D. Wengrow Knihy

Na základe najnovších výskumov antropológ David Graeber a archeológ David Wengrow radikálne prehodnotili dejiny človeka od samých počiatkov po rozvoj poľnohospodárstva, vznik miest, štátov a demokracie. Ukazujú, že dávni lovci a zberači, prapôvodné obyvateľstvo, boli tvoriví a inteligentní jednotlivci s veľkým vplyvom na európske myslenie. Doterajšie predstavy o našich predkoch ako primitívnych a detinských sú prekonané; buď boli vnímaní ako slobodní a nevinní, alebo násilní a bojovní. Autori tvrdia, že teórie o nevyhnutnosti obetovania slobôd pre vznik civilizácie sú historicky podmienené a vznikli ako reakcia na kritiku európskej spoločnosti. Opätovné preskúmanie tejto dialektiky má prekvapujúce dôsledky na naše chápanie dejín. Nové archeologické a antropologické výskumy ukazujú, že ak sa zbavíme zaužívaných predstáv, naša história nadobúda nový rozmer. Ako naši predkovia trávili čas, ak 95 percent dňa nevenovali zháňaniu potravy? Ak nástup poľnohospodárstva neznamenal okamžitý nástup hierarchie, čo potom priniesol? Odpovede sú často neočakávané a naznačujú, že smerovanie ľudskej histórie je plné hravých odbočiek. Kniha novátorsky pristupuje k chápaniu minulosti a ukazuje nové formy slobody a organizácie spoločnosti.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Renowned activist and public intellectual David Graeber teams up with professor of comparative archaeology David Wengrow to deliver 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 only be achieved by sacrificing those original freedoms, or alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. Graeber and 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 path-breaking 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% 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.

For any student studying the question of what civilisation actually is this is valuable reading. John Bulwer, Euroclassica

Exploring the emergence of composite creatures in ancient art, the book argues that "monsters" became prevalent only with the rise of urban societies and trade networks, rather than being a universal aspect of human imagery. David Wengrow traces the origins and transmission of these fantastic figures, revealing patterns in human creativity and the interplay between culture and perception. Through this lens, the work challenges conventional views on the significance of monsters in historical visual production.

Wie der Alte Orient dem Westen die Zukunft weist. Unsere heutige Welt hat ihren Ursprung im Alten Orient und in Ägypten. David Wengrow zeigt anschaulich, wie die Zukunft des Westens untrennbar mit der ungeheuren Dynamik der alten Zivilisationen verbunden ist, deren Erbe wir angetreten haben. Die Lehren aus diesem Zivilisationsprozess werden über das künftige Schicksal des Westens entscheiden. Der Drang nach Austausch, Vernetzung und Expansion kennzeichnet unsere Zivilisation. Der Bestseller-Autor David Wengrow beschreibt das Potenzial hemmungsloser Expansion und zeigt, wie viele Opfer Menschen bis heute im Namen einer fehlgeleiteten Vorstellung von Zivilisation in Kauf nehmen. In seinem ebenso originellen wie anregenden Vergleich der Hochkulturen entfaltet er die spannende Geschichte ihrer Entstehung und schildert ihr dynamisches Milieu: Vom »Kessel der Zivilisation« in Mesopotamien und im Alten Ägypten ausgehend, eröffnet er uns faszinierende Einblicke, was eine leistungsfähige Zivilisation ausmacht – und formuliert zugleich eine hochaktuelle Mahnung an uns heute, aus der unersättlichen Dynamik des Zivilisationsprozesses die richtigen Lehren für die Gestaltung unser Zukunft zu ziehen.