Organisms are first noted on earth 3.8 billion years ago and that, according to Yuval, signals the beginning of biology. These single-celled organisms evolved into more complex and diverse structures, eventually giving rise to the flora and fauna that have occupied the world since. Humans, one of those complex organisms, had its most recent branching on the family tree when it split from a common ancestor with Chimpanzees approximately 6 million years ago.
The genus Homo evolved in Africa and spread to Eurasia 2 million years ago, resulting in the evolution of different Homo species. Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa approximately 200,000 years ago and lived there until a breakout 70,000 years ago.
And that is where the "march of the Sapiens" begins. In the chart below I have provided a timeline, based on the book, of the path that mankind has trod between the start of the Cognitive Revolution and today. In the chart immediately following, I have presented some more details on each of the revolutionary periods.
Prior to the Cognitive Revolution, biological systems determined mankind's destiny. That is, changes to practices and methods only came about as a result of genetic mutations. The Cognitive Revolution resulted in a wave of innovations and new ways of thinking about the world. Other human species could not compete, with Homo Floresiensis finally succumbing 13,000 years ago.
Yuval's position on the Agricultural Revolution is quite unique in the scholarly realm. He sees it as a fraud of epic proportions perpetrated on the neolithic forager. Agriculture promised him stable food supplies but instead delivered: more time spent working; harder work, with a body that is unsuited to that type of labor; less time to spend around the campfire telling tales of the hunt; exposure to diseases that result from living in close proximity to animals and large numbers of other humans; and exposure to the travails of the "luxury trap." He raises a valid question as to whether humans domesticated wheat or wheat domesticated humans. Wheat he said, went from a nondescript, wild, no-prospects member of the neolithic flora to a pampered elite in the plant kingdom who was cared for by humans, protected from birds and animals who may want to do it harm, and most importantly, was able to spread its progeny to the ends of the (at that time) known world.
The fundamental event of the Scientific Revolution was, according to Yuval, the discovery of America. And it was not obvious that Europe would be the region to make this leap as that era was a "golden age" for the Ottoman (Mediterranean), Safarid (Persia), Mughal (India), and Qing (China) Empires. In 1735 Asia accounted for 80% of the world economy and the combined economies of India and China represented 2/3 of global production. "Europe was an economic dwarf."
At this time the Americas were not known to the world. But soon they were. And they had been discovered by the Europeans, who brought them into the European Empires, delivered large swaths of their inhabitants to the Catholic Church, and extracted enormous wealth from the territories over an extended period of time.
The global center of power shifted to Europe between 1750 and 1850 when they used the wealth from the Americas to conquer large parts of Asia. "By 1900, Europeans firmly controlled the world's economy and most of its territory" and "Today all humans are, to a much greater extent than they want to admit, European in dress, thought, and taste."
There are three key threads running through the book: cooperation as a key building block for human success; "reduction"; and human impact on any environment into which we are introduced.
As relates to the first of these threads, the author describes the use of myths as a means of establishing cooperative networks. Research has shown that, among humans, groups larger than 150 people lose the ability to cooperate based on knowing each other. Getting larger groups to cooperate requires the building of a sense of shared identity. According to Yuval, "The ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language. Fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths ... such myths give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers."
The author cites our acceptance of the concept of corporations, the concept of money, the building of the pyramids, etc., all as examples of myth-making and shared beliefs in these myths have been key to Sapiens success.
As it relates to the reduction thread, on the eve of the Agricultural Revolution there were between five and eight million foragers living in Eurasia in thousands of separate tribes, speaking thousands of different languages, and nurturing thousands of different cultures. The Agricultural Revolution itself served as the leading edge of this unifying pressure as it forced a more sedentary lifestyle and the need for interaction to trade surpluses for the things you could not make or the meat you no longer had the time to hunt.
By 5000 years ago, we had the first Kingdoms, we had seen the introduction of money, and the introduction of polytheistic religions. And these are the three key unification factors. We have gone from Kingdoms to Empires, with incorporated peoples eventually losing their former identities and identifying with the empire. The author uses as an example the fact that at the fall of Rome, all of the peoples that Rome had subjugated did not crawl out from under rocks and seek to reclaim their past heritage. Rather, by this time, their descendants considered themselves Romans.
Humans have moved from polytheistic religions to four religions (two of which are monotheistic) which are dominant in the world. And most of the world today operates under some form of a capitalist system.
The third thread has been Sapiens' impact on the world's flora and fauna. As I have pointed out in a prior post, Sapiens entry into Europe coincided with the demise of a number of other Homo species plus megafauna. The same situation occurred when humans first settled Australia. The megafauna in the Americas died out and so many of the region's inhabitants perished that it is posited that their demise contributed to the Little Ice Age in Europe.
That trend continues even today as many wild animal species are on shaky ground as a result of habitat encroachment, over-fishing, whale-boat collisions, and the potential use of under-water sonic booms in oil exploration.
In each of the areas identified as inflection points on the above timeline, the author identifies the driving factors associated with the issue, the solution set/response, and the impact. His treatment of fire (not on the timeline) illustrates this approach.
In cases where academic consensus on a specific topic has not been attained, Yuval provides the reader with the range of proffered arguments and then identifies his choice and uses that as the jumping-off point for a thread that he wants to pursue.
In a twist to the typical history book, the author uses our current conditions as a launching pad for a discussion as to the potential questions facing us. And while the trip so far has been unmanaged, the risks of continuing along that path are exponential. As we stand on the divide between natural selection and intelligent design, can we allow a Chinese scientist working in a lab in an industrial park to be making genetic changes to humans on his own? As we look to space to create new opportunities, can we allow a world leader to blow up a satellite in space, creating a bunch of potentially dangerous space junk, just to help him in an election?
I would have liked to see more consequential tables and charts than the ones included in the book as they mostly repeat material that is already provided in the text. There are a lot of numbers spread about in the text that would lend themselves to being captured in a table or two. It also would have been interesting to see meaningful comparisons between the Revolutions.
This is not an effort aimed at the halls of academia. It is well researched, and is fully footnoted and bibliographed, but has too much of the authors personal feelings and advocacy positions included to meet the rigid standards of the typical "just-the-facts-ma'am" academic historian.
This is an engaging and approachable book which undertakes the complex task of delivering a multi-disciplinary history of the world and does so with panache and aplomb.
@EverythingElse238
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