Keynote Lecture
Global dynamics: a very deep historical perspective on the history of Humanity
- Date
- Wednesday 27 November 2024
- Time
- Location
- National Museum of Antiquities
- Room
- Tempelzaal
‘Processes and points of change in global history’
The deep history of humanity is not one thing, it is many. In a great number of societies past and present change is not driven by what we now see as economic forces, such as food and craft production, or the history of institutions: rather people are moved and shaped by issues of cosmology and questions of how they are related to each other and to other entities. It is only in some times and places, mainly in the last five thousand years, that economic and institutional forces are important and even here there are interactions with societies that are differently organised. I will consider how and why economic and institutional forces became formative and whether this is now an inevitable part of human history. I will draw examples from various parts of Eurasia to consider these questions.