Living Anthropologically
The moral optimism of anthropology can change the world
Part 2: Domesticaton, Agriculture, and Civilization
Explores archaeology, emphasizing how to understand the domestication of plants and animals, agriculture, and ideas of social complexity and civilization.
2.1 Agriculture as “Worst mistake in the history of the human race”?
Did agriculture give us the splendors of civilization or was agriculture, in Jared Diamond’s words, the “Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”?
2.2 Many ways of gathering and hunting
Anthropology reveals gathering and hunting activities are quite diverse, encompassing an enormous range of environments, tools, and techniques.
2.3 Domestication of plants and animals opens relational pathways
The domestication of plants and animals opens new relational pathways with unintended consequences. It is not when humans began to control nature.
2.4 The many origins of agriculture
Agriculture arose independently in different areas of the world, depending on different mixes of plants and animals. There are many origins of agriculture.
2.5 More than Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond has done a disservice to the telling of human history, distorting the role of domestication and agriculture in Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Stay tuned for sections on social complexity and the emergence of the state.
Moral Optimism
At the end of the day, in this age where futures are murky and utopias mere reminders of a lost innocence, we need to fall back on the moral optimism that has been anthropology’s greatest—yet underscored—appeal. But we need to separate that optimism from the naïveté that has been liberalism’s most convenient shield. We need to assume it as a choice—whether we call it moral, philosophical, or aesthetic in the best sense. We need to hang on to it not because we are historically, socially, or politically naïve—indeed, as social scientists we cannot afford such naïveté—but because this is the side of humanity that we choose to prefer, and because this choice is what moved us to anthropology in the first place. We need to assume this optimism because the alternatives are lousy, and because anthropology as a discipline is the best venue through which the West can show an undying faith in the richness and variability of humankind.
-- Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Global Transformations(2003:139)
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