m of care – dec 6
6 -12-2021 a reading group #MuseumofCare “Dawn of everything”, 6th chapter (65 min video)
notes/quotes:
steve: the david’s argue: if we want to understand how roots of domination begin.. we can’t find it in public sphere unless it appears in private sphere first.. on agri as revolution .. a simplified reading of evidence.. agri revolution was much more complicated and drawn out than typically understood.. goes back to work of gordon child.. that there was no single agri revolution.. large evidence esp in turkey.. show more complicated.. seasonal variation in cultural struggle.. at least 3000 yr long process where farming may have put people on a course away from (instead of toward) violent domination..
3 min – steve: so it’s a complete rethinking of conventional approaches to agri rev.. i was taught about the fertile crescent.. what david’s point out.. there were many fertile crescent.. to think there was just one where tigres and euphrates met is naive/incorrect et al.. schismogenesis process going on .. conscious comparison of culture and refusal.. isn’t accurate to think of there being one simple stretch from cultivation to domestication of seeds..
6 min – on agri revolution using gendered terms.. ie: domestication.. if done by women not taken legit.. much of the domestication that went on however.. could very well have gone on at hands of women.. never happened way we are taught .. farming may have actually been more play gardening than agri.. this 3000 yr period was such a great variety.. that to talk about one switch happening isn’t fair to the record..
8 min – steve: so to me this is such a pivotal ch .. heart of their argument about importance of schismo as a factor in understanding society.. that certain societies deliberately org selves in contrast to neighboring societies becaUse they could see the consequences.. so ch lays out most clearly beginnings of argument how agri is not necessarily the foundation of domination in society.. and that farming is something people could move in/out of.. this ch does such a good job of restoring humanity to the historical actors.. ie: what may have been bene to one (elite) not to other (egal)..
10 min – steve: critique hasn’t really taken on this ch..
12 min – steve: relying on actor’s political imagination..
13 min – steve: author’s making implicit argument that we don’t have to live whatever all the time.. they’re trying to break up these patterns humans believe are enchaining us in this agri..
15 min – steve: people are not destined to live diff ways just because that’s where we have ended up..
16 min – steve: research since 90s has been out there but not synthesized in this way.. so i see it as important reading
17 min – steve: they end up arguing that private property doesn’t really have a history.. impossible to find when first person said .. this is mine and not yours.. if we take private property to be via law.. then they argue we have to understand pp roots going back to roman empire.. they’re less worried about when pp because and more about when 3 freedoms began to disappear
graeber and wengrow freedom law
wilde property law et al
20 min – michael reinsborough: interesting how little is known.. they spend a lot of time saying.. we don’t know what’s going on.. it’s very cautious.. then final summary is like.. ok.. does seem like this is what happened.. but in summary.. on settling into buildings ‘looking thru windows’..
25 min – matthew gray: on h g ie’s we have today being in least productive lands.. because no one else wants them.. so really unrep of h g ness..
sea world ness.. all the lands are compromised.. so we have no idea.. what legit free people are like..
26 min – ellen judd: wonderful that they say so often we don’t know something.. they’re trying to do is take down all people who think they have all the answers..who are dangerous people.. a rigorous way of keeping thought open.. so a balancing act where they produce evidence that forces us to think in a diff way while not claiming that that’s the only way to think..t that’s a really complicated walking on high wire type strategy to follow.. but encouraging..
27 min – ellen judd: i think a lot in the weight in this ch is against tech determinism.. saying.. we know what we think.. maybe that’s what they want to talk about more than the private property thing.. the focus on possibility is really enlightening.. to get out of the sense of tracking what’s inevitable
32 min – steve: on stuck ness.. not only talking about reduction of imagination.. but also this idea of that humans advance thru stages .. that this is a tech determinism.. and that w capitalism can’t be anything after that since brings out best/greatest for greatest number.. according to capitalists.. so i think it’s about being stuck in a phase based kind of progression w an inevitable conclusion
34 min – michael: interesting that book links tech determinism as fake idea as well as mythology and maybe bad ed combines for this image of: .. agri.. industrial.. info.. revolutions et al.. stopping the ‘take you to the stars’ thinking.. those revolutions are an easy narrative to teach.. so challenge to bring some of these ideas into classroom but in a simple way
why do we think we have to have classrooms.. why do we think we have to teach..
we need to imagine deeper and let go of any form of people telling other people what to do
36 min – nicholas mcnair: isn’t that a problem w ed in general.. thinking they need to know more than *students.. in *teaching improv music.. learn to go diff ways.. i don’t think there’s anything new about feeling stuck
still.. need to let go of *any form of m\a\p.. for legit improv
39 min – michael: d&d seem to be taking a whole sweep of techniques and showing they have interp flexibility.. they’re saying mode of production is what creates the character of abuse in society.. maybe applies more for marx..
40 min – michael: seems here they’re arguing the problem comes from people saying.. i’m going to turn other people into slaves.. or i’m going to use coercion as the process of care.. that taking slaves in order to produce people.. as in care.. childcare, food prep.. all the things you have to do to produce people.. so production is about producing people/society.. and that care is there.. and if you also put in coercion and violence in the middle of that.. that creates the problem..t
steiner care to oppression law et al
yeah that.. any form of m\a\p
41 min – michael: and i wondered.. there’s an age old problem that comes up w psycho anal.. when people critique psycho anal.. they say it isn’t very political .. just says some people had bad childhood.. and that’s how evil entered.. and the political types say.. no it’s the class structure or aristocracy or .. and it seems like here .. that the argument comes to be that this cruelty as a decision is where that emerges rather than a political process that destroys people.. it’s a people process that destroys people first and then creates larger political process that destroys people ..
42 min – nicholas: important for us to believe that we as people can have an effect.. if we give into idea that system is what creates everything.. then yeah we get stuck
steve: and so much depends on how we understand production.. marx thought people got made in factories.. they do get made there but only part of where they’re made.. this is why i find their mop so satisfying.. not about producing objects.. but how people get produced while producing objects.. direct correlation between mop and political imaginary.. they do a good ie of debunking that.. where people (schismo) are rejecting ways
does it..? or is that irrelevant s
44 min – steve: how the authors.. rather than cherry picking to make an argument.. they show that at any given time can have variety of social arrangements that people move in/out of .. no direct line.. i think scholars do it in order to be relevant.. and i think d&d say that’s dangerous.. leaves behind lots.. ie: only excavated 5% of (?) how strong are our arguments
again.. i don’t think legit free people would even be arguing about excavations.. we have no idea
48 min – matthew: even more complicated stories are still too simple.. missing out
49 min – steve: on primitive matriarchies.. i like all the messiness.. challenging .. but more satisfying because not giving simplistic answers.. able to .. unlike most scholars.. can refer to archaeology of old and new world and conscious refusals.. i wonder if beyond 5% excavations go on .. i wonder how complicated it will get.. in 25 yrs we’re going to need an updated version of this book
weinberger too big misc law.. ness.. we need to realize we need to let go of all of it.. to get to the infinity ness (curiosity; itch-in-the-soul; ..) our souls crave
because today we have a means to facil/enjoy that chaos/entropy et al
58 min – michael: on donna haraway on companion species.. it’s dogs that colonize humans as much as humans domesticate dogs.. care for species is what she’s arguing .. follows into.. has maize/corn colonized us or.. donna says i’d rather be a cyborg than a goddess.. did agri colonize us.. et al
60 min – robin taylor: i think it’s interesting how we’ve come to think of agri as monoculture
bush mono crop law et al
61 min – nicholas: aren’t human beings mono themselves.. i think that’s what they are arguing about
62 min – matthew: on two senses of equality 1\ everyone same in things that matter or 2\ everyone is incomparable.. in agri a push toward uniformity vs indigenous corn.. if take #2.. harder to say.. on to kingship ness.. more free form
nika: i think we’re going back to thursdays now.. and everything else will be around this reading group
steve: i’m assuming it’s 2 weeks from this week on thursday.. and will do ch 7
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be you. 