On a tapestry in Mannheim Palace, for example, the “savages” were kept at bay, while, according to Graeber and Wengrow, they actually initiated the Enlightenment in Europe.
Image: State Palaces and Gardens of Baden-Württemberg, Arnim Weischer
David Graeber’s and David Wengrow’s book “Beginnings” is a manifesto once morest the unenlightened self-image of modern societies. It will change debates. A guest post.
Wunable to move in the face of mortal danger, he is trapped. This is how our society fares: We know that only fundamental changes can secure a future for future generations. In view of the impending climate collapse, “keep it up” will certainly lead to catastrophe. The flight forward, to new planets, is reserved for a few super-rich, unless it is pure wishful thinking. And a return to “pre-modern” conditions does not seem an option either. It is this scenario of a collapsing world without alternative ways of thinking and acting that we are working to counter at the Berlin House of World Cultures (HKW). We need to develop new maps and discursive coordinate systems to show ways out of habits of thought. For the trap we are caught in is a mindset trap, albeit with disastrous material consequences.
In this situation, the book “Beginnings. A New History of Humanity” new perspectives. Anthropologist and activist David Graeber co-wrote it with archaeologist David Wengrow; it was finished shortly before Graeber’s death in 2020. The book frees our political imagination from the shackles that traditional narrative models and ideologies impose on us. “Beginnings” refutes the standard model of the history of civilization that has been developed since the 18th century and is still reproduced in various forms in the works of “Big History” – for example in the bestsellers by Jared Diamond, Steven Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari. This describes a linear development from simple and original to increasingly complex forms of society, from egalitarian gathering and hunting societies to pastoralism and agriculture to modern, capitalist societies.
