A "classical" Marxist critique of the book "The Dawn of Everything", attacking its pluralist and "idealist" perspective on human pre-history. The second link goes to my own review of the book.
How can we be free? A Marxist critique of "The Dawn of Everything"
An excellent critique by Mr. Bergman. And I had to look up Kondiaronk (see Wiki) of whom I had never heard.
ReplyDeleteStill, how indeed do we get out of capitalist oppression and reach an egalitarian society? We are deeply entrenched. It will take generations upon generations, if at all, and if we avoid MAD.
The Marxist guy does sound well informed, but I can´t help thinking that he is "throwing out the baby with the bath-water". My understanding is that different cultures *can* arise on similar material bases (at least in pre-modern society). For instance, patriarchal Indo-Aryans and matriarchal Scythians were both pastoralists on the Eurasian steppes. So material conditions may act as a constraint on what can or cannot be done, but they are not "creative" in the way Marxist think. Cultural forms are sui generis, or has an entirely different origin altogether. An interesting question would then be if this is the case in modern society as well?
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