David Graeber & David Wengrow - The Dawn Of Everything (Allen Lane, 2021) ****½

With 526 pages of text, and around 170 additional pages in notes, bibliography and index, this book will take some time to read and to absorb. Its lead author, David Graeber, died in 2020, and was a very influential economic anthropologist and "anarchist activist", very active in the Occupy Wall Street movement. David Wengrow is a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at  University College London.

Despite the label of "anarchism" that Graeber carries, this is a scholarly work, even if it's published in the form of popular science. Graeber and Wengrow refute with lots of minute detail and a treasure of references some conceptual mistakes in many existing theories about how humanity evolved, and especially decided to evolve. This last aspect is essential in their thesis that the way societies evolve is as much a question of choice as it is of necessity. They give the example of native american tribes in California, who - despite contacts and interaction with other ways of life - chose not practice agriculture, but to continue to live as hunter-gatherers. "Such choices imply political consciousness: the ability to argue and reflect about the proper way to live". The quality of these life's choices are not only determined by technological innovation. They cite the comments of native american chiefs on the French way of living in the 18th century in what is now the United States, commenting on their poverty, their submission to orders from superiors and their lack of freedom, insights which have been taken on board to develop the enlightenment by French intellectuals. 

In a sweeping overview across the globe and across cultures, Graeber and Wengrow demonstrate the kaleidoscopic nature of human societies, in all their variety, choices, modes of interaction and pace of change, including different modes of operating depending on the seasons, and the acceptance of even different leadership and hierarchy as a result of this. Hierarchical inequality is not the result of size, nor is the existence of aristocracy or monarchy. Smaller settlements may have been very hierarchical and with inequality embedded in them, as much as larger ones could be more based on equality and lack of hierarchy.

In the process, they counter many false assumptions among anthropologists, historians and archeologists, whose lack of perspective, and even lack of words for some type of societies prevent them making the correct analysis and synthesis. Their constant effort to refute what their scientific colleagues are assuming or writing is often a little irritating to the non-specialist: they first have to explain what theories others have, before refuting them with counter-evidence, before expanding on their own ideas. 

Graeber and Wengrow's book is exceptional in its breadth and depth. This is a very erudite, well-researched and balanced book, that actually counters Graeber's label as an anarchist. He clearly was a real scientist, looking at facts and observations of reality to start with, while at the same time loving humanity and trying to understand what can be done to improve democracy and equality. 

If you have time, and if you're interested in society, this is obligatory reading.