Abstract

The paper discusses critically the principal theoretical innovations of the Dawn of Everything: the persistent oscillations between hierarchical and horizontal organizational forms; the three «orders» of political systems; the «sacred» explanation of state formation; the relevance of the human search for freedoms and egalitarianism. The last part of the essay responds to the critiques against the Dawn on this last point by focusing on the construction of identity and the containment of coercive authority in contexts where power is diffused; the recognition of such cultural settings’ importance is crucial today to render possible the imagination of coherently democratic and libertarian collective trajectories.