The Origins of Inequality

The Wrong Boys are joined by David Wengrow to talk about changing human history (starting with the past) and his new book, co-authored with the late David Graeber, on myths about the origins of human society, why both Hobbes and Rousseau are wrong, and why human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

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Links:
Buy “The Dawn of Everything”: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/616885/the-dawn-of-everything-by-david-graeber-and-david-wengrow/9780771049828
How to Change the Course of Human History: https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/
Hiding in Plain Sight: Democracy’s indigenous origins in the Americas: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/democracy/hiding-plain-sight
Graeber and Wengrow on the Myth of the Stupid Savage (Video – 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvUzdJSK4x8
David Graeber & David Wengrow Teach-Out (Video – 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNbWlD-lqYQ
Graeber/Wengrow: Paleolithic Politics & Why It Still Matters (Video – 2015): https://vimeo.com/145285143
Slavery and Its Rejection Among Foragers on the Pacific Coast of North America: A Case of Schismogenesis? (Video – 2018): https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/philippe-descola/seminar-2018-03-22-10h00.htm
Unfreezing the Ice Age: The Truth about Humanity’s Deep Past (2021): https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/19/unfreezing-the-ice-age-the-truth-about-humanitys-deep-past
Forget ‘Liberté’ – 17th-Century Indigenous Americans Knew a Lot More About Freedom Than Their French Colonisers (2021): https://novaramedia.com/2021/10/19/forget-liberte-17th-century-indigenous-americans-knew-a-lot-more-about-freedom-than-their-french-colonisers/
Rethinking cities from the ground up (Wengrow, 2019) – https://medium.com/whose-society-whose-cohesion/rethinking-cities-from-the-ground-up-73d92059b15f


Correction: The Wrong Boys mispronounce the word “Teotihuacan” (Saying ‘Teo-teh-hoo-i-can’)- It is actually pronounced “Teo-Tiwa-Khan” (/teɪˌoʊtiːwəˈkɑːn/)

Opening Theme Song by E June
Closing Theme Song by Spam Risk:
https://spamrisk.bandcamp.com/album/s-t