[Reading Notes]Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Another great book that’s super informative and thought provoking, and I am so glad to read it!
1. The most rewarding thing I learned from the book, is not about the book itself, but about history. The book has totally changed my somewhat pessimistic/negative view about the subject of history. Before I read the book, I always thought history was only about organizing events, matching and memorizing dates when the events happened. I got this impression when I was in middle school and high school. I was bored in my history classes, since I didn’t think it was meaningful at all to mechanically memorize things without any purposes. Consequently, I never did well in my history classes and switched to science subjects immediately when I got to choose which path to study in high school. I tried to avoid history unconsciously as much as I could since then.
However, Harari showed me in his book how meaningful the subject of history is, by presenting his excellent discussions and critical analysis of our society today based on historical facts. He revealed to me the inquisitive nature and critical thinking aspect of history, and he showed me that history is both objective and subjective. Organizing and memorizing historical events now take on meaning. Historians do this “dry” and “tedious” work because it is important. It is important to get all the facts right, the details, the dates, the people, the locations and events. After getting all the objective facts correct, historians can form their personal views about our world based on critical and analytical discussions on the facts. In this way, their views are substantially supported by facts and reasoning, and therefore appealing and convincing. Something that I love in this process is that the reasoning and analysis of historical events give you a lot of freedom in thinking, and therefore, people could reach very different hypothesis/conclusions/thoughts on certain issues, by inquiring objective historical events from different perspectives.
After reading the book, I absolutely love the subject of history now, and I respect historians to a great extent. I think that historians are critical thinkers, who can analyze our society today based on historical facts and form their own unique opinions about our world using logical and well-rounded reasoning.
2. What I love most about this book is Harari’s honesty and straightforwardness in expressing his personal opinions on some of the most controversial issues in the world today. For example, he discussed about religion, sexuality, inequality, imperialism, capitalism, science and technology, human cultures, human happiness, cruelness towards animals, etc. I disagree with some of his opinions, and I agree with some. Either way, it was a very intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking journey reading his discussions, as they gave me new insights on some important issues in human societies today.
3. A chapter that I really like is chapter 8, There Is No Justice in History. Especially, I really appreciate Muscle Power (page 172) in this chapter. In Muscle Power, Harari gave an excellent critique against the theory that “men are stronger women” and “their strength allows men to monopolise tasks that demand manual labour… This gives them control of food production, which in turn translates into political clout”. The theory tries to explain the gender inequality, specifically male over female, common in many human societies throughout history and today. Actually, I was presented with this theory by a family member, and although I feel like the theory is an invalid justification/excuse that is used to suppress women, I couldn’t argue against it with thorough reasoning. Therefore, I was very delighted to see Harari’s exemplary argument against this theory. It is true that men on average are stronger than women physically. However, at an individual level, there are many women who are stronger than many men as well. Also, throughout history, women have been excluded “mainly from jobs that require little physical effort”, like lawyers and politicians. On the contrary, many women engage in “hard manual labor in the fields, in crafts and in the household”. Lastly, there “simply is no direct relation between physical strength and social power among humans”. It is more likely that people who know how to socialize well, have better communication and manipulation skills enjoy higher social order. In another word, “it is therefore only natural that the chain of power within the species will also be determined by mental and social abilities more than by brute force”. Therefore, although on average men are stronger than women physically, it cannot be the reason that women are lower ranked than men in societies. As a woman, I am glad to read this critique, because I don’t want to be convinced that “women deserve to be submissive to men and have a lower social power than men”.
4. An opinion that Harari takes on that I like a lot and I think is quite unique, is when he discussed homosexuality and other sexuality that are condemned and viewed as “abnormal” in many societies. Harari states that it is natural when we are doing what we are capable of doing with our bodies. As people are able to have sex with people of the same gender and gain enjoyment from the process, it is a natural thing for human beings to do. People view it as unnatural not because it is truly unnatural by nature, but because the current societal norms make us to believe that it is not natural, and to view it as “evil”, in some societies.
5. Lastly, as the title of the book says, it is truly a very informative book for a “brief history of humankind”! It has a very clear and organized content outline: the Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution, the Unification of Humankind, and the Scientific Revolution. As someone who knew little history (I am ashamed of that now!), I truly learned a lot about us, Homo Sapiens, reading through the book!
