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The Dawn of Everything《万物的黎明：人类新历史》是由人类学家大卫・格雷伯（David Graeber）和考古学家大卫・温格罗（David Wengrow）合著的一本具有开创性的书籍。
大卫・格雷伯和大卫・温格罗的这部力作，犹如一把锋利的手术刀，精准地剖析了传统人类历史观的局限。我们曾长期被灌输人类从原始到文明的单向度发展模式，仿佛历史是一条预设好轨道的列车。但这本书以大量考古证据和深入的研究为基石，有力地反驳了这种简单化的观点。
书中精彩之处在于对社会契约起源的重新解读。它跳出了霍布斯、卢梭等传统理论的框架，让我们看到人类早期社会形式的丰富多样。农业的发展不再是社会不平等的必然导火索，那些 “种着玩儿” 的社会形态，打破了我们对农业与文明发展关系的固有认知。从乌克兰到印度等地发现的特殊城市遗迹，像是历史遗落的拼图碎片，在作者笔下拼合成一幅人类社会多元发展的画卷。
阅读《万物的黎明》，仿佛置身于一场跨越时空的思想盛宴。它促使我们反思，在历史长河中，人类并非是被命运驱使的木偶，而是有着自主选择和探索的能力。它不仅仅是学术研究的成果，更像是一本打开人类思想枷锁的指南。无论是历史爱好者，还是对人类社会发展有着好奇心的普通读者，都能从中获得启迪。它以一种深入浅出的方式，把复杂的考古发现和深刻的理论分析呈现出来，让我们在重新认识人类历史的同时，也对当下社会的形成有了更深刻的理解。这是一部不容错过的佳作，它将带你踏上一段前所未有的人类历史探索之旅。
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下面进入学英语环节，以下是一些 The Dawn of Everything《万物的黎明：人类新历史》一书中经典句子：
“We are projects of collective self-creation. What if we approached human history that way? What if we treat people, from the beginning, as imaginative, intelligent, playful creatures who deserve to be understood as such?”
我们是集体自我创造的产物。如果我们以这种方式去理解人类历史会怎样？如果我们从一开始就把人类当作富有想象力、智慧且充满活力的生物来对待，又会怎样呢？
“As we will soon be discovering, there is simply no reason to believe that small-scale groups are especially likely to be egalitarian — or, conversely, that large ones must necessarily have kings, presidents, or even bureaucracies. Statements like these are just so many prejudices dressed up as facts, or even as laws of history.”
正如我们即将发现的，根本没有理由认为小规模群体就特别可能是平等主义的 —— 或者相反，认为大规模群体就必然要有国王、总统甚至官僚机构。诸如此类的说法只是许多被伪装成事实甚至历史法则的偏见。
“I do not believe that there is any people on earth freer than they, and less able to allow the subjection of their wills to any power whatever – so much so that fathers here have no control over their children, or captains over their subjects, or the laws of the country over any of them, except inasmuch as each is pleased to submit to them. There is no punishment which is inflicted on the guilty, and no criminal who is not sure that his life and property are in no danger…”
“我不认为世上有任何一个民族比他们更自由，也没有任何人能让他们的意志屈服于任何权力 —— 在这里，父亲对孩子没有控制权，首领对民众无法令行禁止，当地律法对任何人都不起作用，除非他们自己愿意服从。有罪的人不会受到惩罚，也没有罪犯会担心自己的生命和财产受到威胁。”
“There is no contesting that European traders, missionaries and settlers did actually engage in prolonged conversations with people they encountered in what they called the New World, and often lived among them for extended periods of time — even as they also colluded in their destruction.”
不可否认，欧洲的贸易商、传教士和定居者确实与他们在所谓的 “新世界” 中遇到的人进行了长时间的交谈，并经常在他们中间生活很长一段时间 —— 即使他们也参与了对这些人的破坏。
“We know, now, that we are in the presence of myths. Max Planck once remarked that new scientific truths don’t replace old ones by convincing established scientists that they were wrong; they do so because proponents of the older theory eventually die, and generations that follow find the new truths and theories to be familiar, obvious even.”
我们现在知道，我们面对的是一些神话。马克斯・普朗克曾说过，新的科学真理并不是通过让已有的科学家相信他们是错的来取代旧的真理；而是因为旧理论的支持者最终会死去，而后继的几代人发现新的真理和理论是熟悉的，甚至是显而易见的。
往期回顾
【荐书】Invitation to a Banquet《君幸食：一场贯穿古今的中餐盛宴》
【荐书】The Case for Trump：重新审视特朗普现象
