For
centuries, we have been telling ourselves a simple story about the
origins of social inequality. For most of their history, humans lived
in tiny egalitarian bands of hunter-gatherers. Then came farming,
which brought with it private property, and then the rise of cities
which meant the emergence of civilization properly speaking.
Civilization meant many bad things (wars, taxes, bureaucracy,
patriarchy, slavery…) but also made possible written literature,
science, philosophy, and most other great human achievements.
Almost
everyone knows this story in its broadest outlines. Since at least
the days of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it has framed what we think the
overall shape and direction of human history to be. This is important
because the narrative also defines our sense of political
possibility. Most see civilization, hence inequality, as a tragic
necessity. Some dream of returning to a past utopia, of finding an
industrial equivalent to ‘primitive communism’, or even, in
extreme cases, of destroying everything, and going back to being
foragers again. But no one challenges the basic structure of the
story.
There
is a fundamental problem with this narrative.
It
isn’t true.
First
published in Eurozine
©
David Graeber, David Wengrow / Eurozine
