May 27–29, 2022
Die Zivilisationsfrage
Conference
Presentations, discussions, performance
May 27–29, 2022
In English
Established histories of humankind reproduce imperial myths of civilization. A conference addresses the planetary crisis and the possibility of social change.
Is our current social order inevitable? In their book The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow have presented the outlines of a new human history. On the basis of recent and newly synthesised findings from archaeology, anthropology and the knowledge of resistance movements, brought together for the first time, they reconstruct the diversity of political forms of organization in past societies and revise numerous preconceptions about the history of the development of complex societies. The conference Die Zivilisationsfrage takes the publication of the book's German translation in January 2022 as the basis for a radical revision of prevailing views of history – and for a new dawn. For after the illusions of Empire, Eurocentrism and Civilization, there is yet something to learn: What does it mean to be civilized?
Part of The New Alphabet
With contributions by:
Mirjam Brusius
Claudine Cohen
Savitri D.
Robin D. G. Kelley
Rana Dasgupta
Nika Dubrovsky
Alfredo González-Ruibal
Yannis Hamilakis
Karin Harrasser
Brian Holmes
Jamie Kelsey-Fry
Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz
Angela Melitopoulos
A. Dirk Moses
Johannes Müller
Liv Nilsson Stutz
Robbie Richardson
Brigitte Röder
Elif Sarican
Alain Schnapp
Erhard Schüttpelz
Alpa Shah
Jacques Servin
Margarita Tsomou
Christina von Braun
Eyal Weizman
David Wengrow