Sapiens
NYTimes article on Harari
New Yorker article on Harari.
Harari Ted talk on “fictions
***Neil do Grasse Tyson and Yuval Harari talk.
2 Review of Harari Sapiens
1 Bill Gates review of Sapiens, Sapiens see Neanderthal paragraph and cognitive revolution.
********
So Harari is utopian/dystopian but he is also primitivist
Jean Jacques Rosseau — Man ‘s Natural State
More on Primitivism as a philosophy here.
Paul Gaugin and Primitivist Painting
See also Edward O. Wilson, from The Social Conquest of Earth: “The artist intends for us to scan from right to left. A baby at the far right represents birth. An adult of ambiguous sex has been placed in the center, arms raised, a symbol of individual self-recognition. Nearby to the left a uoimg couple iclomg and eating a[[;es are the Adam-and-Eve archetype, in quest of knowledge. On the far left, representing death, an old woman is hunched in anguish and despair . . . ”
******************************
Chapter 1.
((First, the mosaic (we already discussed how the “tree” metaphor is inadequate) of species connected to and sometimes contemporaneous with Homo sapiens here.))
Chapter 1. Sapiens and Neanderthals: Ethnic Cleansing campaign??
The story is complex–yes, p. 18, Sapiens is aggressive.
What ancient DNA studies can tell us. Replacement vs.Interbreeders theories. 50,000 years ago, Sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans were at a borderline before they went their separate evolutionary ways. science Day has map
***Review of David Reich in The Guardian
***70,000 second wave
***David Reich Handout, Overhead
DNA testing, 23 and Me, Mongrel Background of Europeans, waves of migration
Chapter 2.
3 Shift to agrarian lifestyle;Cynthia Stokes Brown, Big Bang to the Present, Domestication of Plants
(p. 80) How plants domesticated Homo sapiens, rather than the other way around. More fully explained in Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire (2001)
4 (P. 21)”Cognitive Revolution” is a contested idea. Did anatomy affect brain development? See Michio Kaku
.How about the evolution of consciousness itself?
Did agriculture affect brain development? see See article. And as answer to
Also see page 88 in Reich; photocopy or kindle link
****************************
5. Also in Chapter 2. Peugot example:Fiction, Myth, “imagined realities,
‘social constructs, Word. Basic definition here. But see definition of Myth in Britannica here.
Also see “social contract” here
Social contracts: Locke versus Rousseau
See also Origins of Altruism in H. Sapiens.
6. Also see Group selection, kin selection, multilevel selection here.
7. Richard Dawkins on the Selfish Gene and altruism.
Chapter 3. Adam and Eve. THESIS: Hunter gatherer mired in a post industrial environment. Gene centered theory of behaviors “gorging gene” theory. Also “selfish gene” theory. see here
p. 45: “The heated debates about Homo sapiens’ “natural way of life”miss the main point.Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, there hasn’t been a single natural way of life for Sapiens. There are only cultural choices, from among a bewildering palette of possibilities.”
The rise of agriculture; The Neolithic period
p.46. “The dog was the first animal domesticated by Homo sapiens, and this occurred before the Agricultural Revolution . . . .The two species coevolved . . . . Dogs that were most attentive to the needs and feelings of their human companions got extra care and food, and were more likely to survive. Simultaneously, dogs learned to manipulate people for their own needs.”
Horses also domesticated, changing Homo’s lifestyle and culture
Chapter 3, p. 56. Sungir Site in Siberia
Chapter 4: (Do passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet here)Demise of American Megafauna: the climate argument
(Page 71) Critique of argument that the Clovis people did it:”The overkill hypothesis… claims [that] large mammal extinctions occurred 11,000 years ago; Clovis people were the first to enter North America, about 11,000 years ago; Clovis people were hunters who preyed on a diverse set of now-extinct large mammals; records from islands show that human colonists cause extinction; therefore, Clovis people caused extinctions.” Science Daily
However sapiens pressure on large megafauna was strong
See also Al Gore review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s Sixth Extinction in NY Times
Chapter 5.
(p. 85): The Natufian culture
(p. 91). Gobekli Tepe: short documentary
(p. 103). Location of Catal hoyuk. short video;
catalhoyuk and gobekli Google lecture
x
Review of Sapiens by Charles Mann.
Charles Mann on Harari
Review of Sapiens, Michael Saler (The Nation) Sapiens
Harari and AI: God like computers and ChatGPT, Thomas Friedman here, but other opinions
Homo sapiens and gossip
Mitochondrial Eve here
Last Class Doc Do on doc cam. here