David Wengrow: “We need to dismantle the myths surrounding the origins of our social order”

According to the long-prevailing view, human societies were initially organized as groups of egalitarian hunter-gatherers living in harmony with nature. The domestication of livestock and the development of agriculture – and the consequent accumulation of wealth – then led to the emergence of complex, hierarchical societies. David Wengrow, a professor of comparative archaeology at University College London, challenges this idea of the natural evolution of societies. His book The Dawn of Everything, co-written with anthropologist David Graeber, has become a best-seller.