Wengrow — “One might ask, how could that most basic…”

Source: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity — David Graeber & David Wengrow

Book page: graeber-wengrow-dawn-of-everything

From: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity — Quotes

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One might ask, how could that most basic element of all human freedoms, the freedom to make promises and commitments and thus build relationships, be turned into its very opposite: into peonage, serfdom or permanent slavery? It happens, we’d suggest, precisely when promises become impersonal, transferable – in a nutshell, bureaucratized.