That's ... not *at all* the conclusion I got from Wengrow and Graeber's book. In particular they use the examples of Teotihuacán and the Ukrainian megasites to argue that urbanization doesn't inevitably lead to oppression!
They do make the important point that various cultures tried agriculture and urbanization and decided that it wasn't worth it for various reasons - but these reasons could just as easily be ecological, philosophical, spiritual, political, or what have you.
Or simply because "those people over there do THAT so we do THIS because we're NOT THEM".
Yes of course! There are many examples of proto-cities, and large Neolithic settlements, without hierarchy. I guess I wasn't clear enough about that—I've amended the post
That's ... not *at all* the conclusion I got from Wengrow and Graeber's book. In particular they use the examples of Teotihuacán and the Ukrainian megasites to argue that urbanization doesn't inevitably lead to oppression!
They do make the important point that various cultures tried agriculture and urbanization and decided that it wasn't worth it for various reasons - but these reasons could just as easily be ecological, philosophical, spiritual, political, or what have you.
Or simply because "those people over there do THAT so we do THIS because we're NOT THEM".
Yes of course! There are many examples of proto-cities, and large Neolithic settlements, without hierarchy. I guess I wasn't clear enough about that—I've amended the post