A Work of Tremendous Originality? La risposta della comunità archeologica a L’alba di tutto

Marialucia Amadio

Abstract:

This paper examines the reception of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything by the archaeological community. It explores the tension between the book’s acknowledged originality and the methodological concerns raised by several scholars. By situating the volume within the development of archaeological theory, from processual archaeology to post-processual and interdisciplinary approaches, this paper shows how Graeber and Wengrow challenge linear narratives of social evolution, state formation, urbanism, and inequality. This article then examines the responses of archaeologists, notably Jennifer Birch, Kostas Kotsakis, Michael E. Smith, Ian Morris, and Yannis Hamilakis, highlighting their different assessments of the book’s use of evidence and comparative method. While Birch and Kotsakis stress the risks of selective case studies, Smith and Morris call for stronger cross-cultural and quantitative frameworks. Hamilakis, by contrast, emphasizes the book’s value as a stimulus for historical imagination and anti-deterministic thinking. This paper argues that the significance of Graeber and Wengrow’s work lies less in the novelty of its individual claims than in its capacity to reopen fundamental questions about freedom, power, inequality, and the role of archaeology as a critical social science.