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Prehistoric Philosophy challenges the narrative of progress and other civilizational myths by looking at their origins in the neolithic revolution. Once we reject the simplistic and often racist stereotyping of hunter-gatherers, the agricultural revolution no longer appears as the first step of human progress, but rather as a messy, brutal shift that unleashed a host of evils into the world: inequality, hierarchy, disease, empire, warfare, patriarchy, slavery, and environmental destruction. Building on the success of Graeber and Wengrow''s ground-breaking The Dawn of Everything , Justin Pack reads the neolithic revolution together with indigenous critiques, using each to strengthen our understanding of the other. In doing so, he helps us to understand the concerns of many indigenous communities, and forces us to recognize our role in the death of the cosmos. Building on this, the book illuminates the rise of the world''s major religious and philosophical traditions in the axial age as different attempts to make sense of, justify, or escape the evils of inequality, disease, empire, and the loss of cosmic civility. By advancing the notion of a ''prehistoric philosophy,'' this volume simultaneously interrogates the colonialism inherent in the Western philosophy canon.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I: Hunter-Gatherers in the Living Cosmos1. Before the Neolithic Revolution
2. The Living Cosmos
3. Recognition and Gifting
Part II: The Neolithic Revolution and Pandora's Box4. The Rise of Agriculture
5. Patriarchy and the Breaking of the Cosmic Alliance
Part III: The Axial Age6. The Axial Age and Money
7. The Axial Age and Money
8. Asian Traditions
9. Greek Philosophy
Conclusions: The Death of the Cosmos and the Project of Modernity
About the author
Justin Pack is a Lecturer at California State University, Stanislaus, USA. He studies the outstanding characteristic of our time: thoughtlessness and has written books on how it manifests in higher education, in world alienation, in the contemporary environmental crisis, in money, and in meritocratic ideals. He loves redwoods, giant sequoias, birds, enchiladas verdes, ancient fortresses, and ruins.
