First Lines of David Graeber and David Wengrow's "The Dawn of Everything"

 "Most of human history is irreparably lost to us. Our species, Homo sapiens, has existed for at least 200,000 years, but for most of that time we have next to no idea what was happening." 

- The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Graeber and Wengrow's ambitious goal: To answer the question "what are the origins of social inequity?" As they introduce their themes, the overall argument is in re-examining historical assumptions (or history's "grand narrative") in the face of a new evidence, including:

• Native American criticisms of European culture and the European reaction to it, which the authors claim resulted in the dehumanization of native thought
• Biases in earlier evidence that led to faulty assumptions about basic facts about human diversity and culture

It's a fascinating read, one I'm working through slowly for there are many insights. One interesting thought: even asking the question about inequality assumes an original state of equality that quite simply didn't exist. (Life was too diverse to make such a grand statement; poor Rousseau comes in for some criticism.)

Perhaps the most useful result of this analysis is uncovering the absurdity behind so many of our historical "grand narratives." By add the voices and evidence of our early ancestors, those native and "primitive" societies who the authors convincingly describe as "...not just our cognitive equals, but our intellectual peers too." I'm very curious to see where the book will end up.