Radical Anthropology

Well The Dawn of Everything can't all be wrong! The #egalitarian city: Mohenjo-Daro

https://phys.org/news/2026-05-year-city-defied-history-equal.html

How a 4,000-year-old city defied history's 'rules' by becoming more equal as it became more successful

For decades, historians have generally agreed that the progress of small villages as they evolved into cities came at the price of widening inequality. A small group of leaders, kings and priests, would inevitably seize control of the wealth and the gap between rich and poor would grow.

Phys.org
May 20 at 7:08pmWeb
Show threadRadical AnthropologyMay 20

Paper here

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/inequality-declined-in-the-bronze-age-city-of-mohenjodaro/BF07ED4E516F2127F1C3E645C9C8F462

Inequality declined in the Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

Inequality declined in the Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-daro

Cambridge Core
Show threadDoomsdaysCWMay 20
@RadicalAnthro Heh. One of my favorite topics! Thanks for sharing this!
Show threadElse, SomeoneMay 20
@RadicalAnthro
WHat part of it was wrong?
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShellMay 20

@RadicalAnthro

The criticism of dawn of everything, is that it insists that the “rules” have never come under dispute before.

This is simply 100% unalloyed bullshit.

In the 1960s the standard model for civilization development were already under attack. By the time I was taking anthropology courses in the mid 80s, the plain phrase was that that model did not survive contact with the anthropology and archaeology of the Americas.

1/2

Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShellMay 20

@RadicalAnthro

By 1992, cultural anthropologist, had developed a framework of the set of material conditions and social dynamics that would lean societies to an egalitarianism or hierarchy.

Notably, that framework tells you what to look for and what to consider. This is something DoE never got to.

By the end of the book, they had only managed to collect the observations, the framework started from, without any dynamic model

2/2

Show threadRadical AnthropologyMay 21

@GhostOnTheHalfShell
At Radical Anthropology, as anthropologists who have been in egalitarian hunter-gatherer camps, we are very well aware of the problems with #DoE! We actually call it 'Teatime of Everything' since they outrageously and ignorantly sweep aside our African origins.

It is NOT our favoured text. I am being a bit tongue in cheek here.

This is a thread on a Special Issue we edited:
https://c.im/@RadicalAnthro/113323954986435790

Radical Anthropology (@[email protected])

We're superdelighted that Hunter Gatherer Research have just published our Special Issue on #Graeber and #Wengrow's #TheDawnofEverything with interdisciplinary articles from hunter-gatherer anthropologists, archaeologists and prose poets! Unfortunately this is not-so-free #fediscience, so if you have any problems getting to links you can message me on [email protected] for help! 🧵Here on our articles ⬇️⬇️ https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/toc/hgr/current

C.IM
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShellMay 21

@RadicalAnthro

I did not get the sense they swept aside Africa, but you are right, there wasn’t any mention anything of it either.

Still, the book was packed with tons of interesting information and more than a few bits spiced up with speculation on their part. The speculation parts felt really cringe and awkward.