Pinker: The ano mamis are violent, despite what every chilanthropologist whohas ever spent time with them says. They tell us the story of helen vallero, a white woman who was kidnapped by the ano mami when she was 12 or 13 years old in the 19 thirties. After a while, given the ability to make a fully informed decision, helena vallero decided that she preferred life among the anomami and returned to live with them. Pinker: This is important because it's a powerful example of how people prefer dom, relative equality and community to all the endless frustrations, humiliations, insincerity and alienation of
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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”.
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