“You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”

Monster on Bathurst Street. West Hobart, February 2021.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Interesting enough, but I suspect that I am not Harari's core target audience. I was already familiar with a lot of the work referenced here. While he has managed to weave an interesting arc that runs through the interconnected research, there were points in which my confidence with the linkages made was stretched rather taut! For one, I'd treat his certainty in terms of biological determinism with a significant grain of salt. The book - in my opinion - frequently tends to underplay social determinants to the detriment of the overall thesis. That said, it is certainly worth exploring and makes a significant contribution to the mainstream understanding of the emergence of our species. Still, I'd ensure going to the primary source material if you were looking to make a substantial academic case. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2