“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas
after death in monkey heaven.”
Interesting quote, isn't it.Think about the nuances and implications of those words for
a moment, and you will quickly realize that you've got something special in your hands.
This quote comes from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, the best-selling book by author
Yuval Noah Harari, and it serves as the perfect introduction for today's topic.
But don't worry folks, we won't go all philosophical on you.
Not too much anyway.
And by the way, since the title is a bit long, we'll refer to the book simply as Sapiens
from now on.
It'll make things simpler.
Hi guys, this is Mark from Essaypro.com, and today we're going to teach you how to approach
the task of reviewing Sapiens.
We'll discuss the general themes of the book, the ideas and concepts that you should highlight,
and how to structure your review.
After watching this video, you will be able to pick up this book, read it, understand
it, and write a concise and precise review.
But before we begin, remember that we publish content every week, so don't forget to subscribe
to our channel, AND click that bell button so you never miss any of the good stuff that
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So here we go.
Sapiens...
Understanding Sapiens: Main ideas and themes
You've probably heard the word sapiens many times.
Usually, it goes together with another Latin term, homo.
But have you ever thought what those two words actually mean?
Sapiens derives from an old Latin term meaning 'wise', while 'homo' is another Latin word
meaning 'same' or 'man'.
Put it together with a bit of imagination and you get 'wise man.'
Let's dive a bit deeper into this.
Homo sapiens is the human species that currently populate the planet.
It's you and me, and everyone else you know.
We are all homo sapiens.
Now, whether we're wise or not is another story, but that's beside the point.
We are homo sapiens, the dominant species living on planet Earth.
But where do we come from?
What were the origins of the sapiens genus?
And crucially, what shaped our identity?
Harari's work aims to give answers to these pivotal questions about who -and what- humans
(homo sapiens) truly are.
Harari is a Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He's previously written extensively about medieval times, but back in 2011, he chose
to focus on a more ambitious project about the origins of the sapiens species.
The book quickly shot up the charts and became a best-seller with over one million copies
sold worldwide, and has since been translated to 36 languages.
Sapiens is a complex piece of work, so it's worth delving into Harari's ideas to thoroughly
understand what this book is about.
Sapiens deals with many complex issues: The invention of trade and money, for example,
and how these, along with many others, slowly shaped homo sapiens into the dominant species
that it is today.
But there are a number of key themes that you should be able to identify.
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Key themes In Harari's eyes, homo sapiens are, today,
the most successful species in the history of the world.
But it wasn't always that way.
In the beginning, the author says, humans were no more significant than any other species
on the planet.
However, there emerged three key differences that enabled humans to evolve, and leave all
other species behind in the evolutionary scale: Technological adaptation
Formation of complex societies Ability to form abstract concepts and ideas,
like freedom, or religion
Technological adaptation There's little doubt that without technology,
humans would have a hard time surviving Earth's environment.
Think about it.
We need electricity to power pretty much everything, from a humble toaster to an aircraft engine.
This electricity has to be produced somehow, so we need to build power plants.
And we need transportation to move food and goods from the point of manufacturing to the
supermarkets, and from there to our homes.
We need heaters to survive harsh winters and air conditioning systems to live comfortably
in the summer.
Without these technological advantages, humans would barely be able to exist.
Human ingenuity is vast, and it has served homo sapiens well so far.
We developed agriculture, the wheel, built flying machines, and even created a craft
that took some humans to the Moon and back.
Technology is always near.
But there is a darker side to mankind's troubled relationship with technological marvels.
According to Harari, homo sapiens will one day engineer the demise of its own species,
and we might be forced to live as alternative versions of ourselves, through genetic engineering
perhaps.
We might even achieve immortality, in a manner of speaking.
Homo sapiens might eventually learn to replicate itself, and live forever, as different iterations
of the same person.
Consider and expand the religious, ethical, and societal implications of this scenario.
Formation of complex societies
‘Evolution has made Homo sapiens, like other social mammals, a xenophobic creature.
Sapiens instinctively divide humanity into two parts, ‘we’ and ‘they’.
Another interesting quote from Harari's work, and a perfect introduction to this theme:
Complex societies.
Humans are, by and large, gregarious creatures.
We come together to form large population centers that enable us to live our lives in
relative safety.
Today, the vast majority of people on this planet are part of a complex society.
We live in big, organized cities with a central government and an infrastructure to support
society's needs: Schooling, policing, fire departments, and so on.
This environment goes a long way to define us as people.
The general consensus among scholars is that complex societies began forming around 4000-2000
BC.
One key development enabled this: The agricultural revolution.
Large-scale farming meant that nomadic life in search of food sources was no longer required.
Over time, communities expanded and cities began to form.
Complex societies with well-defined hierarchies and social stratification is undoubtedly a
defining human factor.
Animals such as apes and big cats may also have a defined social structure, but we homo
sapiens remain at the top of the evolutionary chart.
Analyze the theme of complex societies in your own review, focusing on the evolutionary
aspect of humans coming together to establish such societies.
Ability to form abstract concepts and ideas, like freedom, or religion
Let's go back to the beginning of this piece for just a moment.
Remember that introductory quote?
Were you paying attention?
We'll refresh your memory: “You could never convince a monkey to give
you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
Indeed, no matter how many times you ask or how much you promise, a monkey will remain
unfazed and indifferent to your efforts.
A monkey (or any other animal, for that matter) has no awareness of any existence beyond the
point of its own death, or that of its peers.
Death means the end of one's life, period.
Herein lies the key difference between animals and home sapiens.
We have taught ourselves to believe in things beyond the point of death.
Humans have that capacity for abstract thinking, and the elucidation of concepts such as religion
or an afterlife.
These concepts would probably make a monkey laugh, but we choose to create this belief
system for what we perceive to be the greater good.
This is a fascinating theme that you should delve and explore further in your own review.
Quick recap
Here at Essaypro.com, we like to help you in any way we can.
We give you hints, tips, and any background information you need to do the best you can
do in your work.
At this point, we're going to do a quick recap about the main themes that you should highlight
in your review of Sapiens, AND give you some practical examples for doing so.
The three main themes you should discuss are:
Technological adaptation, from the point of view of human development
Formation of complex societies, and how these differ from animal communities
Ability to form abstract concepts and ideas, like freedom, or religion.
This is particularly important, as this is what truly separates humans from animals
Practical examples
As always, we at Essaypro.com love to help you guys, and we believe that the best way
to teach you is by giving you practical examples.
We're going to show you examples of how to write about Sapiens’ key themes.
Remember, everyone's writing style is different, so take these as inspiration, rather than
verbatim.
So here we go:
Technological adaptation
Humans have for a long time relied on technological
changes to move their societies forward.
Technological adaptation and change is as much part of human evolution as learning to
hunt to sustain ourselves in the long distant past.
It's an inherently human trait.
Formation of complex societies The advent of the agricultural revolution
heralded a new phase of development in the homo sapiens timeline.
No longer forced to continuously travel in search of food, shelter, or more favorable
weather conditions, the formation of larger, more complex societies became the first step
in the development of civilized settlements.
Ability to form abstract concepts and ideas, like freedom, or religion
If there is one key difference between even the most advanced of animal societies and
home sapiens, is our innate ability to craft the systems of belief that lead to organized
religion.
Structure
Here at Essaypro, we are big on structure.
We have talked about it before.
Remember one of our previous videos, how to write an article review?
Remember how we discussed the importance of structured writing?
Structured writing is good writing.
Always remember that, even for your day to day stuff.
Emails, or whatever else you write at your job or school.
If you frame your writing properly, it will look neat, elegant, coherent, and easy to
understand.
Structure, as always, is your friend.
So how should you structure your review of Sapiens?
As we said earlier, Sapiens is a complex and deep piece of work, precisely because of the
nature of the themes that it deals with.
We can propose a certain structure to your review, but in the end, it's your own review,
so your style might well differ from everyone else's.
But here's a quick layout of that a review of Sapiens might look like:
Step 1 - Introduction & Overview Step 2 - Main themes
Step 3 - Relate and discuss the book's themes to your own view of evolutionary history
Step 4 - Conclusion
And there you have it.
Look back through the content of this video to find the material and the inspiration you
need to do the perfect review of Sapiens.
Hey, and don’t forget to write in the comment section which part of this video was the most
interesting to you, and which was the most boring.
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