Graeber and Wengrow's The Dawn Of Everything: Dissected part 1 History

This is the first of 3 films, and aims to set out the book’s main claims and lines of argument. It’s divided into 3 part’s. The first of these is called ‘Manifesto’ – and is designed to establish the books main concern to overturn current ways of thinking about our deep past in order that we might better appreciate the agency and variety of the people and societies currently overlooked by orthodox history. In particular, it sets out why they believe that the idea of history as an unfolding series of evolutionary and monolithic stages is wide of the mark. The second section called ‘The Indigenous critique’ , deals with the largest of many secondary lines of argument made throughout this book. Here, it sets out the claim - that the indigenous Americans were in many respects the original inspiration, if not the real authors of the European enlightenment. In particular it details the long intellectual and political history of the Iroquois, who’s deep appreciation of political autonomy and mutual aid became the foundation of their encounter with Europeans, which would translate into the arguments of amongst others Rousseau and Montesquieu. Finally, the third section History over myth – builds on both earlier sections, to give a new survey of historical sites and argument, to illustrate their new approach. Here, their ideas of Schismogenesis, seasonality and play farming are applied to such things as the monumental architecture of the ice age, the lost cities of the Neolithic and the contrasting societies of the indigenous Californians and peoples of the Canadian Northwest coast. Throughout, the political sophistication and agency of the people of the past are constantly emphasised and illustrated.