English translation copyright © 2014 by Yuval Noah Harari
Cloth edition published 2014
Published simultaneously in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker First published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 by Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir
Signal Books is an imprint of McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, a Penguin Random House Company
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Harari, Yuval N., author
Sapiens : a brief history of humankind / Yuval Noah Harari.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7710-3850-1 (bound).–ISBN 978-0-7710-3852-5 (html)
1. Civilization–History. 2. Human beings–History. I. Title.
CB25.H37 2014 909 C2014-904589-1
C2014-904590-5
Jacket design © Suzanne Dean
Picture research by Caroline Wood
Maps by Neil Gower
McClelland & Stewart,
a division of Random House of Canada Limited,
a Penguin Random House Company
www.randomhouse.ca
v3.1
In loving memory of my father, Shlomo Harari
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Timeline of History
Part One The Cognitive Revolution
1 An Animal of No Significance
2 The Tree of Knowledge
3 A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve
4 The Flood
Part Two The Agricultural Revolution
5 History’s Biggest Fraud
6 Building Pyramids
7 Memory Overload
8 There is No Justice in History
Part Three The Unification of Humankind
9 The Arrow of History
10 The Scent of Money
11 Imperial Visions
12 The Law of Religion
13 The Secret of Success
Part Four The Scientific Revolution
14 The Discovery of Ignorance
15 The Marriage of Science and Empire
16 The Capitalist Creed
17 The Wheels of Industry
18 A Permanent Revolution
19 And They Lived Happily Ever After
20 The End of
Homo Sapiens
Afterword:
The Animal that Became a God
Notes
Acknowledgements
Image credits
Timeline of History
Years Before the Present
13.5 billion
Matter and energy appear. Beginning of physics. Atoms and molecules appear. Beginning of chemistry.
4.5 billion
Formation of planet Earth.
3.8 billion
Emergence of organisms. Beginning of biology.
6 million
Last common grandmother of humans and chimpanzees.
2.5 million
Evolution of the genus
Homo
in Africa. First stone tools.
2 million
Humans spread from Africa to Eurasia. Evolution of different human species.
500,000
Neanderthals evolve in Europe and the Middle East.
300,000
Daily usage of fire.
200,000
Homo sapiens
evolves in East Africa.
70,000
The Cognitive Revolution. Emergence of fictive language.
Beginning of history. Sapiens spread out of Africa.
45,000
Sapiens settle Australia. Extinction of Australian megafauna.
30,000
Extinction of Neanderthals.
16,000
Sapiens settle America. Extinction of American megafauna.
13,000
Extinction of
Homo floresiensis. Homo sapiens
the only surviving human species.
12,000
The Agricultural Revolution. Domestication of plants and animals. Permanent settlements.
5,000
First kingdoms, script and money. Polytheistic religions.
4,250
First empire – the Akkadian Empire of Sargon.
2,500
Invention of coinage – a universal money.
The Persian Empire – a universal political order ‘for the benefit of all humans’.
Buddhism in India – a universal truth ‘to liberate all beings from suffering’.
2,000
Han Empire in China. Roman Empire in the Mediterranean. Christianity.
1,400
Islam.
500
The Scientific Revolution. Humankind admits its ignorance and begins to acquire unprecedented power. Europeans begin to conquer America and the oceans. The entire planet becomes a single historical arena. The rise of capitalism.
200
The Industrial Revolution. Family and community are replaced by state and market. Massive extinction of plants and animals.
The Present
Humans transcend the boundaries of planet Earth. Nuclear weapons threaten the survival of humankind. Organisms are increasingly shaped by intelligent design rather than natural selection.
The Future
Intelligent design becomes the basic principle of life?
Homo sapiens
is replaced by superhumans?
Part One
The Cognitive Revolution
1. A human handprint made about 30,000 years ago, on the wall of the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France. Somebody tried to say, ‘I was here!’
1
An Animal of No Significance
ABOUT 13.5 BILLION YEARS AGO, MATTER, energy, time and space came into being in what is known as the Big Bang. The story of these fundamental features of our universe is called physics.
About 300,000 years after their appearance, matter and energy started to coalesce into complex structures, called atoms, which then combined into molecules. The story of atoms, molecules and their interactions is called chemistry.
About 3.8 billion years ago, on a planet called Earth, certain molecules combined to form particularly large and intricate structures called organisms. The story of organisms is called biology.
About 70,000 years ago, organisms belonging to the species Homo sapiens started to form even more elaborate structures called cultures. The subsequent development of these human cultures is called history.
Three important revolutions shaped the course of history: the Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago. The Scientific Revolution, which got under way only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different. This book tells the story of how these three revolutions have affected humans and their fellow organisms.
There were humans long before there was history. Animals much like modern humans first appeared about 2.5 million years ago. But for countless generations they did not stand out from the myriad other organisms with which they shared their habitats.
On a hike in East Africa 2 million years ago, you might well have encountered a familiar cast of human characters: anxious mothers cuddling their babies and clutches of carefree children playing in the mud; temperamental youths chafing against the dictates of society and weary elders who just wanted to be left in peace; chest-thumping machos trying to impress the local beauty and wise old matriarchs who had already seen it all. These archaic humans loved, played, formed close friendships and competed for status and power – but so did chimpanzees, baboons and elephants. There was nothing special about them. Nobody, least of all humans themselves, had any inkling that their descendants would one day walk on the moon, split the atom, fathom the genetic code and write history books. The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish.