The Fifth Beginning
eBook - PDF

The Fifth Beginning

  1. 141 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Fifth Beginning

Book details
Table of contents
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About This Book

"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-backchange 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.

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Information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2016
ISBN
9780520966369
Edition
1
Topic
Sozialwissenschaften
Subtopic
Archäologie

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. The Fifth Beginning
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Preface
  8. 1. The End of the World as We Know It
  9. 2. How Archaeologists Think
  10. 3. Sticks and Stones: The Beginning of Technology
  11. 4. Beads and Stories: The Beginning of Culture
  12. 5. Bread and Beer: The Beginning of Agriculture
  13. 6. Kings and Chains: The Beginning of the State
  14. 7. Nothing Lasts Forever: The Fifth Beginning
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index