The Uncivilized Nature of Civilization

The common notion of the beginnings of civilization is that it was remarkably better than a nomadic hunter and gatherer type of existence. It is in fact the opposite; early cities and city-states throughout history were so miserable that these early states went to war in order to capture slaves to keep the city operating, and that’s one reason why slavery was endemic to the so-called civilized world. Today, renowned anthropologist and political scientist James C. Scott of Yale University gives us a deeper look into the reality of such ancient Mesopotamian societies using his latest book.
Guest: James C. Scott is an American political scientist and anthropologist. He is a comparative scholar of agrarian and non-state societies, subaltern politics, and anarchism. He has also authored many books, such as Seeing Like a State, The Art of Not Being Governed, as well as his newest and the topic of today’s show, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States.
 

The post The Uncivilized Nature of Civilization appeared first on KPFA.