Reference no: EM133970962

Instructions

Write an ABSTRACT of the article explaining the central argument.

QUESTIONS to consider while reading:

1. What was the nature of the various "extraordinary cultural arrangements that emerged across the world before our ancestors turned their hands to farming," i.e. before the Agricultural Revolution or before the sedentary cereal grain and animal agriculture was adopted?
2. What do G&W mean by: "how did we get stuck?" What kind of stuck do they mean? How are we stuck today?
3. How does reading about distant history help us get unstuck?
4. What different kinds of ways of living social, political, economic, and cultural--did people have before the rise of the hegemonic way of life we know today.
5. How are work and property ownership related to freedom and self-determination and political power?
6. What is the dominant historical narrative of social evolution and "Progress" and what are G&W's critiques of this narrative?
7. How do they understand "freedom" themselves, what is their concept of freedom?
8. What is culture and how does ritual play a role in reversals of everyday life order of power, authority, etc.
9. What is their explanation of the advent of private property? Explain their narrative and their critiques of other dominant narratives.

Reference

David Graeber and David Wengrow. 2021. "Free People, the Origin of Cultures, and the Advent of Private Property," InThe Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Penguin Books: 129-168.