Billy Madison’s Quiz Speech 20:04 Filling in the gaps of Dawn of Everything 21:03 Begin Chapter 1: Hobbes vs Rousseau vs Graeber & Wengrow 24:07 Hobbes vs. Rousseau in contemporary anthropology 26:20 Graeber & Wengrow vs. Big Bird and Dora the Explorer 31:14 Graeber & Wengrow vs. Revolutionary Anthropology 34:38 The standard narrative of human origins 37:31 Why is egalitarian origins the dominant narrative? 42:31 Why social structure changes or remains stable 49:01 The Tea Time of Everything: Why Graeber & Wengrow begin 40,000 years ago in Europe 50:17 When and why do people experiment with social structure? 52:10 Arguments against and for egalitarian origins 53:25 How the balance of power changes with agriculture over time 56:00 The right wing implications of Graeber & Wengrow’s arguments 1:02:59 Fear of materialism: why Graeber & Wengrow chose to make a mess 1:04:28 Hope for the future 1:05:19 Benjamin Franklin’s Letter 1:07:44 Next time and outtro |