Graeber / Wengrow 5: "the idea that human societies could be arranged according to stages of development [has its] roots in a conservative backlash against critiques of European civilization"
"The origins of that critique, however, lie not with the philosophers of the Enlightenment (much though they initially admired and imitated it), but with indigenous commentators and observers of European society"
the "indigenous critique"
see also 61: "theories of social evolution [...] first came to be articulated in Europe as a direct response to the power of indigenous critique. [...] Turgot's breakdown of all societies into four stages was appearing in the lectures of his friend and intellectual ally Adam Smith"