“I have seen yesterday. I know tomorrow.” This inscription in Tutankhamun’s tomb summarizes The Fifth Beginning. Here, archaeologist Robert L. Kelly explains how the study of our cultural past can predict the future of humanity.
In an eminently readable style, Kelly identifies four key pivot points in the six-million-year history of human development: the emergence of technology, culture, agriculture, and the state. In each example, the author examines the long-term processes that resulted in a definitive, no-turning-back change for the organization of society. Kelly then looks ahead, giving us evidence for what he calls a fifth beginning, one that started about AD 1500. Some might call it “globalization,” but the author places it in its larger context: a five-thousand-year arms race, capitalism’s global reach, and the cultural effects of a worldwide communication network.
Kelly predicts that the emergent phenomena of this fifth beginning will include the end of war as a viable way to resolve disputes, the end of capitalism as we know it, the widespread shift toward world citizenship, and the rise of forms of cooperation that will end the near-sacred status of nation-states. It’s the end of life as we have known it. However, the author is cautiously optimistic: he dwells not on the coming chaos, but on humanity’s great potential.
Robert L. Kelly is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. He is a past president of the Society for American Archaeology, current editor of American Antiquity, author of The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers, and coauthor of two popular textbooks, Archaeology and Archaeology: Down to Earth. He has conducted archaeological research throughout the western United States for more than forty years.
读完《第五次开始》,发现本书最吸引人的部分还是书名,虽然作者是考古领域的国际权威,但在本书中,作者似乎过于追求通俗易懂,刻意隐藏学术性,而使书归于《人类简史》《未来简史》之流的固定套路之中,更由于本书篇幅较小,让问题的最终结论落脚到乐观主义的陈腔滥调。当然...
评分《第五次开始——600万年的人类历史如何预示我们的未来》是一本很好读的考古学科普书,18万字,两百多页,语言生动,概念明晰,配图精美。本书作者罗伯特•L•凯利是国际知名的考古学家、人类学家,主要研究方向是狩猎-采集者社会。他与戴维•赫斯特•托马斯合著的《...
评分 评分考古学家挖出一块化石,风尘仆仆、又脏又累。豁达如阿加莎·克里斯蒂,或可兴致勃勃地奔走在新婚丈夫的身边,记载考古途中的乐趣;聪慧颖悟如商博良,或可将破解象形文字当成智力挑战,因发现而惊喜。但对于普通读者来说,考古学究竟能有多少乐趣呢? 考古学家罗伯特·凯利说,...
评分呜呜呜等我修完专业学分要继续上考古课
评分有趣的是 所有Homo Sapien一开始都是血腥荒蛮 弱肉强食的Hunter-gatherer 然而作者强调human nature却并不是这样暴力混乱的 anyway 总结这本书就是“climate change”leads to everything (agriculture>technology, population growth>culture and state)
评分天呐英文版封面设计竟然这么好看
评分轻松流畅,不故作深沉,讨论问题时有些大而化之的片儿汤感
评分有趣的是 所有Homo Sapien一开始都是血腥荒蛮 弱肉强食的Hunter-gatherer 然而作者强调human nature却并不是这样暴力混乱的 anyway 总结这本书就是“climate change”leads to everything (agriculture>technology, population growth>culture and state)
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