“Humans may not have begun their history in a state of primordial innocence, but they do appear to have begun it with a self-conscious aversion to being told what to do.”
This book by a British archaeologist and an American anarchist anthropologist did nothing less than blow my mind. In short – it’s about where we came from in terms of the the organisational structure of society, and how we got stuck in our current quagmire of inequality and bureaucracy. It proves that throughout history there have been other ways of doing things and so many of them had tangible benefits that have since been thrown away.
The book starts in the Stone Age and goes through time and around the globe. Contrary to popular belief, humans were not hunter-gatherers for the majority of history. This book tears apart the common historical narrative and Western way of studying our past. It is a lesson in how racist this lens has been, as well.
The part of the book that blew my mind the most was how the native peoples of the US influenced European philosophical thought. When I went to school in the US, native peoples were portrayed as “noble savages” and there is no indication that they were actual thought leaders, or even capable of being such. They were cited as influences in numerous historical sources, and it’s just been written off.
If you’re interested in philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, or government, this book will be a fascinating read that will upend everything you thought you knew about the way things have worked. The book left me energised and a bit frustrated, because there are so many lessons we can learn from the past that have just been written off by people who are intent on holding onto power. Are we really stuck with the way things are now?