Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key ideas are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Part 1

Reading Check

1. About how long ago did humans evolve in Africa?

2. What significant human ability developed during the “Cognitive Revolution”?

3. About how long ago were dogs domesticated?

4. Prior to the Cognitive Revolution, where did virtually all humans live?

5. What is the extinction event taking place in modern times called?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How has humanity’s place in the food chain changed over time?

2. How did the ability to make fire spur changes in human physiology?

3. What are “imagined realities,” and how do they allow for larger group sizes?

4. Why has collective knowledge become more important in modern times?

5. What devastating impact on the environment did human incursion into Australia and North America have?

Paired Resources

“What Makes Our Brains Special?”

• This article from Scientific American reviews recent research into the distinctness of human neurology.
• This resource relates to the theme of Shared Fictions.
• According to our current understanding, what makes the human brain unique? What older theories about our cognitive uniqueness have been debunked? What is neurological “plasticity,” and how might it relate to the kinds of cultural adaptability and the “imagined realities” described in Part 1 of Sapiens?

“Climate Change, Not Human Population Growth, Correlates with Late Quaternary Megafauna Declines in North America”

• This journal article from Nature disputes the theory of human-caused megafauna extinction. (Note: Depending on the reading level of your students, this article may be more appropriate as a teacher-facing resource.)
• What did this study find is the likely cause of First Wave megafauna extinction? What evidence do the authors offer to dispute the theory that this extinction was caused by human migration? How does this relate to the claims that Harari makes in Sapiens?

Part 2

Reading Check

1. What crop does Harari use as an example of how agriculture changed the human world?

2. Who besides humans does Harari say suffered more as a result of the Agricultural Revolution?

3. What does Harari use to symbolize humans’ attempts to leave a legacy for the future?

4. What was the original purpose of writing?

5. What characteristic is the basis of the most common forms of hierarchical inequality?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What impacts did the Agricultural Revolution have on human population and quality of life?

2. Why did the Agricultural Revolution mean that humans started having to worry about the future?

3. What did the ancient Incans use as a system of recording information?

4. What does Harari say is the basis of social hierarchies and inequalities based on characteristics like race?

5. What does Harari say is a frequent origin of social hierarchies such as caste systems?

Paired Resources

“The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”

• Noted historian Jared Diamond offers a thorough analysis of the origins and impact of the Agricultural Revolution.
• This resource relates to themes of Evolution Has No Purpose and Happiness and Meaning.
• What claims does Diamond make about the origins of the Agricultural Revolution? What claims does he make about its impact? How do Diamond’s claims either support or refute the claims Harari makes in Chapter 5 of Sapiens? What do both Diamond’s and Harari’s analyses make clear about whether evolution has a purpose? What do these pieces make clear about the relationship between evolution and happiness?

“What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construct’”

• In this Atlantic article, Ta-Nehisi Coates explains why racial classifications are an imagined reality. (Note: Subscription may be needed to view this article.)
• This resource relates to the theme of Shared Fictions.
• What critique of racial categories does Coates make in this article? How does he answer those who point to physiological differences based on ancestry? What does this article demonstrate about the power of the “imagined realities” that Harari talks about in Sapiens? How do Coates’s observations support Harari’s claims in Chapters 6 and 8 of Sapiens?

Part 3

Reading Check

1. What does Harari claim is the likely eventual result of the trend of societies to grow larger and merge over time?

2. What did the Aztecs use as currency?

3. For how long has empire been the most common form of government?

4. Along with money and empires, what is the third great unifying force that Harari discusses?

5. What kinds of connections between historical events does Harari say are often nearly impossible to determine?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do social standards allow strangers within a society to get along?

2. In what sense is money an example of an imagined reality?

3. What is the most frequent reason for the rise and fall of empires?

4. What are “natural law” religions?

5. What two types of chaos does Harari discuss in Chapter 13, “The Secret of Success”?

Paired Resources

“Incredible Archaeological Discoveries”

• In this 11-minute video, Stanford professor Ian Morris discusses how population movement, epidemic disease, famine, war, and climate change have caused the collapse of empires.
• This resource relates to themes of Shared Fictions and Evolution Has No Purpose.
• According to Dr. Morris, what are the causes of the collapse of empires? What evidence does he offer for his conclusions? How does this compare with the claims that Harari makes in Sapiens? Are the claims these two scholars make entirely incompatible, or might they be two different ways of looking at the same phenomena? How do these two sources both reinforce the idea that civilization is a form of Shared Fiction and that Evolution Has No Purpose?

“The Roots of Religion: Genevieve Von Petzinger at TEDxVictoria”

• In this 20-minute video, anthropologist Genevieve Von Petzinger discusses the earliest signs of what can be interpreted as religious behavior in human ancestors.
• This resource relates to themes of Shared Fictions and Happiness and Meaning.
• How long ago does Von Petzinger see evidence of religious behavior? What evidence does she offer for her conclusions? How does this compare with the claims that Harari makes in Sapiens? Do they seem to be working from the same definition of religion? What factors might influence a historian’s definition of religion versus an anthropologist’s?

Part 4

Reading Check

1. About how long ago did the Scientific Revolution occur?

2. What invention does Harari credit to capitalism and say has created an explosion in production?

3. In Chapter 17, “The Wheels of Industry,” what human discovery does Harari say caused rapid growth in industry?

4. In Chapter 18, “A Permanent Revolution,” what does Harari say has been made largely obsolete in modern times?

5. What “law” does Harari say things like medical advances and genetic engineering allow humans to violate?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Harari contrast science and religion, and what relationship does he claim the difference between them has to the explosion of knowledge after the scientific revolution?

2. In Chapter 15, “The Marriage of Science and Empire,” how does Harari use European conquest as an example of the relationship between science and empire?

3. What does Harari say is the relationship between capitalism and ideals like freedom and justice?

4. What principle is Harari illustrating with his example of the caged calf?

5. What two definitions of happiness does Harari discuss in Chapter 19, “And They Lived Happily Ever After”?

Recommended Next Reads

The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional by Agustín Fuentes

• Fuentes combines current research from diverse scientific fields to create an overview of human prehistory and its implications for our modern lives.
• Shared themes include Shared Fictions and Happiness and Meaning.
• Shared topics include human nature, society, human evolution, prehistory, and history.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

• Graeber and Wengrow reexamine traditional assumptions about human prehistory and civilization in light of recent archaeological and anthropological research.
• Shared themes include Shared Fictions, Evolution Has No Purpose, and Happiness and Meaning.
• Shared topics include human nature, society, human evolution, prehistory, and history.
• The Dawn of Everything on SuperSummary