Deep History of Civilization: James Scott’s Against the Grain [1]

Deep History of Civilization: James Scott’s Against the Grain [1] In the lecture series ‘The Deep History of Civilization’ we will conduct a long cycle a analysis of the development of human civilization, the evolution of early states and the rise and fall of empires, till early modern times. We will bring in a wide range of perspectives from anthropology, political science and geopolitics, while developing hybrid theoretical models of our own. In the first lecture we look at James Scott’s ‘Against the Grain: the Deep History of the Earliest States’, from the beginning of the Deep Anthropocene in the human harnessing of the elemental force of fire, to the Middle Anthropocene, that is the beginning of agriculture based societies, around 9000 BC. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:40 Main Arguments: a) Use of Fire as the Beginning of the Deep Anthropocene; b) Fire’s usage for Niche Construction 06:25 Cooking and Human Evolution: expansion of nutritional efficiency and