Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Is one supposed to have "fun" reading about the entire breakdown of HUMANITY from a collaborative Anthropological/Campbellian outlook?

Me?
Absolutely.

I was pleasantly reminded of Bill Bryson's [b:A Short History of Nearly Everything|21|A Short History of Nearly Everything|Bill Bryson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433086293l/21._SY75_.jpg|2305997], but instead of wandering all about and being a little less funny than Bryson, what we get is a rather better focus with a little more depth on a subject very close to almost everyone's hearts: Ourselves.

Now let's get this clear. It's not supposed to be a full-out treatise, nor is it giving citations, but I've read a ton of other books that talk about almost everything in here. It's not new stuff. It is, however, written in such an engaging way that I pretty much fell out of my seat in love with the way they are all presented.

I really got into the counterarguments against agriculture, but before that, I loved the idea that people were all always pretty much always people. Language, myths, and ideas changed us all into the creatures we are now. It's a very Campbellian view. Language increases complexity, but also a closer reliance on details. Abstract concepts arose to help people conceptualize groups of people much larger than a decent gossip circle. We tell ourselves lies and stories in order to accomplish much bigger things.

Easy, right?

Well, the author takes us all the way through the agricultural revolution, into cultural theories, monetary theories, political theories, and scientific theories. All of these have made us what we are, and all of them come from the basic storytelling concept. We believe banks work, and so they do. We believe that our social structure works, and so it does. If we don't trust it, it falls apart, but that's the whole point. We trust the story to be true, and we continue on. Money works this way. The author goes into the fantastic rabbit-hole called Credit. Fractional reserve. We all know it works so long as we trust it works. The same is true for Capitalism, or Buddhism, or the Medieval outlook, or Christmas.

Shall we dismiss, or enshrine, the rest of human history this way?

Sure! Why not? It FEELS right. The story this author tells FEELS trustworthy. I'm hooked.

But then, I'm a writer, myself. I believe in the written word and its power to transform the world. Myth as Life. Myth IS Life. Every instant of our own lives is the artifact of the stories we tell about ourselves. It's not so hard to believe that everything else we do as a species follows the same method.

Hello, money. What makes you think I should believe in you? Oh, wait, you tell a very compelling story. :)

I like this book. :) ( )

This book is a great introduction to the history of Homo Sapiens from an anthropological, economical and scientific perspective.

However, the author does overlook/misinterpret important facts and focus only on specific ideas, so do more research on a specific idea before finalizing your opinion on a particular topic. Nonetheless, it is a great introduction to the evolution of humans. ( )

Adquirido em 2018. 29a. edição ( )

This was a stunning read. Unputdownable. So much knowledge and wisdom in one single book! While talking about the history of us, the homo sapiens, the author challenges many commonly held beliefs. The book will make you question the life we live, the culture we practice, and the purpose we have as the species homo sapiens. Apart from the important historical events, the book also expounds on concepts of agricultural society, religious theories, scientific temper, capitalism, and the concept of credit that have played significant role in the advancement of human race. After reading the book, you will question many things including the futility of the division of human race on racial, regional, and national divide. Truth is that our ancestors are one and we are all one, brothers and sisters of one single species ( )

An incredible review of the last 70,000 years of Sapiens' history. It looks at ideas as technologies and technologies as ideas. It's a hard book to describe the scope of. Sapiens covers pretty much everything. And does it fairly well. I do wish there were more detail in some parts, but boy, does it ever explain, from a very high level, what's going on in the world, how ideologies come to be and when they apply and when they don't, and just what the hell is up with us people.

I'm really looking forward to reading Homo Deus. Yuval Noah Harari's writing is clear, concise, funny, poignant, and sharp. It even taught me that liberal and socialist are modifiers for humanism, and where those ideas came from and how they sit compared to the social and structural ideas of the past. ( )