David Wengrow
On the Origins of The Origins of Inequality
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Rousseau wrote his essay on the origins of social inequality in 1755 in response to a public essay contest on the topic. Why, in Ancien Régime France, was this question even being asked? Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality cannot be understood except in the context of indigenous critiques of European society—especially American ones—that were taken very seriously in many quarters in Europe itself. In some cases we know the names of the specific individuals responsible (e.g. the Huron statesman Kandiaronk). Ideals of “progress” were developed largely in response to that critique, and by synthesizing the two strands Rousseau essentially invented what we now call “the Left.”
David Wengrow is Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and has been a visiting professor at New York University, the University of Auckland, and Freiburg University. He has written widely on the early beginnings of agriculture, urban life, writing systems, and states. His books include What Makes Civilisation? The Ancient Near East and the Future of the West (2010), and most recently, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021, co-authored with David Graeber).