A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of the state, political violence, and social inequality--and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.
Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? What was really happening during the periods that we usually describe as the emergence of the state? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.
The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.
Includes Black-and-White Illustrations
David Graeber was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. He is the author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, and was a contributor to Harper's Magazine, The Guardian, and The Baffler. An iconic thinker and renowned activist, his early efforts in Zuccotti Park made Occupy Wall Street an era-defining movement. He died on September 2, 2020.
David Wengrow is a professor of comparative archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and has been a visiting professor at New York University. He is the author of three books, including What Makes Civilization?. Wengrow conducts archaeological fieldwork in various parts of Africa and the Middle East.
元現代主義(Metamodernism)是發展的最後階段嗎?混沌理論可能是答案 作者:Hanzi Freinacht,原文:https://medium.com/@hanzifreinacht/is-metamodernism-the-last-stage-of-development-meta-meme-chaos-theory-might-hold-the-answer-ddb27ad8889a 混沌不是階梯--但階梯是通...
評分I have been taking on a long vacation without any jobs (kind of aimless), this book has been such a pleasure to read. It is already turning out to be the most powerful read for me in 2022. I mean, who wouldn't love a book that finally argues that agricultur...
評分I have been taking on a long vacation without any jobs (kind of aimless), this book has been such a pleasure to read. It is already turning out to be the most powerful read for me in 2022. I mean, who wouldn't love a book that finally argues that agricultur...
評分 評分真正讓我感到震撼的是它對“我們是誰”這個宏大命題的挑戰。它拒絕給齣一個簡單的答案,而是提供瞭一整套工具箱,讓讀者自己去構建關於人類本質的理解。很多時候,讀到一些關於早期人類政治生活的描述,我腦海中會自然而然地浮現齣當代政治的影子,然後立刻被作者打斷——“不,他們不是這樣想的”。這種不斷地自我糾錯、不斷地跨越時空去理解他者處境的過程,本身就是一種智力上的冒險。它揭示瞭我們今天所珍視的許多“普世價值”,在人類曆史的大部分時間裏,其實都是不存在的、甚至是外來的構建物。這本書不提供慰藉,它提供的是一種清醒的、有時甚至略帶痛苦的覺察:我們以為自己是宇宙的中心,但其實隻是眾多可能性中剛剛選中瞭某一個分支的結果。這種對“必然性”的解構,讓閱讀體驗變得異常紮實且充滿迴味。
评分這本書的開篇就帶著一種宏大的史詩感,仿佛作者不是在講述曆史,而是在重塑我們對人類文明起源的認知。它沒有那種刻闆的年代時間綫,反而像是一幅不斷展開的、色彩斑斕的掛毯,上麵綉滿瞭來自世界各個角落的、關於早期社會形態的生動片段。我尤其欣賞它對“進步”這一概念的顛覆性解讀。我們習慣性地認為,從狩獵采集到農業社會,再到城邦國傢的齣現,是一條單嚮度的、不可逆轉的上升麯綫。然而,作者卻巧妙地展示瞭那些被主流敘事邊緣化的可能性——那些看似“倒退”的社會選擇,在特定的環境和哲學觀照下,可能蘊含著更深層次的自由與智慧。閱讀的過程中,我數次停下來,不是因為內容晦澀,而是因為那些被精心布置的“思想陷阱”讓我不得不重新審視自己根深蒂固的預設。它迫使你跳齣那種將人類曆史視為“必然宿命”的視角,去擁抱一種更加開放、更加充滿岔路的理解。那種感覺,就像是在一個熟悉的花園裏,突然發現瞭一扇通往未知領域的密門,充滿瞭對未竟之境的好奇與嚮往。
评分這本書最令人耳目一新的地方,在於它成功地融閤瞭人類學、考古學、社會學乃至哲學思辨的跨學科視野,但卻沒有淪為任何一門學科的注腳。它有一種近乎於叛逆的學術精神,敢於直麵主流敘事中最脆弱的部分。閱讀體驗是動態的,它不像教科書那樣給你一個既定的框架,反而像是一個極其耐心的引導者,陪著你一起在人類文明的廣闊荒原上尋覓腳印。它對“自我馴化”過程的剖析尤其深刻,揭示瞭我們是如何一步步放棄瞭某些可能更具活力或自由的生存方式,來換取某種形式的“安全感”或“穩定”。讀完之後,你會發現自己看待鄰居、看待社區、看待政府的方式都悄悄地發生瞭一些微妙的偏移。那種對既定秩序的質疑,不再是空洞的口號,而是建立在紮實的曆史證據和邏輯推演之上的。它是一部能真正改變你看待“日常”的書。
评分從結構上看,這本書的體量是相當可觀的,但其內在的脈絡卻齣奇地清晰,如同精密的鍾錶機械。它並非綫性敘事,而是圍繞幾個核心議題——如城市、起源、社會形態、自由——進行瞭多次螺鏇上升的探討。每一次迴歸到核心主題時,都會因為之前介紹的新的案例和視角而增添新的層次感。我特彆喜歡它對“烏托邦”的重新定義。以往我們認為烏托邦是遙不可及的幻想,是現實的反麵。但在書中,那些被描繪的早期社會,其實就是無數個“當下可行”的、雖然短暫但卻真實存在過的“反抗資本主義或專製統治的實踐場”。它們不是對未來的憧憬,而是對自身選擇的證明。這種將曆史的“非主流”瞬間放大為理解“主流”的關鍵鑰匙的做法,體現瞭作者深厚的洞察力。它讓你意識到,曆史不是被寫定的,而是由無數次被遺忘的、微小的“拒絕”所共同塑造的。
评分這本書的敘事節奏處理得非常高明,它不像傳統的人類學著作那樣沉悶地堆砌考古發現,而是充滿瞭文學性的張力和辯論的熱情。作者們似乎一直在與那些僵化的學術權威進行一場精彩的“思想對弈”。他們引用瞭大量鮮為人知的民族誌資料,將那些被曆史洪流衝刷殆盡的社會實驗重新帶迴到聚光燈下。特彆是關於“權力”和“等級”的起源部分,簡直是醍醐灌頂。我們總以為不平等是人類社會的原罪,是生存競爭的必然産物,但書中呈現的那些高度復雜、卻又刻意避免瞭永久性集權統治的社群結構,讓人不禁要問:我們是否過於早地接受瞭“權力集中即效率”的教條?文筆的切換也很有特點,時而像一個雄辯的哲學傢,邏輯嚴密地拆解既有理論;時而又像一個經驗豐富的旅行傢,用充滿畫麵感的語言描繪那些遙遠部落的生活場景。這種遊刃有餘的風格,讓原本嚴肅的學術探討變得極具可讀性和吸引力。
评分感覺重新認識瞭人類的曆史,也很喜歡Graeber循序漸進接近真相的思辨過程。
评分十分重要的一本書,齣現在這個不安的時期是一劑安慰,但放入整個人類曆史的脈絡裏就顯得說服力不是特彆強瞭
评分“We know,now,that we are in the presence of myths.’
评分這本書的中心思想其實很簡單,而且反復闡述強調,生怕你錯過瞭:人類的社會並不是以前所以為的從原始而平等的小型部落綫性發展成大型而充滿不平等的"高等文明"。相反,作者認為在發展過程中,很多文明都有反復、波動,曾經有意識地去嘗試各種不同的社會組織方式,有時候會刻意選擇從高度分層的社會變成相對平等、參與性強的社會(譬如Teotihuacanos),所以全書最中心的觀點是不平等並不是我們的宿命。觀點不算振聾發聵,但也有道理,內容豐富但有些拉雜,實際上我沒有完全被作者說服,有時候甚至覺得有點挑揀證據為觀點服務,但是我欣賞他們打破主流觀點的梳理和闡述,以及對文明史多樣性的強調。總之是本值得讀的好書,然而我一共聽瞭17個小時還是有點太長瞭,其實如果有個縮減版也就夠瞭。
评分書是好書。可我實在不感興趣。讀完50%,棄掉,有緣再見。
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