Neil MacGregor on what the 100 Objects teach us

In an interview in today's Independent, the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, explains the lesson that can be learnt from a series about 100 Objects, that extends from a two million-year-old stone tool found in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania to the solar-powered lamp from Shenzhen (pic).

"Once you have seen that different societies can organise themselves in different ways, the inevitable conclusion is that social order is contingent and therefore changeable. That totally transforms the role of the citizen, doesn't it? The citizen can change his polity, and then the consequences for society are enormous."

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