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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
A great re-understanding and new look at history (at least to me) but this book is dense. I listened on audiobook.
Just wasn't in the right mindset for this book at the time. Will definitely revisit, maybe a physical copy instead of digital. It's really interesting book.
informative
medium-paced
longo e nem sempre fácil de ler, com tantos detalhes, nomes, exemplos e ideias nem sempre bem costuradas.
me fez repensar "verdades" históricas não-eurocêntricas. mas ainda é um livro também cheio de pequenos preconceitos.
me fez repensar "verdades" históricas não-eurocêntricas. mas ainda é um livro também cheio de pequenos preconceitos.
The book is a mind-blowing tour of the diversity of early human civilizations and life-ways, all while deconstructing outdated assumptions about "simple" "tribes". Science is always stranger than fiction, and the truth revealed by the amazing treasure-trove of archeological science from the last 50 years just doesn't conform to what is still being popularized by authors like Jared Diamond and Yuval Harari.
The book does argue from a biased perspective, but they are up front about it. You have to be suspicious of books that claim an unbiased 'view from nowhere'. In fact, one of the main arguments in this book is that previous work has been unintentionally biased by false assumptions about the way civilization is supposed to evolve (ie based on the teleological assumption that history leads inevitably from smaller, simple tribes to larger, complicated nation-states).
The book is a massive tome, combining detailed analysis of archeological finds and ethnographic reports with comparative theories about all of human prehistory. But its accessible; I read it skipping around from interesting diagram to interesting tidbit, rather than reading their argument straight through.
Still, I did end up reading the entire behemoth; interesting highlights include the monarchical hunter-gatherer NW Coast native Americans, Ukrainian proto-cities, their anti-Yuval story of the domestication of wheat ('play-farming'), seasonal 'states', cultural schismogenesis, village bureaucracies, and Minoan and Ohioan (Hopewell) matriarchies!
Its the story of where we came from, with enough detail to be surprising on every page. Still, at 600 pages of dense comparative ethnography, I think it also qualifies as bed time reading, if you know what I mean!
The book does argue from a biased perspective, but they are up front about it. You have to be suspicious of books that claim an unbiased 'view from nowhere'. In fact, one of the main arguments in this book is that previous work has been unintentionally biased by false assumptions about the way civilization is supposed to evolve (ie based on the teleological assumption that history leads inevitably from smaller, simple tribes to larger, complicated nation-states).
The book is a massive tome, combining detailed analysis of archeological finds and ethnographic reports with comparative theories about all of human prehistory. But its accessible; I read it skipping around from interesting diagram to interesting tidbit, rather than reading their argument straight through.
Still, I did end up reading the entire behemoth; interesting highlights include the monarchical hunter-gatherer NW Coast native Americans, Ukrainian proto-cities, their anti-Yuval story of the domestication of wheat ('play-farming'), seasonal 'states', cultural schismogenesis, village bureaucracies, and Minoan and Ohioan (Hopewell) matriarchies!
Its the story of where we came from, with enough detail to be surprising on every page. Still, at 600 pages of dense comparative ethnography, I think it also qualifies as bed time reading, if you know what I mean!
It's so long, gets a little rambly towards the end, but it's incredibly good, genuinely fascinating, and v accessible.
I AM FINALLY FREE!!! To anybody has viewed my profile since its humble beginnings, you may have noticed that I have been trying to read this brick for 2.5 years, picking it up and putting it down (or rather dropping it and creating a crater in the earth) when it got too dense, which is often.
This historical/anthropological behemoth by David Graeber and David Wengrow is an important modern reimagining/reexamination of our ancestors, the evolutions of social orders, and how we think about "civilization." It presents some really intriguing arguments and evidence to expand our imagination of how ancient people organized their societies, uprooting most conventional wisdom of the march of "progress," the foundings of democracy/equality, and the "inevitability" of things many of us do not question. It adds so much richness to various societies across the globe that existed before our capitalist world order. This book and its authors are also extremely combative to the narrow-mindedness of other historians and anthropologists, which is really awesome.
While this is easily a 4 or 5 star book, I just cannot possibly give it a great rating because it took me so long and was so difficult to get through. That's a me problem. No book I have ever read has tested me more than this one. While there is so much to love and appreciate in this, it just did not grasp me consistently enough to keep me engaged. Still, this is a crucial work that should be read (or skimmed) by anybody interested in a meta narrative of the bend of society, specific and obscure voices from the ancient past, or various reflections on human nature and history. I also recommend this to anybody who enjoys suffering.
This historical/anthropological behemoth by David Graeber and David Wengrow is an important modern reimagining/reexamination of our ancestors, the evolutions of social orders, and how we think about "civilization." It presents some really intriguing arguments and evidence to expand our imagination of how ancient people organized their societies, uprooting most conventional wisdom of the march of "progress," the foundings of democracy/equality, and the "inevitability" of things many of us do not question. It adds so much richness to various societies across the globe that existed before our capitalist world order. This book and its authors are also extremely combative to the narrow-mindedness of other historians and anthropologists, which is really awesome.
While this is easily a 4 or 5 star book, I just cannot possibly give it a great rating because it took me so long and was so difficult to get through. That's a me problem. No book I have ever read has tested me more than this one. While there is so much to love and appreciate in this, it just did not grasp me consistently enough to keep me engaged. Still, this is a crucial work that should be read (or skimmed) by anybody interested in a meta narrative of the bend of society, specific and obscure voices from the ancient past, or various reflections on human nature and history. I also recommend this to anybody who enjoys suffering.
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
So grateful for this project. Indigenous contributions to enlightenment must be discussed more. Remember the "trajectory of civilization" is not inexorable. We can imagine a society other than this shit show!
The Dawn of Everything is good at exploding myths and doing radical reframing, but it can feel frustratingly abstract when you're actually in the business of making cities work!
The book also overgeneralizes complex historical phenomena, sometimes tending to oversimplified conclusions about early human societies. Moreover, it is... LONG... and dense discussions can be overwhelming.
The book also overgeneralizes complex historical phenomena, sometimes tending to oversimplified conclusions about early human societies. Moreover, it is... LONG... and dense discussions can be overwhelming.
Although I love this type of contrarian look on history, and I did enjoy the points the authors were trying to make, man was it a difficult read. Very long, very dense, and those factors really took away from my enjoyment of or even really fully understanding the concepts being conveyed.