Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Genre: Nonfiction, Anthropology
First published January 1, 2011
Book Description (from back cover): 100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.
How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?
In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?
Bold, wide-ranging, and provocative, Sapiens challenge everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.
Review:
Very interesting.
It is written in a way it gives you big leeway to make up your own ideas and it can spiral to research the different points it touches. This is a very huge topic that can't be dived into- much less in such a small amount of ages (minutes).
The main goal of this work seems to be - to explain complex issues in a way that they are understood and comprehended by everyday people. It is a worthy goal- to make information available in laymen's terms.
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. I do not agree with some ideas though. I lack the anthropological background or information to back up my opposition but that doe snot stop me from having one.It begins strong enough with a very interesting presentation of early human history (quick and accessible) and the development of the early human species, which culminated in the rise and eventual dominance of our own - the Homo Sapiens. However, the rest of the book consists largely of the author's own opinions and thoughts about the human condition and character - while some of these thoughts I find interesting and agreeable (like the strong belief and faith we place in the idea of money or any type of currency); but other ideas are so bizarre that I have no idea how he came up with them.
He considers the agricultural revolution to be the biggest fraud. In his opinion, agriculture, because that's what it is, instead of improvement left humans who settled down to farm worse off and more miserable than their nomadic, foraging ancestors. To prove his point, Harari retells poetics epic stories about hunter-gatherers and their daily existence: they lived in egalitarian communes where property and love were freely shared (that can't be proved with certainty) and were much more adept at survival in the wilderness than their descendants who plowed the fields. Hunter-gatherers had to have a much larger knowledge of their surroundings and possessed vastly superior mental reflexes and physical dexterity which put future generations to shame. Although we have since gained vast knowledge as a collective, Harari argues that on the individual level, ancient foragers were "the most knowledgeable and skillful people in history". For Harari, our foraging ancestors were not only mental and physical supermen but also enjoyed a much more comfortable and rewarding lifestyle than all the subsequent peasants, workers, and office clerks. The drawback he at least acknowledges is their short life span, it's kind of hard to oversee or spin that to a positive perk.
I can't say this is accurate, but oh well the ride of reading this was incredible and it brings me hope for nonfiction reads in the future.
Sidenote: Agriculture cannot be considered a bad event at all. Thagricultural revolution provided humans with a steady and regular supply of food, and for the first time in our history allowed humans to take our minds off food and constant travel. The impact of this is monumental and cannot be stressed enough. Maslows Hierarchy of Need, anyone? You can read more about that in a little search if you have no idea what I'm talking about. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization.
Basically, without the agricultural revolution, our knowledge would be stagnant - as we would simply not have the luxury of time to develop it. Food surplus and settling down allowed humans to think more and develop new ideas and technologies, allowing for more efficient farming - which in turn allowed for more time to think and develop even more ideas and technologies
Challenge:
Around the world - India
Nonfiction
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