Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens is a non-fictional and informational book written by Yuval Noah Harari

about the history of humankind. Harari begins with familiarizing the reader with

scientific language he tends to use and reminds them of his pacing that will continue

through the book. In Part I, The Cognitive Revolution, Harari includes a chapter

named The Flood where he explores the destructive capabilities of early Homo sapiens.

Within this chapter, Harari uses scientific proof and theory to inform the reader of what

we know about human history while he shrewdly creates his own stance on the topic of

human influence on other species. The consequence of humankind on the world is a

heavily debated topic, both on the amount of influence and the severity of our influence.

With his well organized fact checking and slightly informal language when regarding his

audience, Harari creates a stance that fervently blames Homo sapiens for immense

damage to our world.

Harari begins his argument with shocking facts and information to draw the

reader in. When referring to Australia before humans set foot on the continent, he lists

almost fantastical species that roamed the area. He mentions animals such as the,

450-pound, six-foot kangaroo, dragon-like lizards and snakes seven feet long, and,

[a] two-and-a-half-ton wombat(65). With attention grabbed, Harari reveals the

vanishing of all these beasts within a few thousand years, which in historical terms is a

very short amount of time. He points out the fact that this massive loss was at the same

time as the introduction of Homo sapiens to the Australian ecosystem. As he begins

seemingly objective, Harari will soon lay out his stance on the event, using organized

facts and explanations to set up his claim.

 In the next portion of The Flood comes a section titled Guilty as Charged.

Harari comes right out and states that, some scholars try to exonerate our species,

placing blame on the vagaries of the climate (the usual scapegoat in such cases)(65).

Although shockingly blunt, this statement is strategically explained by Harari through

listing reasons to discredit said theories. He goes on with lengthy yet clear explanations

of why climate change could not be the cause of such destruction. He begins each

counter-argument acutely as he writes, firstly, even though Australias climate changed

some 45,000 years ago, it wasnt a very remarkable upheaval(66). He goes on to

explain the consistency of the flux in Earths climate. Harari then lists his second and

third counter-arguments in a very similar way, describing the lack of mass extinctions for

sea-dwelling animals that often parallel climate change caused extinctions and finally

bringing to light the recurring of this same type of mass extinction after the appearance

of humans other sea-locked land masses across the globe.

Following his methodical descriptions of why climate change could not be the

culprit of Australias mass extinctions, Harari ends his argument with obviously stating

his stance on the issue, not only factually but personally. He does this by inserting

informal language next to the previous objective diction when he writes, the historical

record makes Homo sapiens look like an ecological serial killer(67). By ending with

this humorous yet cynical statement, Harari establishes an intellectual yet personal

relationship with his audience. He balances informalities with well organized facts and

explanations to make a personal claim with credible reasoning.

Reflection:

This assignment was to analyze how the author makes a statement about a

controversial subject. I selected this artifact because it is centered on a subject that I

only recently discovered interest in - anthropology. The strength of this piece is the

meticulous analysis of the quotes I used as examples. If I revised this essay, I would

cut it down to be more concise. This artifact reflects my development as a writer

because I wrote this during my senior year after having learned all the strategies to

analysis throughout my education.