Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind [Reprint edition; Reprint] 9780062316110, 0062316117

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THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

Yuval Noah Harari

. .

ief

History of Humankind OBSERVER

VINTAGE

‘A RARE BOOK...THRILLING AND BREATHTAKING’

MADE US HUNGRY FOR MORE.

MYTHOLOGY MAINTAINED LAW AND ORDER.

MONEY GAVE US SOMETHING WE CAN REALLY TRUST.

This is the thrilling account of our extraordinary history from insignificant apes to rulers of the world.

SAPIENS A Brief History of Humankind ‘I encourage all of us, whatever our beliefs, to question the basic narratives of our world, to connect past developments with present concerns, and not to be afraid of controversial issues.’ Dr Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialising in World History. His research focuses on broad questions, such as: What is the relation between history and biology? Is there justice in history? Did people become happier as history unfolded? 65,000 people have signed up to Harari’s online course, A Brief History of Humankind. Sapiens is an international bestseller and is published in more than 30 languages worldwide. In 2012 Harari was awarded the annual Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines.

7 9 10 8 Vintage 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.pengumrandomhouse.com.

Penguin Random House UK Copyright © Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Translated by the author, with the help of John Purcell and Haim Watzman Yuval Noah Harari has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First Published by Harvill Seeker in 2014 First published in Hebrew in Israel in 2011 by Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir www.vintage-books.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 9780099590088 Typeset in Sabon by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk, Stirlingshire Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd. Picture Research by Caroline Wood Maps by Neil Gower

YUVAL NOAH HARARI

Sapiens Brief History of Humankind

VINTAGE BOOKS London

In loving memory of my father, Shlomo Harari

Contents Timeline of History

ix

Part One The Cognitive Revolution 1

An Animal of No Significance

3

2

The Tree of Knowledge

22

3

A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve

45

4

The Flood

70

Part Two The Agricultural Revolution 5

History’s Biggest Fraud

87

6

Building Pyramids

no

7

Memory Overload

134

8

There Is No Justice in History

149

Part Three The Unification of Humankind 9

The Arrow of History

181

10

The Scent of Money

193

11

Imperial Visions

210

12

The Law of Religion

233

13

The Secret of Success

264

Part Four The Scientific Revolution 14

The Discovery of Ignorance

275

15

The Marriage of Science and Empire

307

16

The Capitalist Creed

341

17

The Wheels of Industry

374

i8

A Permanent Revolution

392

19

And They Lived Happily Ever After

421

20

The End of Homo Sapiens

445

Afterword: The Animal that Became a God

465

Notes

467

Acknowledgements

481

Image Credits

483

Index

485

Timeline of History Years before the presetit

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

Ho?no 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 mega¬ fauna.

30,000

Extinction of Neanderthals.

16,000

Sapiens settle America. Extinction of American megafauna.

IX

Sapiens

X

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. Flumankind 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?

Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind

Part One The Cognitive Revolution

i. 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!’

I 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 struc¬ tures 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. *

3

Sapiens

4

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 humans. 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. Biologists classify organisms into species. Animals are said to belong to the same species if they tend to mate with each other, giving birth to fertile offspring. Horses and donkeys have a recent common ancestor and share many physical traits. But they show little sexual interest in one another. They will mate if induced to do so - but their offspring, called mules, are sterile. Mutations in donkey DNA can therefore never cross over to horses, or vice versa. The two types of animals are consequently considered two distinct species, moving along separate evolutionary paths. By contrast, a bulldog and a spaniel may look very different, but they are members of the same species, sharing the same DNA pool. They will happily mate and their puppies will grow up to pair off with other dogs and produce more puppies.

Species that evolved from a common ancestor are bunched together

An Animal of No Significance

5

under the heading genus’ (plural genera). Lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars are different species within the genus Panthera. Biologists label organisms with a two-part Latin name, genus followed by species. Lions, for example, are called Panthera leo, the species leo of the genus Panthera. Presumably, everyone reading this book is a Homo sapiens - the species sapiens (wise) of the genus Homo (man). Genera in their turn are grouped into families, such as the cats (lions, cheetahs, house cats), the dogs (wolves, foxes, jackals) and the elephants (elephants, mammoths, mastodons). All members of a family trace their lineage back to a founding matriarch or patriarch. All cats, for example, from the smallest house kitten to the most ferocious lion, share a common feline ancestor who lived about 25 million years ago. Homo sapiens, too, belongs to a family. This banal fact used to be one of history’s most closely guarded secrets. Homo sapiens long preferred to view itself as set apart from animals, an orphan bereft of family, lacking siblings or cousins, and, most importantly, without parents. But that’s just not the case. Like it or not, we are members of a large and particularly noisy family called the great apes. Our closest living relatives include chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans. The chimpanzees are the closest. Just 6 million years ago, a single female ape had two daughters. One became the ancestor of all chimpanzees, the other is our own grandmother.

Skeletons in the Closet Homo sapiens has kept hidden an even more disturbing secret. Not only do we possess an abundance of uncivilised cousins, once upon a time we had quite a few brothers and sisters as well. We are used to thinking about ourselves as the only humans, because for the last 10,000 years, our species has indeed been the only human species around. Yet the real meaning of- the word human is an animal belonging to the genus Homo\ and there used to be many other

6

Sapiens

2. Our siblings, according to speculative reconstructions (left to right): Homo rudolfensis (East Africa) Homo erectus (East Asia); and Homo neanderthalensis (Europe and western Asia). All are humans.

species of this genus besides Homo sapiens. Moreover, as we shall see in the last chapter of the book, in the not-so-distant future we might again have to contend with non-sapiens humans. To clarify this point, I will often use the term ‘Sapiens’ to denote members of the species Homo sapiens, while reserving the term ‘human’ to refer to all extant members of the genus Homo. Humans first evolved in East Africa about 2.5 million years ago from an earlier genus of apes called Australopithecus, which means ‘Southern Ape’. About 2 million years ago, some of these archaic men and women left their homeland to journey through and settle vast areas of North Africa, Europe and Asia. Since survival in the snowy forests of northern Europe required different traits than those needed to stay alive in Indonesia^ steaming jungles, human populations evolved in different directions. The result was several distinct species, to each of which scientists have assigned a pompous Latin name. Humans in Europe and western Asia evolved into Homo neander-

An Animal of No Significance

7

thalensis (‘Man from the Neander Valley), popularly referred to simply as 'Neanderthals’. Neanderthals, builder and more muscular than us Sapiens, were well adapted to the cold climate of Ice Age western Eurasia, lire more eastern regions of Asia were populated by Homo erectus, ‘Upright Man’, who survived there for close to 2 million years, making it the most durable human species ever. This record is unlikely to be broken even by our own species. It is doubtful whether Homo sapiens will still be around a thousand years from now, so 2 million years is really out of our league. On the island of Java, in Indonesia, lived Homo soloensis, ‘Man from the Solo Valley’, who was suited to life in the tropics. On another Indonesian island - the small island of Flores - archaic humans underwent a process of dwarfing. Humans first reached Flores when the sea level was exceptionally low, and the island was easily accessible from the mainland. When the seas rose again, some people were trapped on the island, which was poor in resources.

8

Sapiens

Big people, who need a lot of food, died first. Smaller fellows survived much better. Over the generations, the people of Flores became dwarves. This unique species, known by scientists as Homo floresiensis, reached a maximum height of only one metre and weighed no more than twenty-five kilograms. They were nevertheless able to produce stone tools, and even managed occasionally to hunt down some of the island’s elephants - though, to be fair, the elephants were a dwarf species as well. In 2010 another lost sibling was rescued from oblivion, when scientists excavating the Denisova Cave in Siberia discovered a fossil¬ ised finger bone. Genetic analysis proved that the finger belonged to a previously unknown human species, which was named Homo denisova. Who knows how many lost relatives of ours are waiting to be discovered in other caves, on other islands, and in other climes? While these humans were evolving in Europe and Asia, evolution in East Africa did not stop. The cradle of humanity continued to nurture numerous new species, such as Homo rudolfensis, ‘Man from Lake Rudolf’, Homo ergaster, ‘Working Man’, and eventually our own species, which we’ve immodestly named Homo sapiens, ‘Wise Man’. The members of some of these species were massive and others were dwarves. Some were fearsome hunters and others meek plantgatherers. Some lived only on a single island, while many roamed over continents. But all of them belonged to the genus Homo. They were all human beings. It’s a common fallacy to envision these species as arranged in a straight line of descent, with Ergaster begetting Erectus, Erectus begetting the Neanderthals, and the Neanderthals evolving into us. This linear model gives the mistaken impression that at any par¬ ticular moment only one type of human inhabited the earth, and that all earlier species were merely older models of ourselves. The truth is that from about 2 million years ago until around 10,000 years ago, the world was home, at one and the same time, to several human species. And why not? Today there are many species of foxes,

An Animal of No Significance

9

bears and pigs. The earth of a hundred millennia ago was walked by at least six different species of man. It’s our current exclusivity, not that multi-species past, that is peculiar - and perhaps incrimin¬ ating. As we will shortly see, we Sapiens have good reasons to repress the memory of our siblings.

The Cost of Thinking Despite their many differences, all human species share several defining characteristics. Most notably, humans have extraordinarily large brains compared to other animals. Mammals weighing sixty kilograms have an average brain size of 200 cubic centimetres. The earliest men and women, 2.5 million years ago, had brains of about 600 cubic centimetres. Modern Sapiens sport a brain averaging 1,200-1,400 cubic centimetres. Neanderthal brains were even bigger. That evolution should select for larger brains may seem to us like, well, a no-brainer. We are so enamoured of our high intelligence that we assume that when it comes to cerebral power, more must be better. But if that were the case, the feline family would also have produced cats who could do calculus and frogs would by now have launched their own space programme. Why are giant brains so rare in the animal kingdom. The fact is that a jumbo brain is a jumbo drain on the body. It’s not easy to carry around, especially when encased inside a massive skull. It’s even harder to fuel. In Homo sapiens, the brain accounts for about 2-3 per cent of total body weight, but it consumes 25 per cent of the body’s energy when the body is at rest. By comparison, the brains of other apes require only 8 per cent of rest-time energy. Archaic humans paid for their large brains in two ways. Firstly, they spent more time in search of food. Secondly, their muscles atrophied. Like a government diverting money from defence to education, humans diverted energy from biceps to neurons. It’s hardly a

Sapiens

IO

foregone conclusion that this is a good strategy for survival on the savannah. A chimpanzee can’t win an argument with a Homo sapiens, but the ape can rip the man apart like a rag doll. Today our big brains pay off nicely, because we can produce cars and guns that enable us to move much faster than chimps, and shoot them from a safe distance instead of wrestling. But cars and guns are a recent phenomenon. For more than 2 million years, human neural networks kept growing and growing, but apart from some flint knives and pointed sticks, humans had precious little to show for it. What then drove forward the evolution of the massive human brain during those 2 million years? Frankly, we don’t know. Another singular human trait is that we walk upright on two legs. Standing up, it’s easier to scan the savannah for game or enemies, and arms that are unnecessary for locomotion are freed for other purposes, like throwing stones or signalling. The more things these hands could do, the more successful their owners were, so evolu¬ tionary pressure brought about an increasing concentration of nerves and finely tuned muscles in the palms and fingers. As a result, humans can perform very intricate tasks with their hands. In par¬ ticular, they can produce and use sophisticated tools. The first evidence for tool production dates from about 2.5 million years ago, and the manufacture and use of tools are the criteria by which archaeologists recognise ancient humans. Yet walking upright has its downside. The skeleton of our primate ancestors developed for millions of years to support a creature that walked on all fours and had a relatively small head. Adjusting to an upright position was quite a challenge, especially when the scaf¬ folding had to support an extra-large cranium. Humankind paid for its lofty vision and industrious hands with backaches and stiff necks. Women paid extra. An upright gait required narrower hips, constricting the birth canal - and this just when babies’ heads were getting bigger and bigger. Death in childbirth became a major hazard

An Animal of No Significance

II

for human females. Women who gave birth earlier, when the infant’s brain and head were still relatively small and supple, fared better and lived to have more children. Natural selection consequently favoured earlier births. And, indeed, compared to other animals, humans are born prematurely, when many of their vital systems are still underdeveloped. A colt can trot shortly after birth; a kitten leaves its mother to forage on its own when it is just a few weeks old. Human babies are helpless, dependent for many years on their elders for sustenance, protection and education. This fact has contributed greatly both to humankind’s extraordin¬ ary social abilities and to its unique social problems. Lone mothers could hardly forage enough food for their offspring and themselves with needy children in tow. Raising children required constant help from other family members and neighbours. It takes a tribe to raise a human. Evolution thus favoured those capable of forming strong social ties. In addition, since humans are born underdeveloped, they can be educated and socialised to a far greater extent than any other animal. Most mammals emerge from the womb like glazed earthen¬ ware emerging from a kiln - any attempt at remoulding will only scratch or break them. Humans emerge from the womb like molten glass from a furnace. They can be spun, stretched and shaped with a surprising degree of freedom. This is why today we can educate our children to become Christian or Buddhist, capitalist or socialist, warlike or peace-loving. We assume that a large brain, the use of tools, superior learning abilities and complex social structures are huge advantages. It seems self-evident that these have made humankind the most powerful animal on earth. But humans enjoyed all of these advantages for a full 2 million years during which they remained weak and marginal creatures. Thus humans who lived a million years ago, despite their big brains and sharp stone tools, dwelt in constant fear of predators, rarely hunted large game, and subsisted mainly by gathering plants,

Sapiens

12

scooping up insects, stalking small animals, and eating the carrion left behind by other more powerful carnivores. One of the most common uses of early stone tools was to crack open bones in order to get to the marrow. Some researchers believe this was our original niche. Just as woodpeckers specialise in extracting insects from the trunks of trees, the first humans special¬ ised in extracting marrow from bones. Why marrow? Well, suppose you observe a pride of lions take down and devour a giraffe. You wait patiently until they’re done. But it’s still not your turn because first the hyenas and jackals - and you don’t dare interfere with them - scavenge the leftovers. Only then would you and your band dare approach the carcass, look cautiously left and right - and dig into the edible tissue that remained. This is a key to understanding our history and psychology. Genus Homo's position in the food chain was, until quite recently, solidly in the middle. For millions of years, humans hunted smaller creatures and gathered what they could, all the while being hunted by larger predators. It was only 400,000 years ago that several species of man began to hunt large game on a regular basis, and only in the last 100,000 years - with the rise of Homo sapiens - that man jumped to the top of the food chain. That spectacular leap from the middle to the top had enormous consequences. Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc. As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more badtempered. In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. Most top predators of the planet are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana-

An Animal of No Significance

13

republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. Many historical calam¬ ities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump.

A Race of Cooks A significant step on the way to the top was the domestication of fire. Some human species may have made occasional use of fire as early as 800,000 years ago. By about 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus, Neanderthals and the forefathers of Homo sapiens were using fire on a daily basis. Humans now had a dependable source of light and warmth, and a deadly weapon against prowling lions. Not long afterwards, humans may even have started deliberately to torch their neighbourhoods. A carefully managed fire could turn impassable barren thickets into prime grasslands teeming with game. In addition, once the fire died down, Stone Age entrepreneurs could walk through the smoking remains and harvest charcoaled animals, nuts and tubers. But the best thing fire did was cook. Foods that humans cannot digest in their natural forms - such as wheat, rice and potatoes became staples of our diet thanks to cooking. Fire not only changed food’s chemistry, it changed its biology as well. Cooking killed germs and parasites that infested food. Humans also had a far easier time chewing and digesting old favourites such as fruits, nuts, insects and carrion if they were cooked. Whereas chimpanzees spend five hours a day chewing raw food, a single hour suffices for people eating cooked food. The advent of cooking enabled humans to eat more kinds of food, to devote less time to eating, and to make do with smaller teeth and shorter intestines. Some scholars believe there is a direct link between the advent of cooking, the shortening of the human

Sapiens

14

intestinal track, and the growth of the human brain. Since long intestines and large brains are both massive energy consumers, it’s hard to have both. By shortening the intestines and decreasing their energy consumption, cooking inadvertently opened the way to the jumbo brains of Neanderthals and Sapiens.1 Fire also opened the first significant gulf between man and the other animals. The power of almost all animals depends on their bodies: the strength of their muscles, the size of their teeth, the breadth of their wings. Though they may harness winds and currents, they are unable to control these natural forces, and are always constrained by their physical design. Eagles, for example, identify thermal columns rising from the ground, spread their giant wings and allow the hot air to lift them upwards. Yet eagles cannot control the location of the columns, and their maximum carrying capacity is strictly proportional to their wingspan. When humans domesticated fire, they gained control of an obedient and potentially limitless force. Unlike eagles, humans could choose when and where to ignite a flame, and they were able to exploit fire for any number of tasks. Most importantly, the power of fire was not limited by the form, structure or strength of the human body. A single woman with a flint or fire stick could burn down an entire forest in a matter of hours. The domestication of fire was a sign of things to come.

Our Brothers' Keepers Despite the benefits of fire, 150,000 years ago humans were still marginal creatures. They could now scare away lions, warm them¬ selves during cold nights, and burn down the occasional forest. Yet counting all species together, there were still no more than perhaps a million humans living between the Indonesian archipelago and the Iberian peninsula, a mere blip on the ecological radar.

An Animal of No Significance

15

Our own species, Homo sapiens, was already present on the world stage, but so far it was just minding its own business in a corner of Africa. We don’t know exactly where and when animals that can be classified as Homo sapiens first evolved from some earlier type of humans, but most scientists agree that by 150,000 years ago, East Africa was populated by Sapiens that looked just like us. If one of them turned up in a modern morgue, the local pathologist would notice nothing peculiar. Thanks to the blessings of fire, they had smaller teeth and jaws than their ancestors, whereas they had massive brains, equal in size to ours. Scientists also agree that about 70,000 years ago, Sapiens from East Africa spread into the Arabian peninsula, and from there they quickly overran the entire Eurasian landmass. When Homo sapiens landed in Arabia, most of Eurasia was already settled by other humans. What happened to them? There are two conflicting theories. The 'Interbreeding Theory’ tells a story of attrac¬ tion, sex and mingling. As the African immigrants spread around the world, they bred with other human populations, and people today are the outcome of this interbreeding. For example, when Sapiens reached the Middle East and Europe, they encountered the Neanderthals. These humans were more muscular than Sapiens, had larger brains, and were better adapted to cold climes. They used tools and fire, were good hunters, and apparently took care of their sick and infirm. (Archaeologists have discovered the bones of Neanderthals who lived for many years with severe physical handicaps, evidence that they were cared for by their relatives.) Neanderthals are often depicted in caricatures as the archetypical brutish and stupid ‘cave people’, but recent evidence has changed their image. According to the Interbreeding Theory, when Sapiens spread into Neanderthal lands, Sapiens bred with Neanderthals until the two populations merged. If this is the case, then today’s Eurasians are not pure Sapiens. They are a mixture of Sapiens and Neanderthals.

16

Sapiens

Similarly, when Sapiens reached East Asia, they interbred with the local Erectus, so the Chinese and Koreans are a mixture of Sapiens and Erectus. The opposing view, called the ‘Replacement Theory’ tells a very different story - one of incompatibility, revulsion, and perhaps even genocide. According to this theory, Sapiens and other humans had different anatomies, and most likely different mating habits and even body odours. They would have had little sexual interest in one another. And even if a Neanderthal Romeo and a Sapiens Juliet fell in love, they could not produce fertile children, because the genetic gulf separating the two populations was already unbridgeable. The two populations remained completely distinct, and when the Neanderthals died out, or were killed off, their genes died with them. According to this view, Sapiens replaced all the previous human populations without merging with them. If that is the case, the lineages of all contemporary humans can be traced back, exclusively, to East Africa, 70,000 years ago. We are all ‘pure Sapiens’.

Homo stjpim, mo, 000 m ycand&J't-huts- JOO, OOQ $p Other' human species, iOO, OflOffp

Numbers indicate dates ofnrristd ofHome s&pJem m years bdbre present

Map 1. Homo sapiens conquers the globe.

An Animal of No Significance

17

A lot hinges on this debate. From an evolutionary perspective, 70,000 years is a relatively short interval. If the Replacement Theory is correct, all living humans have roughly the same genetic baggage, and racial distinctions among them are negligible. But if the Interbreeding Theory is right, there might well be genetic differences between Africans, Europeans and Asians that go back hundreds of thousands of years. This is political dynamite, which could provide material for explosive racial theories. In recent decades the Replacement Theory has been the common wisdom in the field. It had firmer archaeological backing, and was more politically correct (scientists had no desire to open up the Pandoras box of racism by claiming significant genetic diversity among modern human populations). But that ended in 2010, when the results of a four-year effort to map the Neanderthal genome were published. Geneticists were able to collect enough intact Neanderthal DNA from fossils to make a broad comparison between it and the DNA of contemporary humans. The results stunned the scientific community. It turned out that 1-4 per cent of the unique human DNA of modern populations in the Middle East and Europe is Neanderthal DNA. That’s not a huge amount, but it’s significant. A second shock came several months later, when DNA extracted from the fossilised finger from Denisova was mapped. The results proved that up to 6 per cent of the unique human DNA of modern Melanesians and Aboriginal Australians is Denisovan DNA. If these results are valid - and it’s important to keep in mind that further research is under way and may either reinforce or modify these conclusions - the Interbreeders got at least some things right. But that doesn’t mean that the Replacement Theory is completely wrong. Since Neanderthals and Denisovans contributed only a small amount of DNA to our present-day genome, it is impossible to speak of a ‘merger’ between Sapiens and other human species. Although differences between them were not large enough to

i8

Sapiens

completely prevent fertile intercourse, they were sufficient to make such contacts very rare. How then should we understand the biological relatedness of Sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans? Clearly, they were not completely different species like horses and donkeys. On the other hand, they were not just different populations of the same species, like bulldogs and spaniels. Biological reality is not black and white. There are also important grey areas. Every two species that evolved from a common ancestor, such as horses and donkeys, were at one time just two populations of the same species, like bulldogs and spaniels. There must have been a point when the two populations were already quite different from one another, but still capable on rare occasions of having sex and producing fertile offspring. Then another mutation severed this last connecting thread, and they went their separate evolutionary ways. It seems that about 50,000 years ago, Sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans were at that borderline point. They were almost, but not quite, entirely separate species. As we shall see in the next chapter, Sapiens were already very different from Neanderthals and Denisovans not only in their genetic code and physical traits, but

3. A speculative reconstruction of a Neanderthal child. Genetic evidence hints that at least some Neanderthals may have had fair skin and hair.

An Animal of No Significance

19

also in their cognitive and social abilities, yet it appears it was still just possible, on rare occasions, for a Sapiens and a Neanderthal to produce a fertile offspring. So the populations did not merge, but a few lucky Neanderthal genes did hitch a ride on the Sapiens Express. It is unsettling — and perhaps thrilling - to think that we Sapiens could at one time have sex with an animal from a different species, and produce children together. But if the Neanderthals, Denisovans and other human species didn’t merge with Sapiens, why did they vanish? One possibility is that Homo sapiens drove them to extinction. Imagine a Sapiens band reaching a Balkan valley where Neanderthals had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. The newcomers began to hunt the deer and gather the nuts and berries that were the Neanderthals’ traditional staples. Sapiens were more proficient hunters and gatherers - thanks to better technology and superior social skills - so they multiplied and spread. The less resourceful Neanderthals found it increasingly difficult to feed themselves. Their population dwindled and they slowly died out, except perhaps for one or two members who joined their Sapiens neighbours. Another possibility is that competition for resources flared up into violence and genocide. Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark. In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group. Would ancient Sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human species? It may well be that when Sapiens encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history. Whichever way it happened, the Neanderthals (and the other human species) pose one of history’s great what ifs. Imagine how things might have turned out had the Neanderthals or Denisovans survived alongside Homo sapiens. What kind of cultures, societies and political structures would have emerged in a world where several different human species coexisted? flow, for example, would religious

Sapiens

20

faiths have unfolded? Would the book of Genesis have declared that Neanderthals descend from Adam and Eve, would Jesus have died for the sins of the Denisovans, and would the Qur’an have reserved seats in heaven for all righteous humans, whatever their species? Would Neanderthals have been able to serve in the Roman legions, or in the sprawling bureaucracy of imperial China? Would the American Declaration of Independence hold as a self-evident truth that all members of the genus Homo are created equal? Would Karl Marx have urged workers of all species to unite? Over the past 10,000 years, Homo sapiens has grown so accustomed to being the only human species that it’s hard for us to conceive of any other possibility. Our lack of brothers and sisters makes it easier to imagine that we are the epitome of creation, and that a chasm separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. When Charles Darwin indicated that Homo sapiens was just another kind of animal, people were outraged. Even today many refuse to believe it. Had the Neanderthals survived, would we still imagine ourselves to be a creature apart? Perhaps this is exactly why our ancestors wiped out the Neanderthals. They were too familiar to ignore, but too different to tolerate.

Whether Sapiens are to blame or not, no sooner had they arrived at a new location than the native population became extinct. The last remains of Homo soloensis are dated to about 50,000 years ago. Homo denisova disappeared shortly thereafter. Neanderthals made their exit roughly 30,000 years ago. The last dwarf-like humans vanished from Flores Island about 12,000 years ago. They left behind some bones, stone tools, a few genes in our DNA and a lot of unanswered questions. They also left behind us, Homo sapiens, the last human species. What was the Sapiens’ secret of success? How did we manage to settle so rapidly in so many distant and ecologically different hab¬ itats? How did we push all other human species into oblivion? Why

An Animal of No Significance

21

couldn’t even the strong, brainy, cold-proof Neanderthals survive our onslaught? The debate continues to rage. The most likely answer is the very thing that makes the debate possible: Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language.

2

The Tree of Knowledge

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER WE SAW THAT although Sapiens had already populated East Africa 150,000 years ago, they began to overrun the rest of planet Earth and drive the other human species to extinction only about 70,000 years ago. In the intervening millennia, even though these archaic Sapiens looked just like us and their brains were as big as ours, they did not enjoy any marked advantage over other human species, did not produce particularly sophisticated tools, and did not accomplish any other special feats. In fact, in the first recorded encounter between Sapiens and Neanderthals, the Neanderthals won. About 100,000 years ago, some Sapiens groups migrated north to the Levant, which was Neanderthal territory, but failed to secure a firm footing. It might have been due to nasty natives, an inclement climate, or unfamiliar local parasites. Whatever the reason, the Sapiens eventually retreated, leaving the Neanderthals as masters of the Middle East. This poor record of achievement has led scholars to speculate that the internal structure of the brains of these Sapiens was probably different from ours. They looked like us, but their cognitive abilities - learning, remembering, communicating - were far more limited. Teaching such an ancient Sapiens English, persuading him of the truth of Christian dogma, or getting him to understand the theory of evolution would probably have been hopeless undertakings. 22

The Tree of Knowledge

23

Conversely, we would have had a very hard time learning his language and understanding his way of thinking. But then, beginning about 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens started doing very special things. Around that date Sapiens bands left Africa lor a second time. This time they drove the Neanderthals and all other human species not only from the Middle East, but from the face of the earth. Within a remarkably short period, Sapiens reached Europe and East Asia. About 45,000 years ago, they somehow crossed the open sea and landed in Australia — a continent hitherto untouched by humans. The period from about 70,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago witnessed the invention of boats, oil lamps, bows and arrows and needles (essential for sewing warm clothing). The first objects that can reliably be called art date from this era (see the Stadel lion-man on page 25), as does the first clear evidence for religion, commerce and social stratification. Most researchers believe that these unprecedented accomplish¬ ments were the product of a revolution in Sapiens’ cognitive abil¬ ities. They maintain that the people who drove the Neanderthals to extinction, settled Australia, and carved the Stadel lion-man were as intelligent, creative and sensitive as we are. If we were to come across the artists of the Stadel Cave, we could learn their language and they ours. We’d be able to explain to them everything we know — from the adventures of Alice in Wonderland to the paradoxes of quantum physics — and they could teach us how their people view the world. The appearance of new ways of thinking and communicating, between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, constitutes the Cognitive Revolution. What caused it? We’re not sure. The most commonly believed theory argues that accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and to communicate using an altogether new type of language. We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation. Why did it occur in Sapiens DNA rather than in that

Sapiens

24

of Neanderthals? It was a matter of pure chance, as far as we can tell. But it’s more important to understand the consequences of the Tree of Knowledge mutation than its causes. What was so special about the new Sapiens language that it enabled us to conquer the world?* It was not the first language. Every animal has some kind of language. Even insects, such as bees and ants, know how to communi¬ cate in sophisticated ways, informing one another of the whereabouts of food. Neither was it the first vocal language. Many animals, including all ape and monkey species, have vocal languages. For example, green monkeys use calls of various kinds to communicate. Zoologists have identified one call that means ‘Careful! An eagle!’ A slightly different call warns ‘Careful! A lion!’ When researchers played a recording of the first call to a group of monkeys, the monkeys stopped what they were doing and looked upwards in fear. When the same group heard a recording of the second call, the lion warning, they quickly scrambled up a tree. Sapiens can produce many more distinct sounds than green monkeys, but whales and elephants have equally impressive abilities. A parrot can say anything Albert Einstein could say, as well as mimicking the sounds of phones ringing, doors slamming and sirens wailing. Whatever advantage Einstein had over a parrot, it wasn’t vocal. What, then, is so special about our language? The most common answer is that our language is amazingly supple. We can connect a limited number of sounds and signs to produce an infinite number of sentences, each with a distinct meaning. We can thereby ingest, store and communicate a prodigious amount of information about the surrounding world. A green monkey can yell to its comrades, ‘Careful! A lion!’ But a modern * Here and in the following pages, when speaking about Sapiens language, I refer to the basic linguistic abilities of our species and not to a particular dialect. English, Hindi and Chinese are all variants of Sapiens language. Apparently, even at the time of the Cognitive Revolution, different Sapiens groups had different dialects.

The Tree of Knowledge

25

human can tell her friends that this morning, near the bend in the river, she saw a lion tracking a herd of bison. She can then describe the exact location, including the different paths leading to the area. With this information, the members of her band can put their heads together and discuss whether they should approach the river, chase away the lion, and hunt the bison. A second theory agrees that our unique language evolved as a means of sharing information about the world. But the most import¬ ant information that needed to be conveyed was about humans, not about lions and bison. Our language evolved as a way of gossiping.

4. An ivory figurine of a ‘lion-man (or ‘lioness-woman’) from the Stadel Cave in Germany (c.32,000 years ago). The body is human, but the head is leonine. This is one of the first indisputable examples of art, and probably of religion, and of the ability of the human mind to imagine things that do not really exist.

26

Sapiens

According to this theory Homo sapiens is primarily a social animal. Social cooperation is our key for survival and reproduction. It is not enough for individual men and women to know the whereabouts of lions and bison. It’s much more important for them to know who in their band hates whom, who is sleeping with whom, who is honest, and who is a cheat. The amount of information that one must obtain and store in order to track the ever-changing relationships of even a few dozen individuals is staggering. (In a band of fifty individuals, there are 1,225 one-on-one relationships, and countless more complex social combinations.) All apes show a keen interest in such social informa¬ tion, but they have trouble gossiping effectively. Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other’s backs - a much maligned ability which is in fact essen¬ tial for cooperation in large numbers. The new linguistic skills that modern Sapiens acquired about seventy millennia ago enabled them to gossip for hours on end. Reliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation.1 The gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it. Even today the vast majority of human communi¬ cation - whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper columns - is gossip. It comes so naturally to us that it seems as if our language evolved for this very purpose. Do you think that history professors chat about the reasons for the First World War when they meet for lunch, or that nuclear physicists spend their coffee breaks at scientific conferences talking about quarks? Sometimes. But more often, they gossip about the professor who caught her husband cheating, or the quarrel between the head of the department and the dean, or the rumours that a colleague used his research funds to buy a Lexus. Gossip usually focuses on wrongdoings. Rumour-mongers are the original fourth estate,

The Tree of Knowledge

27

journalists who inform society about and thus protect it from cheats and freeloaders.

Most likely, both the gossip theory and the there-is-a-lion-near-theriver theory are valid. Yet the truly unique feature of our language is not its ability to transmit information about men and lions. Rather, it’s the ability to transmit information about things that do not exist at all. As far as we know, only Sapiens can talk about entire kinds of entities that they have never seen, touched or smelled. Legends, myths, gods and religions appeared for the first time with the Cognitive Revolution. Many animals and human species could previously say, ‘Careful! A lion!’ Thanks to the Cognitive Revolution, Homo sapiens acquired the ability to say, ‘The lion is the guardian spirit of our tribe.’ This ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language. It’s relatively easy to agree that only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven. But why is it important? After all, fiction can be dangerously misleading or distracting. People who go to the forest looking for fairies and unicorns would seem to have less chance of survival than people who go looking for mushrooms and deer. And if you spend hours praying to non-existing guardian spirits, aren’t you wasting precious time, time better spent foraging, fighting and fornicating? But fiction has enabled us not merely to imagine things, but to do so collectively. We can weave common myths such as the biblical crea¬ tion story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states. Such myths give Sapiens the unprecedented ability to cooperate flexibly in large numbers. Ants and bees can also work together in huge numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives. Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can do so only with

Sapiens

28

small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately. Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers. That’s why Sapiens rule the world, whereas ants eat our leftovers and chimps are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.

The Legend of Peugeot Our chimpanzee cousins usually live in small troops of several dozen individuals. They form close friendships, hunt together and fight shoulder to shoulder against baboons, cheetahs and enemy chim¬ panzees. Their social structure tends to be hierarchical. The dominant member, who is almost always a male, is termed the alpha male’. Other males and females exhibit their submission to the alpha male by bowing before him while making grunting sounds, not unlike human subjects kowtowing before a king. The alpha male strives to maintain social harmony within his troop. When mo individuals fight, he will intervene and stop the violence. Less benevolently, he might monopolise particularly coveted foods and prevent lowerranking males from mating with the females. When two males are contesting the alpha position, they usually do so by forming extensive coalitions of supporters, both male and female, from within the group. Ties between coalition members are based on intimate daily contact - hugging, touching, kissing, grooming and mutual favours. Just as human politicians on election campaigns go around shaking hands and kissing babies, so aspirants to the top position in a chimpanzee group spend much time hugging, back-slapping and kissing baby chimps. The alpha male usually wins his position not because he is physically stronger, but because he leads a large and stable coalition. These coalitions play a central part not only during overt struggles for the alpha position, but in almost all day-to-day activities. Members of a coalition spend more time together, share food, and help one another in times of trouble.

The Tree of Knowledge

29

There are clear limits to the size of groups that can be formed and maintained in such a way. In order to function, all members of a group must know each other intimately. Two chimpanzees who have never met, never fought, and never engaged in mutual grooming will not know whether they can trust one another, whether it would be worth¬ while to help one another, and which of them ranks higher. Under natural conditions, a typical chimpanzee troop consists of about twenty to fifty individuals. As the number of chimpanzees in a troop increases, the social order destabilises, eventually leading to a rupture and the formation of a new troop by some of the animals. Only in a handful of cases have zoologists observed groups larger than a hundred. Separate groups seldom cooperate, and tend to compete for territory and food. Researchers have documented prolonged warfare between groups, and even one case of genocidaT activity in which one troop systematically slaughtered most members of a neighbouring band.2 Similar patterns probably dominated the social lives of early humans, including archaic Homo sapiens. Humans, like chimps, have social instincts that enabled our ancestors to form friendships and hierarchies, and to hunt or fight together. However, like the social instincts of chimps, those of humans were adapted only for small intimate groups. When the group grew too large, its social order destabilised and the band split. Even if a particularly fertile valley could feed 500 archaic Sapiens, there was no way that so many strangers could live together. How could they agree who should be leader, who should hunt where, or who should mate with whom? In the wake of the Cognitive Revolution, gossip helped Homo sapiens to form larger and more stable bands. But even gossip has its limits. Sociological research has shown that the maximum ‘natural’ size of a group bonded by gossip is about 150 individuals. Most people can neither intimately know, nor gossip effectively about, more than 150 human beings. Even today, a critical threshold in human organisations falls somewhere around this magic number. Below this threshold,

Sapiens

30

communities, businesses, social networks and military units can maintain themselves based mainly on intimate acquaintance and rumour-mongering. There is no need for formal ranks, titles and law books to keep order.3 A platoon of thirty soldiers or even a company of a hundred soldiers can function well on the basis of intimate relations, with a minimum of formal discipline. A wellrespected sergeant can become 'king of the company and exercise authority even over commissioned officers. A small family business can survive and flourish without a board of directors, a CEO or an accounting department. But once the threshold of 150 individuals is crossed, things can no longer work that way. You cannot run a division with thousands of soldiers the same way you run a platoon. Successful family busi¬ nesses usually face a crisis when they grow larger and hire more personnel. If they cannot reinvent themselves, they go bust. How did Homo sapiens manage to cross this critical threshold, eventually founding cities comprising tens of thousands of inhabit¬ ants and empires ruling hundreds of millions? The secret was prob¬ ably the appearance of fiction. Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths. Any large-scale human cooperation - whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city or an archaic tribe - is rooted in common myths that exist only in peoples collective imagination. Churches are rooted in common religious myths. Two Catholics who have never met can nevertheless go together on crusade or pool funds to build a hospital because they both believe that God was incarnated in human flesh and allowed Himself to be crucified to redeem our sins. States are rooted in common national myths. Two Serbs who have never met might risk their lives to save one another because both believe in the existence of the Serbian nation, the Serbian homeland and the Serbian flag. Judicial systems are rooted in common legal myths. Two lawyers who have never met can nevertheless combine efforts to defend a complete stranger because

The Tree of Knowledge

31

they both believe in the existence of laws, justice, human rights and the money paid out in fees. Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another. There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings. People easily understand that primitives’ cement their social order by believing in ghosts and spirits, and gathering each full moon to dance together around the campfire. What we fail to appreciate is that our modern institutions function on exactly the same basis. Take for example the world of business corporations. Modern businesspeople and lawyers are, in fact, powerful sorcerers. The principal difference between them and tribal shamans is that modern lawyers tell far stranger tales. The legend of Peugeot affords us a good example.

An icon that somewhat resembles the Stadel lion-man appears today on cars, trucks and motorcycles from Paris to Sydney. It’s the hood ornament that adorns vehicles made by Peugeot, one of the oldest and largest of Europe’s carmakers. Peugeot began as a small family business in the village of Valentigney, just 300 kilometres from the Stadel Cave. Today the company employs about 200,000 people worldwide, most of whom are complete strangers to each other. These strangers cooperate so effectively that in 2008 Peugeot produced more than 1.5 million automobiles, earning revenues of about 55 billion euros. In what sense can we say that Peugeot SA (the company’s official name) exists? There are many Peugeot vehicles, but these are obvi¬ ously not the company. Even if every Peugeot in the world were simultaneously junked and sold for scrap metal, Peugeot SA would not disappear. It would continue to manufacture new cars and issue its annual report. The company owns factories, machinery and showrooms, and employs mechanics, accountants and secretaries, but all these together do not comprise Peugeot. A disaster might kill every single one of Peugeot’s employees, and go on to destroy

Sapiens

32

all of its assembly lines and executive offices. Even then, the company could borrow money, hire new employees, build new factories and buy new machinery. Peugeot has managers and shareholders, but neither do they constitute the company. All the managers could be dismissed and all its shares sold, but the company itself would remain intact. It doesn’t mean that Peugeot SA is invulnerable or immortal. If a judge were to mandate the dissolution of the company, its fac¬ tories would remain standing and its workers, accountants, managers and shareholders would continue to live — but Peugeot SA would immediately vanish. In short, Peugeot SA seems to have no essen¬ tial connection to the physical world. Does it really exist? Peugeot is a figment of our collective imagination. Lawyers call this a ‘legal fiction’. It can’t be pointed at; it is not a physical object. But it exists as a legal entity. Just like you or me, it is bound by the laws of the countries in which it operates. It can open a bank account and own property. It pays taxes, and it can be sued and even prosecuted separately from any of the people who own or work for it. Peugeot belongs to a particular genre of legal fictions called ‘limited liability companies’. The idea behind such companies is among humanity’s most ingenious inventions. Homo sapiens lived for untold millennia without them. During most of recorded history property could be owned only by flesh-and-blood humans, the kind that

The Tree of Knowledge

33

stood on two legs and had big brains. If in thirteenth-century France Jean set up a wagon-manufacturing workshop, he himself was the business. If a wagon he’d made broke down a week after purchase, the disgruntled buyer would have sued Jean personally. If Jean had borrowed 1,000 gold coins to set up his workshop and the business failed, he would have had to repay the loan by selling his private property - his house, his cow, his land. He might even have had to sell his children into servitude. If he couldn’t cover the debt, he could be thrown in prison by the state or enslaved by his creditors. He was fully liable, without limit, for all obligations incurred by his workshop. If you had lived back then, you would probably have thought twice before you opened an enterprise of your own. And indeed this legal situation discouraged entrepreneurship. People were afraid to start new businesses and take economic risks. It hardly seemed worth taking the chance that their families could end up utterly destitute. This is why people began collectively to imagine the existence of limited liability companies. Such companies were legally independent of the people who set them up, or invested money in them, or managed them. Over the last few centuries such companies have become the main players in the economic arena, and we have grown so used to them that we forget they exist only in our imagination. In the US, the technical term for a limited liability company is a 'corporation’, which is ironic, because the term derives from ‘corpus (‘body’ in Latin) - the one thing these corporations lack. Despite their having no real bodies, the American legal system treats corpor¬ ations as legal persons, as if they were flesh-and-blood human beings. And so did the French legal system back in 1896, when Armand Peugeot, who had inherited from his parents a metalworking shop that produced springs, saws and bicycles, decided to go into the automobile business. To that end, he set up a limited liability

Sapiens

34

company. He named the company after himself, but it was inde¬ pendent of him. If one of the cars broke down, the buyer could sue Peugeot, but not Armand Peugeot. If the company borrowed millions of francs and then went bust, Armand Peugeot did not owe its creditors a single franc. The loan, after all, had been given to Peugeot, the company, not to Armand Peugeot, the Homo sapiens. Armand Peugeot died in 1915. Peugeot, the company, is still alive and well. How exactly did Armand Peugeot, the man, create Peugeot, the company? In much the same way that priests and sorcerers have created gods and demons throughout history, and in which thousands of French cures were still creating Christ’s body every Sunday in the parish churches. It all revolved around telling stories, and convincing people to believe them. In the case of the French cures, the crucial story was that of Christ’s life and death as told by the Catholic Church. According to this story, if a Catholic priest dressed in his sacred garments solemnly said the right words at the right moment, mundane bread and wine turned into God’s flesh and blood. The priest exclaimed, Hoc est corpus meum!' (Latin for ‘This is my body!’) and hocus pocus - the bread turned into Christ’s flesh. Seeing that the priest had properly and assiduously observed all the procedures, millions of devout French Catholics behaved as if God really existed in the consecrated bread and wine. In the case of Peugeot SA the crucial story was the French legal code, as written by the French parliament. According to the French legislators, if a certified lawyer followed all the proper liturgy and rituals, wrote all the required spells and oaths on a wonderfully decorated piece of paper, and affixed his ornate signature to the bottom of the document, then hocus pocus - a new company was incorporated. When in 1896 Armand Peugeot wanted to create his company, he paid a lawyer to go through all these sacred procedures. Once the lawyer had performed all the right rituals and pronounced

The Tree of Knowledge

35

all the necessary spells and oaths, millions of upright French citizens behaved as if the Peugeot company really existed. Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it. Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals. Just try to imagine how difficult it would have been to create states, or churches, or legal systems if we could speak only about things that really exist, such as rivers, trees and lions.

Over the years, people have woven an incredibly complex network of stories. Within this network, fictions such as Peugeot not only exist, but also accumulate immense power. The kinds of things that people create through this network of stories are known in academic circles as ‘fictions’, ‘social constructs’ or ‘imagined realities’. An imagined reality is not a lie. I lie when f say that there is a lion near the river when I know perfectly well that there is no lion there. There is nothing special about lies. Green monkeys and chimpanzees can lie. A green monkey, for example, has been observed calling ‘Careful! A lion!’ when there was no lion around. This alarm conveni¬ ently frightened away a fellow monkey who had just found a banana, leaving the liar all alone to steal the prize for itself. Unlike lying, an imagined reality is something that everyone believes in, and as long as this communal belief persists, the ima¬ gined reality exerts force in the world. The sculptor from the Stadel Cave may sincerely have believed in the existence of the lion-man guardian spirit. Some sorcerers are charlatans, but most sincerely believe in the existence of gods and demons. Most millionaires sincerely believe in the existence of money and limited liability companies. Most human-rights activists sincerely believe in the

Sapiens

36

existence of human rights. No one was lying when, in 2011, the UN demanded that the Libyan government respect the human rights of its citizens, even though the UN, Libya and human rights are all figments of our fertile imaginations. Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google.

Bypassing the Genome The ability to create an imagined reality out of words enabled large numbers of strangers to cooperate effectively But it also did some¬ thing more. Since large-scale human cooperation is based on myths, the way people cooperate can be altered by changing the myths — by telling different stories. Under the right circumstances myths can change rapidly. In 1789 the French population switched almost overnight from believing in the myth of the divine right of kings to believing in the myth of the sovereignty of the people. Consequently, ever since the Cognitive Revolution Homo sapiens has been able to revise its behaviour rapidly in accordance with changing needs. This opened a fast lane of cultural evolution, bypassing the traffic jams of genetic evolution. Speeding down this fast lane, Homo sapiens soon far outstripped all other human and animal species in its ability to cooperate. The behaviour of other social animals is determined to a large extent by their genes. DNA is not an autocrat. Animal behaviour is also influenced by environmental factors and individual quirks. Nevertheless, in a given environment, animals of the same species

The Tree of Knowledge

37

will tend to behave in a similar way. Significant changes in social behaviour cannot occur, in general, without genetic mutations. For example, common chimpanzees have a genetic tendency to live in hierarchical groups headed by an alpha male. Members of a closely related chimpanzee species, bonobos, usually live in more egalitarian groups dominated by female alliances. Female common chimpanzees cannot take lessons from their bonobo relatives and stage a feminist revolution. Male chimps cannot gather in a constitutional assembly to abolish the office of alpha male and declare that from here on out all chimps are to be treated as equals. Such dramatic changes in behaviour would occur only if something changed in the chim¬ panzees’ DNA. For similar reasons, archaic humans did not initiate any revolu¬ tions. As far as we can tell, changes in social patterns, the invention of new technologies and the settlement of alien habitats resulted from genetic mutations and environmental pressures more than from cultural initiatives. This is why it took humans hundreds of thousands of years to make these steps. Two million years ago, genetic mutations resulted in the appearance of a new human species called Homo erectus. Its emergence was accompanied by the develop¬ ment of a new stone tool technology, now recognised as a defining feature of this species. As long as Homo erectus did not undergo further genetic alterations, its stone tools remained roughly the same - for close to 2 million years! In contrast, ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have been able to change their behaviour quickly, transmitting new behav¬ iours to future generations without any need of genetic or environ¬ mental

change. As

a prime

example,

consider

the

repeated

appearance of childless elites, such as the Catholic priesthood, Buddhist monastic orders and Chinese eunuch bureaucracies. The existence of such elites goes against the most fundamental principles of natural selection, since these dominant members of society will¬ ingly give up procreation. Whereas chimpanzee alpha males use

Sapiens

38

their power to have sex with as many females as possible — and consequently sire a large proportion of their troop s young — the Catholic alpha male abstains completely from sexual intercourse and childcare. This abstinence does not result from unique environ¬ mental conditions such as a severe lack of food or want of potential mates. Nor is it the result of some quirky genetic mutation. The Catholic Church has survived for centuries, not by passing on a ‘celibacy gene’ from one pope to the next, but by passing on the stories of the New Testament and of Catholic canon law. In other words, while the behaviour patterns of archaic humans remained fixed for tens of thousands of years, Sapiens could trans¬ form their social structures, the nature of their interpersonal relations, their economic activities and a host of other behaviours within a decade or two. Consider a resident of Berlin, born in 1900 and living to the ripe age of one hundred. She spent her childhood in the Hohenzollern Empire of Wilhelm II; her adult years in the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Third Reich and Communist East Germany; and she died a citizen of a democratic and reunified Germany. She had managed to be a part of five very different sociopolitical systems, though her DNA remained exactly the same. This was the key to Sapiens’ success. In a one-on-one brawl, a Neanderthal would probably have beaten a Sapiens. But in a conflict of hundreds, Neanderthals wouldn’t stand a chance. Neanderthals could share information about the whereabouts of lions, but they probably could not tell — and revise - stories about tribal spirits. Without an ability to compose fiction, Neanderthals were unable to cooperate effectively in large numbers, nor could they adapt their social behaviour to rapidly changing challenges. While we can’t get inside a Neanderthal mind to understand how they thought, we have indirect evidence of the limits to their cogni¬ tion compared with their Sapiens rivals. Archaeologists excavating 30,000-year-old Sapiens sites in the European heartland occasionally find there seashells from the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. In

The Tree of Knowledge

39

6. The Catholic alpha male abstains from sexual intercourse and childcare, even though there is no genetic or ecological reason for him to do so. all likelihood, these shells got to the continental interior through long-distance trade between different Sapiens bands. Neanderthal sites lack any evidence of such trade. Each group manufactured its own tools from local materials.4 Another example comes from the South Pacific. Sapiens bands that lived on the island of New Ireland, north of New Guinea, used a volcanic glass called obsidian to manufacture particularly strong and sharp tools. New Ireland, however, has no natural deposits of obsidian. Laboratory tests revealed that the obsidian they used was brought from deposits on New Britain, an island 400 kilometres away. Some of the inhabitants of these islands must have been skilled navigators who traded from island to island over long distances.5 Trade may seem a very pragmatic activity, one that needs no fictive basis. Yet the fact is that no animal other than Sapiens engages in trade, and all the Sapiens trade networks about which we have detailed evidence were based on fictions. Trade cannot exist without trust, and it is very difficult to trust strangers. The global trade

40

Sapiens

network of today is based on our trust in such fictional entities as the dollar, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the totemic trademarks of corporations. When two strangers in a tribal society want to trade, they will often establish trust by appealing to a common god, mythical ancestor or totem animal. If archaic Sapiens believing in such fictions traded shells and obsidian, it stands to reason that they could also have traded information, thus creating a much denser and wider knowledge network than the one that served Neanderthals and other archaic humans. blunting techniques provide another illustration of these differ¬ ences. Neanderthals usually hunted alone or in small groups. Sapiens, on the other hand, developed techniques that relied on cooperation between many dozens of individuals, and perhaps even between different bands. One particularly effective method was to surround an entire herd of animals, such as wild horses, then chase them into a narrow gorge, where it was easy to slaughter them en masse. If all went according to plan, the bands could harvest tons of meat, fat and animal skins in a single afternoon of collective effort, and either consume these riches in a giant potlatch, or dry, smoke or (in Arctic areas) freeze them for later usage. Archaeologists have discovered sites where entire herds were butchered annually in such ways. There are even sites where fences and obstacles were erected in order to create artificial traps and slaughtering grounds. We may presume that Neanderthals were not pleased to see their traditional hunting grounds turned into Sapiens-controlled slaughter¬ houses. However, if violence broke out between the two species, Neanderthals were not much better off than wild horses. Fifty Neanderthals cooperating in traditional and static patterns were no match for 500 versatile and innovative Sapiens. And even if the Sapiens lost the first round, they could quickly invent new stratagems that would enable them to win the next time.

The Tree of Knowledge

41

What happened in the Cognitive Revolution?

The ability to transmit larger

Planning and carrying out

quantities of information about

complex actions, such as

the world surrounding Homo

avoiding lions and hunting

sapiens

bison

The ability to transmit larger

Larger and more cohesive

quantities of information

groups, numbering up to 150

about Sapiens social relation¬

individuals

ships

The ability to transmit infor¬

a. Cooperation between very

mation about things that do

large numbers of strangers

not really exist, such as tribal

b. Rapid innovation of social

spirits, nations, limited liability

behaviour

companies and human rights

History and Biology The immense diversity of imagined realities that Sapiens invented, and the resulting diversity of behaviour patterns, are the main components of what we call cultures’. Once cultures appeared, they never ceased to change and develop, and these unstoppable alter¬ ations are what we call ‘history’. The Cognitive Revolution is accordingly the point when history declared

its independence from biology.

Until the Cognitive

Revolution, the doings of all human species belonged to the realm

Sapiens

42

of biology, or, if you so prefer, prehistory (I tend to avoid the term prehistory’, because it wrongly implies that even before the Cognitive Revolution, humans were in a category of their own). From the Cognitive Revolution onwards, historical narratives replace bio¬ logical theories as our primary means of explaining the development of Homo sapiens. To understand the rise of Christianity or the French Revolution, it is not enough to comprehend the interaction of genes, hormones and organisms. It is necessary to take into account the interaction of ideas, images and fantasies as well. This does not mean that Homo sapiens and human culture became exempt from biological laws. We are still animals, and our physical, emotional and cognitive abilities are still shaped by our DNA. Our societies are built from the same building blocks as Neanderthal or chimpanzee societies, and the more we examine these building blocks — sensations, emotions, family ties - the less difference we find between us and other apes. It is, however, a mistake to look for the differences at the level of the individual or the family. One on one, even ten on ten, we are embarrassingly similar to chimpanzees. Significant differences begin to appear only when we cross the threshold of 150 individuals, and when we reach 1,000-2,000 individuals, the differences are astounding. If you tried to bunch together thousands of chimpan¬ zees into Tiananmen Square, Wall Street, the Vatican or the head¬ quarters of the United Nations, the result would be pandemonium. By contrast, Sapiens regularly gather by the thousands in such places. Together, they create orderly patterns - such as trade networks, mass celebrations and political institutions - that they could never have created in isolation. The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mythical glue that binds together large numbers of individuals, families and groups. This glue has made us the masters of creation. Of course, we also needed other skills, such as the ability to make and use tools. Yet tool-making is of little consequence unless it is

The Tree of Knowledge

43

coupled with the ability to cooperate with many others. How is it that we now have intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads, whereas 30,000 years ago we had only sticks with flint spearheads? Physiologically, there has been no significant improvement in our tool-making capacity over the last 30,000 years. Albert Einstein was far less dexterous with his hands than was an ancient huntergatherer. However, our capacity to cooperate with large numbers of strangers has improved dramatically. The ancient flint spearhead was manufactured in minutes by a single person, who relied on the advice and help of a few intimate friends. The production of a modern nuclear warhead requires the cooperation of millions of strangers all over the world — from the workers who mine the uranium ore in the depths of the earth to theoretical physicists who write long mathematical formulae to describe the interactions of subatomic particles.

To summarise the relationship between biology and history after the Cognitive Revolution:

a. Biology sets the basic parameters for the behaviour and capacities of Homo sapiens. The whole of history takes place within the bounds of this biological arena.

b.

However, this arena is extraordinarily large, allowing Sapiens to play an astounding variety of games. Thanks to their ability to invent fiction, Sapiens create more and more complex games, which each generation develops and elaborates even further.

c. Consequently, in order to understand how Sapiens behave, we must describe the historical evolution of their actions. Referring only to our biological constraints would be like a radio sportscaster who, attending the World Cup football championships, offers his listeners a detailed description of the playing field rather than an account of what the players are doing.

44

Sapiens

What games did our Stone Age ancestors play in the arena of history? As far as we know, the people who carved the Stadel lion-man some 30,000 years ago had the same physical, emotional and intellectual abilities we have. What did they do when they woke up in the morning? What did they eat for breakfast - and lunch? What were their societies like? Did they have monogamous relationships and nuclear families? Did they have ceremonies, moral codes, sports contests and religious rituals? Did they fight wars? The next chapter takes a peek behind the curtain of the ages, examining what life was like in the millennia separating the Cognitive Revolution from the Agricultural Revolution.

3 A Day in the Life of Adam and Eve

TO

UNDERSTAND

OUR

NATURE,

HISTORY

and psychology, we must get inside the heads of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. For nearly the entire history of our species, Sapiens lived as foragers. The past 200 years, during which ever increasing numbers of Sapiens have obtained their daily bread as urban labourers and office workers, and the preceding 10,000 years, during which most Sapiens lived as farmers and herders, are the blink of an eye compared to the tens of thousands of years during which our ancestors hunted and gathered. The flourishing field of evolutionary psychology argues that many of our present-day social and psychological characteristics were shaped during this long pre-agricultural era. Even today, scholars in this field claim, our brains and minds are adapted to a life of hunting and gathering. Our eating habits, our conflicts and our sexuality are all the result of the way our hunter-gatherer minds interact with our current post-industrial environment, with its mega-cities, aero¬ planes, telephones and computers. This environment gives us more material resources and longer lives than those enjoyed by any previous generation, but it often makes us feel alienated, depressed and pres¬ sured. To understand why, evolutionary psychologists argue, we need to delve into the hunter-gatherer world that shaped us, the world that we subconsciously still inhabit. Why, for example, do people gorge on high-calorie food that is

45

Sapiens

46

doing little good to their bodies? Today's affluent societies are in the throes ol a plague ol obesity, which is rapidly spreading to deyeloping countries. It's a puzzle why we binge on the sweetest and greasiest lood we can find, until we consider the eating habits of our lorager forebears. In the sayannahs and forests they inhabited, high-calorie sweets were extremely rare and lood in general was in short supply. A typical forager 30,000 years ago had access to only one type of sweet food — ripe Iruit. It a Stone Age woman came across a tree groaning with figs, the most sensible thing to do was to eat as many oi them as she could on the spot, before the local baboon band picked the tree bare. The instinct to gorge on highcalorie food was hard-wired into our O scenes. Today we may be living /JO in high-rise apartments with over-stuffed refrigerators, but our DNA still thinks we are in the savannah. That's what makes us spoon down an entire tub of Ben /&&* •• •• ^iii- ,*-■ WM yy

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4 The Flood 1 James F. O’Connel and Jim Allen, ‘Pre-LGM Sahul (Pleistocene Australia - New Guinea) and the Archaeology of Early Modern Humans’, in Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans, ed. Paul Mellars, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Katie Boyle (Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2007), 395-410; James F. O’Connel and Jim Allen, ‘When Did Humans First Arrive in Greater Australia and Why Is it Important to Know?’, Evolutionary Anthropology 6:4 (1998), 132-46; James F. O’Connel and Jim Allen, ‘Dating the Colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia — New Guinea): A Review of Recent Research’, Journal of Radiological Science 31:6 (2004), 835-53; Jon M. Erlandson, Anatomically Modern Humans, Maritime Voyaging and the Pleistocene Colonization of the Americas’, in The First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, ed. Nina G. Jablonski (San Francisco: University of California Press, 2002), 59-60, 63-4; Jon M. Erlandson and Torben C. Rick, Archaeology Meets Marine Ecology: The Antiquity of Maritime Cultures and Human Impacts on Marine Fisheries and Ecosystems’, Annual Review of Marine Science 2 (2010), 231-51; Atholl Anderson, ‘Slow Boats from China: Issues in the Prehistory of Indo-China Seafaring’, Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 16 (2000), 13-50; Robert G. Bednarik, ‘Maritime Navigation in the Lower and Middle Paleolithic’, Earth and Planetary Sciences 328 (1999), 559-60; Robert G. Bednarik, ‘Seafaring in the Pleistocene’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13:1 (2003), 41-66. 2 Timothy F. Flannery, The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and Peoples (Port Melbourne: Reed Books Australia, 1994); Anthony D. Barnosky et al., Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents’, Science 306:5693 (2004), 70-5; Barry W. Brook and David M. J. S. Bowman, ‘The Uncertain Blitzkrieg of Pleistocene Megafauna’, Journal of Biogeography 31:4 (2004), 517-23; Gifford H. Miller et al., ‘Ecosystem Collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a Human Role in Megafaunal Extinction’, Science 309:5732 (2005), 287-90; Richard G. Roberts et al., ‘New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent Wide Extinction about 46,000 Years Ago’, Science 292:5523 (2001), 1,888-92. 3 Stephen Wroe and Judith Field, ‘A Review of Evidence for a Human Role in the

Notes

470

Extinction of Australian Megafauna and an Alternative Explanation’, Quaternary Science Reviews 25:21-2 (2006), 2,692-703; Barry W. Brook etal., ‘Would the Australian Megafauna Have Become Extinct if Humans Had Never Colonised the Continent? Comments on “A Review of the Evidence for a Human Role in the Extinction of Australian Megafauna and an Alternative Explanation” by S. Wroe and J. Field’, Quaternary Science Reviews 26:3-4 (2007), 560-4; Chris S. M. Turney et al., ‘LateSurviving Megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, Implicate Human Involvement in their Extinction’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105:34 (2008), 12,150-3. 4 John Alroy, ‘A Multispecies Overkill Simulation of the End-Pleistocene Megafaunal Mass Extinction’, Science, 292:5523 (2001), 1,893-6; O’Connel and Allen, ‘Pre-LGM Sahul’, 400-1. 5 L. H. Keeley, ‘Proto-Agricultural Practices Among Hunter-Gatherers: A CrossCultural Survey’, in Last Hunters, First Farmers: New Perspectives on the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture, ed. T. Douglas Price and Anne Birgitte Gebauer (Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 1995), 243-72; R. Jones, ‘Firestick Farming’, Australian Natural History 16 (1969), 224-8. 6 David J. Meltzer, First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009). 7 Paul L. Koch and Anthony D. Barnosky, ‘Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the Debate’, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 37 (2006), 215-50; Anthony D. Barnosky et al., Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents’, 70-5.

5 History’s Biggest Fraud 1 The map is based mainly on: Peter Bellwood, First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005). 2 Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997). 3 Gat, War in Human Civilization, 130—1; Robert S. Walker and Drew H. Bailey, ‘Body Counts in Lowland South American Violence’, Evolution and Human Behavior 34 (2013), 29-34. 4 Katherine A. Spielmann, ‘A Review: Dietary Restriction on Hunter-Gatherer Women and the Implications for Fertility and Infant Mortality’, Human Ecology 17:3 (1989), 321-45. See also: Bruce Winterhalder and Eric Aider Smith, ‘Analyzing Adaptive Strategies: Human Behavioral Ecology at Twenty-Five’, Evolutionary Anthropology 9:2 (2000), 51-72. 5 Alain Bideau, Bertrand Desjardins and Hector Perez-Brignoli (eds), Infant and Child Mortality in the Past (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997); Edward Anthony Wrigley et al., English Population History from Family Reconstitution, 1580-1837 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 295-6, 303.

Notes

471

6 Manfred Heun et al., ‘Site of Einkorn Wheat Domestication Identified by DNA Fingerprints’, Science 278:5341 (1997), 1,312-14. 7 Charles Patterson, Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust (New York: Lantern Books, 2002), 9-10; Peter J. Ucko and G. W. Dimbleby (eds), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals (London: Duckworth, 1969), 259. 8 Avi Pinkas (ed.), Farmyard Animals in Israel - Research, Humanism and Activity (Rishon Le-Ziyyon: The Association for Farmyard Animals, 2009 [Hebrew]), 169-99; ‘Milk Production - the Cow’ [Hebrew], previously accessed here: The Dairy Council, http://www.milk.org.il/cgi-webaxy/sal/sal.pl?lang=he&ID=645657_milk&act=sho w&dbid=katavot&dataid=cow.htm. 9 Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969); E. C. Amoroso and P. A. Jewell, ‘The Exploitation of the Milk-Ejection Reflex by Primitive People’, in Man and Cattle: Proceedings of the Symposium on Domestication at the Royal Anthropological Institute, 24—26 May i960, ed. A. E. Mourant and F. E. Zeuner (London: The Royal Anthropological Institute, 1963), 129-34. 10 Johannes Nicolaisen, Ecology and Culture of the Pastoral Tuareg (Copenhagen: National Museum, 1963), 63.

6 Building Pyramids 1 Angus Maddison, The World Economy, vol. ii (Paris: Development Centre of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006), 636; ‘Historical Estimates of World Population’, U.S. Census Bureau, previously accessed here: http: //www. census. gov/ ipc/www/ worldhis. h tml. 2 Robert B. Mark, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002), 24. 3 Raymond Westbrook, ‘Old Babylonian Period’, in A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law, vol. 1, ed. Raymond Westbrook (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 361-430; Martha T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, 2nd edn (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 71-142; M. E. J. Richardson, Hammurabi’s Laws: Text, Translation and Glossary (London: T & T Clark International, 2000). 4 Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia, 76. 5 Ibid., 121. 6 Ibid., 122-3. 7 Ibid., 133-3.

8

Constance Brittaine Bouchard, Strong of Body, Brave and Noble: Chivalry and

Society in Medieval France (New York: Cornell University Press, 1998), 99; Mary Martin McLaughlin, ‘Survivors and Surrogates: Children and Parents from the Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries’, in Medieval Families: Perspectives on Marriage,

Notes

472

Household and Children, ed. Carol Neel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 8i«.; Lise E. Hull, Britain’s Medieval Castles (Westport: Praeger, 2006), 144.

7 Memory Overload 1 Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing (New York: Thames & Hudson, 1995), 63; Hans J. Nissen, Peter Damerow and Robert K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping: Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East (Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1993), 36. 2 Marcia and Robert Ascher, Mathematics of the Incas - Code of the Quipu (New York: Dover Publications, 1981). 3 Gary Urton, Signs of the Inka Khipu (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003); Galen Brokaw, A History of the Khipu (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 4 Stephen D. Houston (ed.), The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 222.

8 There Is No Justice in History 1 Sheldon Pollock, Axialism and Empire’, in Axial Civilizations and World History, ed. Johann P. Arnason, S. N. Eisenstadt and Bjorn Wittrock (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 397-451-

2 Harold M. Tanner, China: A History (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co., 2009), 34. 3 Ramesh Chandra, Identity and Genesis of Caste System in India (Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2005); Michael Bamshad et al., ‘Genetic Evidence on the Origins of Indian Caste Population’, Genome Research 11 (2001), 904-1,004; Susan Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). 4 Houston, First Writing, 196. 5 The Secretary General, United Nations, Report of the Secretary General on the In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence Against Women, delivered to the General Assembly, UN Doc. A/16/122/Add.i (6 July 2006), 89.

6

Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1995), 113-29, 132-3.

10 The Scent of Money 1 Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Historia de la Conquista de Mexico, vol. 1, ed. D. Joaquin Ramirez Cabanes (Mexico City: Editorial Pedro Robredo, 1943), 106.

Notes

473

x Andrew M. Watson, ‘Back to Gold — and Silver, Economic History Review 20:1 (1967), 11-12; Jasim Alubudi, Repertorio Bibliogrdfico del Islam (Madrid: Vision Libros, 2003), 194. 3 Watson, ‘Back to Gold — and Silver’, 17—18. 4 David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2011). 5 Glyn Davies, A History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1994), 15. 6 Szymon Laks, Music of Another World, trans. Chester A. Kisiel (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1989), 88-9. The Auschwitz ‘market’ was restricted to certain classes of prisoners and conditions changed dramatically across time. 7 See also Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money (New York: The Penguin Press, 2008), 4.

8

For information on barley money I have relied on an unpublished PhD thesis:

Refael Benvenisti, ‘Economic Institutions of Ancient Assyrian Trade in the Twentieth to Eighteenth Centuries bc’ (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, unpublished PhD thesis, 2011). See also Norman Yoffee, ‘The Economy of Ancient Western Asia’, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, ed. J. M. Sasson (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1995), 1,387-99; R. K. Englund, ‘Proto-Cuneiform Account-Books and Journals’, in Creating Economic Order: Record-Keeping, Standardization and the Development of Accounting in the Ancient Near East, ed. Michael Hudson and Cornelia Wunsch (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2004), 21-46; Marvin A. Powell, A Contribution to the History of Money in Mesopotamia Prior to the Invention of Coinage’, in Festschrift Lubor Matous, ed. B. Hruska and G. Komoroczy (Budapest: Eotvos Lorand Tudomanyegyetem, 1978), 211-43; Marvin A. Powell, ‘Money in Mesopotamia, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 39:3 (1996), 224-42; John F. Robertson, ‘The Social and Economic Organization of Ancient Mesopotamian Temples’, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, ed. Sasson, 443—500; M. Silver, ‘Modern Ancients’, in Commerce and Monetary Systems in the Ancient World: Means of Transmission and Cultural Interaction, ed. R. Rollinger and U. Christoph (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004), 65-87; Daniel C. Snell, ‘Methods of Exchange and Coinage in Ancient Western Asia, in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, vol. 1, ed. Sasson, 1,487—97.

ii Imperial Visions 1 Nahum Megged, The Aztecs (Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1999 [Hebrew]), 103. 2 Tacitus, Agricola, ch. 30 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958), 220-1. 3 A. Fienup-Riordan,

The Nelson Island Eskimo: Social Structure and Ritual

Distribution (Anchorage: Alaska Pacific University Press, 1983), 10. 4 Yuri Pines, ‘Nation-State, Globalization and a United Empire: The Chinese Experience (fifth to third centuries bce)’, Historia 15 (1995)[Hebrew], 54. 5 Alexander Yakobson, ‘Us and Them: Empire, Memory and Identity in Claudius’

Notes

474

Speech on Bringing Gauls into the Roman Senate’, in On Memory: An Interdisciplinary Approach, ed. Doron Mendels (Oxford: Peter Land, 2007), 23-4.

12 The Law of Religion 1 W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2008), 536-7. 2 Robert Jean Knecht, The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France, 1483-1610 (London: Fontana Press, 1996), 424. 3 Marie Harm and Hermann Wiehle, Lebenskunde fur Mittelschulen - Fiinfter Teil. Klasse 3 fur Jungen (Halle: Hermann Schroedel Verlag, 1942), 152-7.

13 The Secret of Success 1 Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

14 The Discovery of Ignorance 1 David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 344-5; Angus Maddison, Tl)e World Economy, vol. ii (Paris: Development Centre of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, 2001), 636; ‘Historical Estimates of World Population’, U.S. Census Bureau, previously accessed here: http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/worldhis.html. 2 Maddison, The World Economy, vol. 1, 261. 3 ‘Gross

Domestic

Product

2009’,

the World

Bank,

Data and

Statistics,

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf. 4 Christian, Maps of Time, 141. 5 The largest contemporary cargo ship can carry about 100,000 tons. In 1470 all the world’s fleets could together carry no more than 320,000 tons. By 1570 total global tonnage was up to 730,000 tons (Maddison, The World Economy, vol. 1.

97)-

6

The world’s largest bank - the Royal Bank of Scotland - has reported in 2007

deposits worth $1.3 trillion. That’s five times the annual global production in 1500. See ‘Annual Report and Accounts 2008’, the Royal Bank of Scotland, 35, http://files. shareh0lder.c0m/d0wnl0ads/RBS/626570033x0x278481/eb7a003a-5c9b-41ef-bad3-81ft? 98a6c823/RB S_GRA_2008_09_03_09.pdf. 7 Ferguson, Ascent of Money, 185-98. 8 Maddison, The World Economy, vol. 1, 31; Wrigley, English Population History, 295; Christian, Maps of Time, 450, 452; ‘World Health Statistic Report 2009’, 35-45,

Notes

475

World Health Organization, http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS09_ Full.pdf. 9 Wrigley, English Population History, 296. 10 ‘England, Interim Life Tables, 1980-82 to 2007-09’, Office for National Statistics, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3 A77-61850. 11 Michael Prestwich, Edward I (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 125-6. 12 Jennie B. Dorman et al., ‘The age-i and daf-2 Genes Function in a Common Pathway to Control the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis eEgans’, Genetics 141:4 (1995), 1,399-406; Koen Houthoofd et ah, ‘Life Extension Via Dietary Restriction is Independent of the Ins/I GF-i Signalling Pathway in Caenorhabditis Elegans', Experimental Gerontology 38:9 (2003), 947-54. 13 Shawn M. Douglas, Ido Bachelet and George M. Church, ‘A Logic-Gated Nanorobot for Targeted Transport of Molecular Payloads’, Science 335:6070 (2012), 831-4; Dan Peer et ah, ‘Nanocarriers as an Emerging Platform for Cancer Therapy’, Nature Nanotechnology 2 (2007), 751-60; Dan Peer et ah, ‘Systemic LeukocyteDirected siRNA Delivery Revealing Cyclin Di as an Anti-Inflammatory Target’, Science 319:5863 (2008), 627-30.

15 The Marriage of Science and Empire 1 Stephen R. Bown, Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2004); Kenneth John Carpenter, The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). 2 James Cook, The Explorations of Captain James Cook in the Pacific, as Told by Selections of his Own Journals 1768-1779, ed. Archibald Grenfell Price (New York: Dover Publications, 1971), 16-17; Gananath Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 5; J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 588. 3 Mark, Origins of the Modern World, 81. 4 Christian, Maps of Time, 436. 5 John Darwin, After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1407 (London: Allen Lane, 2007), 239. 6 Soli Shahvar, ‘Railroads i. First Railroad Built and Operated in Persia, in the Online Edition of Encyclopaedia Iranica, last modified 7 April 2008, http:// www.iranicaonline.org/articles/railroads-i; Charles Issawi, ‘The Iranian Economy 1925-1975: Fifty Years of Economic Development’, in Iran Under the Pahlavis, ed. George Lenczowski (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1978), 156.

Notes

476 7 Mark, Origins of the Modern World, 46.

8 Kirkpatrick Sale, Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise (London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006), 7-13. 9 Edward M. Spiers, The Army and Society: 1815-1914 (London: Longman, 1980), 121; Robin Moore, ‘Imperial India, 1858-1914’, in The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, vol. iii, ed. Andrew Porter (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 442. 10 Vinita Damodaran, ‘Famine in Bengal: A Comparison of the 1770 Famine in Bengal and the 1897 Famine in Chotanagpur’, The Medieval History Journal 10:1-2 (2007), 151.

16 The Capitalist Creed 1 Maddison, World Economy, vol. 1, 261, 264; ‘Gross National Income Per Capita 2009, Atlas Method and PPP’, the World Bank, previously accessed here: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GNIPC.pdf. 2 The mathematics of my bakery example are not as accurate as they could be. Since banks are allowed to loan $10 for every dollar they keep in their possession, of every million dollars deposited in the bank, the bank can loan out to entre¬ preneurs only about $909,000 while keeping $91,000 in its vaults. But to make life easier for the readers I preferred to work with round numbers. Besides, banks do not always follow the rules. 3 Carl Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy (New York: Routledge, 1999), 91. 4 Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A Peoples History (London: Zed Books, 2002), 22.

17 The Wheels of Industry 1 Mark, Origins of the Modern World, 109. 2 Nathan S. Lewis and Daniel G. Nocera, ‘Powering the Planet: Chemical Challenges in Solar Energy Utilization’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103:43 (2006), 15,731. 3 Kazuhisa Miyamoto

(ed.),

‘Renewable Biological Systems for Alternative

Sustainable Energy Production’, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 128 (Osaka: Osaka University, 1997), Chapter 2.1.1, http://www.fao.org/docrep/W7241E/w7241eo6. htm#2.i.ipercent20solarpercent2oenergy; James Barber, ‘Biological Solar Energy’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 365:1853 (2007), 1,007. 4 ‘International Energy Outlook 2010’, U.S. Energy Information Administration, 9, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/pdf/o484(20io).pdf.

Notes

5

477

S. Venetsky, ‘“Silver” from Clay’, Metallurgist 13:7 (1969), 451; Fred Aftalion, A

History ofthe International Chemical Industry (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), 64; A. J. Downs, Chemistry of Aluminium, Gallium, Indium and Thallium (Glasgow: Blackie Academic & Professional, 1993), 15.

6

Jan Willem Erisman et ah, ‘How a Century of Ammonia Synthesis Changed the

World’, Nature Geoscience 1 (2008), 637. 7 G. J. Benson and B. E. Rollin (eds), The Well-Being of Farm Animals: Challenges and Solutions (Ames, IA: Blackwell, 2004); M. C. Appleby, J. A. Mench and B. O. Hughes, Poultry Behaviour and Welfare (Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2004); J. Webster, Animal Welfare: Limping Towards Eden (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005); C. Druce and P. Lymbery, Outlawed in Europe: How America Is Falling Behind Europe in Farm Animal Welfare (New York: Archimedean Press, 2002). 8 Harry Harlow and Robert Zimmermann, ‘Affectional Responses in the Infant Monkey’, Science 130:3373 (1959), 421-32; Harry Harlow, ‘The Nature of Love’, American Psychologist 13 (1958), 673-85; Laurens D. Young et ah, ‘Early Stress and Later Response to Separation in Rhesus Monkeys’, American Journal of Psychiatry 130:4 (1973), 400-5; K. D. Broad, J. P. Curley and E. B. Keverne, ‘Mother-Infant Bonding and the Evolution of Mammalian Social Relationships’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 361:1476 (2006), 2,199-214; Florent Pittet et ah, ‘Effects of Maternal Experience on Fearfulness and Maternal Behaviour in a Precocial Bird’, Animal Behaviour 85:4 (April 2013), 797-805. 9 ‘National Institute of Food and Agriculture’, United States Department of Agriculture, previously accessed here: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/extension.htmh

18 A Permanent Revolution 1 Vaclav Smil, The Earth’s Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics and Change (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002); Sarah Catherine Walpole et ah, ‘The Weight of Nations: An Estimation of Adult Human Biomass’, BMC Public Health 12:439 (2012), http:// www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/439. 2, William T. Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern England (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1966), 324-7; H. J. Dyos and D. H. Aldcroft, British Transport — An Economic Survey From the Seventeenth Century to the Twentieth (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1969), 124-31; Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the 19th Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986). 3 For a detailed discussion of the unprecedented peacefulness of the last few decades, see in particular Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (New York: Viking, 2011); Joshua S. Goldstein, Winning the War on War: The Decline of Armed Conflict Worldwide (New York: Dutton, 2011); Gat, War in Human Civilization.

Notes

478

4 ‘World Report on Violence and Health: Summary, Geneva 2002’, World Health Organization, http://www.wh0.int/whr/2001/en/whr01_annex_en.pdf. For mortality rates in previous eras see: Lawrence H. Keeley, War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). 5 ‘World Health Report, 2004’, World Health Organization, 124, http://www. who.int/whr/2004/en/report04_en.pdf. 6 Raymond C. Kelly, Warless Societies and the Origin of War (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 21. See also Gat, War in Human Civilization, 129-31; Keeley, War Before Civilization. 7 Manuel Eisner, ‘Modernization, Self-Control and Lethal Violence’, British Journal of Criminology 41:4 (2001), 618-638; Manuel Eisner, ‘Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime’, Crime and Justice: A Review of Research 30 (2003), 83-142; ‘World Report on Violence and Health:

Summary, Geneva 2002’, World Health

Organization, http://www.wh0.int/whr/2001/en/whr01_annex_en.pdf; ‘World Health Report, 2004’, World Health Organization, 124, http://www.wh0.int/whr/2004/en/ rep0rt04_en.pdf.

8

Walker and Bailey, ‘Body Counts in Lowland South American Violence’, 30.

19 And They Lived Happily Ever After 1 For both the psychology and biochemistry of happiness, the following are good starting points: Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (New York: Basic Books, 2006); R. Wright, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (New York: Vintage Books, 1994); M. Csikszentmihalyi, ‘If We Are So Rich, Why Aren’t We Happy?’, American Psychologist 54:10 (1999), 821-7; F- A. Huppert, N. Baylis and B. Keverne (eds), The Science of Well-Being (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Michael Argyle, The Psychology of Happiness, 2nd edn (New York: Routledge, 2001); Ed Diener (ed.), Assessing Well-Being: The Collected Works of Ed Diener (New York: Springer, 2009); Michael Eid and Randy J. Larsen (eds), The Science of Subjective Well-Being (New York: Guilford Press, 2008); Richard A. Easterlin (ed.), Happiness in Economics (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002); Richard Layard, Happiness: Lessons From a New Science (New York: Penguin, 2005). 2 Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011); Inglehart et al., ‘Development, Freedom and Rising Happiness’, 278-81. 3 D. M. McMahon, The Pursuit of Happiness: A History From the Greeks to the Present (London: Allen Lane, 2006).

Notes

479

20 The End of Homo Sapiens 1 Keith T.

Paige et al.,

‘De Novo Cartilage Generation Using Calcium

Alginate-Chondrocyte Constructs’, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 97:1 (1996), 168-78. 2 David Biello, ‘Bacteria Transformed into Biofuels Refineries’, Scientific American, 27

January

2010,

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bacteria-

transformed-into-biofuel-refineries. 3 Gary Walsh, ‘Therapeutic Insulins and Their Large-Scale Manufacture’, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 67:2 (2005), 151-9. 4 James G. Wallis et al., ‘Expression of a Synthetic Antifreeze Protein in Potato Reduces Electrolyte Release at Freezing Temperatures’, Plant Molecular Biology 35:3 (1997), 323-30. 5 Robert J. Wall et al., ‘Genetically Enhanced Cows Resist Intramammary Staphylococcus Aureus Infection’, Nature Biotechnology 23:4 (2005), 445—51. 6 Liangxue Lai et al., ‘Generation of Cloned Transgenic Pigs Rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids’, Nature Biotechnology 24:4 (2006), 435-6. 7 Ya-Ping Tang et al., ‘Genetic Enhancement of Learning and Memory in Mice’, Nature 401 (1999), 63-9.

8

Zoe R. Donaldson and Larry J. Young, ‘Oxytocin, Vasopressin and the

Neurogenetics of Sociality’, Science 322:5903 (2008), 900-4; Zoe R. Donaldson, ‘Production of Germline Transgenic Prairie Voles (Microtus Ochrogaster) Using Lentiviral Vectors’, Biology of Reproduction 81:6 (2009), 1,189-95. 9 Terri Pous, ‘Siberian Discovery Could Bring Scientists Closer to Cloning Woolly Mammoth’, Time, 17 September 2012; Pasqualino Loi et al, ‘Biological Time Machines: A Realistic Approach for Cloning an Extinct Mammal’, Endangered Species Research 14 (2011), 227-33; Leon Huynen, Craig D. Millar and David M. Lambert, ‘Resurrecting Ancient Animal Genomes: The Extinct Moa and More’, Bioessays 34 (2012), 661-9. 10 Nicholas Wade, ‘Scientists in Germany Draft Neanderthal Genome’, New York Times, 12 February 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/science/13neanderthal. html?_r=2&ref=science; Zack Zorich, ‘Should We Clone Neanderthals?’, Archaeology 63:2 (2009), http://www.archaeology.org/1003/etc/neanderthals.html. 11 Robert H. Waterston et al., ‘Initial Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of the Mouse Genome’, Nature 420:6915 (2002), 520. 12, ‘Flybrid Insect Micro Electromechanical Systems (HI-MEMS)’, Microsystems Technology Office, DARPA, previously accessed here: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_ Work/MTO/Programs/FIybrid_Insect_Micro_Electromechanical_Systems_percent28FIIMEMSpercent29.aspx. See also: Sally Adee, ‘Nuclear-Powered Transponder for Cyborg Insect’, IEEE Spectrum, December 2009, http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/ devices/nuclearpowered-transponder-for-cyborg-insect; Jessica Marshall, ‘The Fly Who

480

Notes

Bugged Me’, New Scientist 197:2646 (2008), 40-3; Emily Singer, ‘Send in the Rescue Rats’, New Scientist 183:2466 (2004), 21-2; Susan Brown, ‘Stealth Sharks to Patrol the High Seas’, New Scientist 189:2541 (2006), 30-1. 13 Bill Christensen, ‘Military Plans Cyborg Sharks’, Live Science, 7 March 2006, http://www.livescience.com/technology/060307_shark_implant.html. 14 ‘Cochlear Implants’, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/coch.aspx. 15 Retina Implant, http://www.retina-implant.de/en/doctors/technology/default. aspx. 16 David Brown, ‘For 1st Woman With Bionic Arm, a New Life Is Within Reach’, Washington Post, 14 September 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ article/20o6/o9/i3/AR20o6o9i30227i.html. 17 Miguel Nicolelis, Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains and Machines — and How it Will Change Our Lives (New York: Times Books, 2011). 18 Chris Berdik, ‘Turning Thought into Words’, BU Today, 15 October 2008, http:// www.bu.edu/today/2008/turning-thoughts-into-words/. 19 Jonathan Fildes, ‘Artificial Brain “10 Years Away’”, BBC News, 22 July 2009, http://news.bbc.c0.Uk/2/hi/8164060.stm. 20 Radoje Drmanac et ah, ‘Human Genome Sequencing Using Unchained Base Reads on Self-Assembling DNA Nanoarrays’, Science 327:5961 (2010), 78—81; ‘Complete Genomics’ website: http://www.completegenomics.com/; Rob Waters, ‘Complete Genomics Gets Gene Sequencing under $5,000 (Update 1)’, Bloomberg, 5 November 2009, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aWutnyE4SoWw; Fergus Walsh, ‘Era of Personalised Medicine Awaits’, BBC News, last updated 8 April 2009, http://news.bbc.co.Uk/2/hi/health/7954968.stm; LeenaRao, ‘PayPal Co-Founder and Founders Fund Partner Joins DNA Sequencing Firm Halcyon Molecular’, TechCrunch, 24 September 2009, http://techcrunch.c0m/2009/09/24/paypal-c0founder-and-founders-fund-partner-joins-dna-sequencing-firm-halcyon-molecular/.

Acknowledgements

For their advice and assistance, thanks to: Sarai Aharoni, Dorit Aharonov, Amos Avisar, Tzafrir Barzilai, Noah Beninga, Suzanne Dean, Caspian Dennis, Tirza Eisenberg, Amir Fink, Sara Holloway, Benjamin Z. Kedar, Yossi Maurey, Eyal Miller, David Milner, John Purcell, Simon Rhodes, Shmuel Rosner, Rami Rotholz, Michal Shavit, Michael Shenkar, Idan Sherer, Ellie Steel, Ofer Steinitz, Haim Watzman, Guy Zaslavsky and all the teachers and students in the World History programme of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Special thanks to Jared Diamond, who taught me to see the big picture; to Diego Olstein, who inspired me to write a story; and to Itzik Yahav and Deborah Harris, who helped spread the story around.

481

Image Credits 1. © ImageBank/Getty Images Israel. 2. © Visual/Corbis. 3. © Anthropologisches Institut und Museum, Universitat Zurich. 4. Photo: Thomas Stephan © Ulmer Museum. 5. © magiccarpics.co.uk. 6. © Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images. 7. Photo: The Upper Galilee Museum of Prehistory.

8.

© Visual/Corbis.

9. © Visual/Corbis. 10. Poster: Waterhouse Hawkins, r.1862 © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum. 11. © Visual/Corbis. 12. Photo: Karl G. Heider © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, PM# 2006.17.1.89.2 (digital rile# 98770053). 13. Photos and © Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. 14. © Visual/Corbis. 15. Photo and © Anonymous for Animal Rights (Israel). 16. © De Agostini Picture Library/G. Dagli Orti/The Bridgeman Art Library. 17. Engraving: William J. Stone, 1823 © The Art Archive/National Archives Washington DC (ref: AA399024). 18. © Adam Jones/Corbis. 19. © The Schoyen Collection, Oslo and London, MS 1717. http://www.schoyen collection.com/. 20. Manuscript: History of the Inca Kingdom, Nueva Coronica y buen Gobierno, c.1587, illustrations by Guaman Poma de Ayala, Peru © The Art Archive/ Archaeological Museum Lima/Gianni Dagli Orti (ref: AA365957). 21. Photo: Guy Tillim/Africa Media Online, 1989 © africanpictures/akg. 22. © Reunion des m usees nationaux/Gerard Blot. 23. © Visual/Corbis. 24. © Visual/Corbis. 25. © Universal History Archive/UIG/The Bridgeman Art Library. 26. Illustration based on: Joe Cribb (ed.), Money: From Cowrie Shells to Credit Cards (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1986), 27. 27. © akg/Bible Land Pictures.

484

Sapiens

28. © Stuart Black/Robert Harding World Imagery/Getty Images.

29. © The Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti (ref: AA423796). 30. Library of Congress, Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum © courtesy of Roland Klemig.

31. Photo: Boaz Neumann. From Kladderadatsch 49 (1933), 7. 32. © Visual/Corbis.

33. © Ria Novosti/Science Photo Library. 34. Painting: Franklins Experiment, June 1752, published by Currier & Ives © Museum of the City of New York/Corbis.

35. Portrait: C. A. Woolley, 1866, National Library of Australia (ref: an23378504). 36. © British Library Board (shelfmark add. 11267). 37. © Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ms. Laur. Med. Palat. 249 (mappa Salviati).

38. Illustration © Neil Gower. 39. Redraft of the Castello Plan, John Wolcott Adams, 1916 © Collection of the New-York Historical Society/The Bridgeman Art Library. 40. © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

41. Photo and © Anonymous for Animal Rights (Israel). 42. © Photo Researchers/Visualphotos.com. 43. © Chaplin/United Artists/The Kobal Collection/Max Munn Autrey.

44. Lithograph from a photo by Fishbourne & Gow, San Francisco, 1850s © Corbis. 45. © Proehl Studios/Corbis. 46. © Khaled El Fiqi/epa/Corbis. 47. Photo and © Charles Vacanti. 48. © ImageBank/Getty Images Israel.

Index Page numbers in italics indicate images.

Abbasid caliphate 222, 407

Aldrin, Buzz 318

Aboriginal Australians 17, 27, 50, 66,

Alexander the Great 126, 164, 176, 219,

260, 310, 313, 336, 423, 424

323

Achaemenid Persian Empire 247

Algeria 175, 331, 413, 414, 415, 422

Ache people 59-60

alpha male’ 28, 37-8, 39, 129, 173,

Aemilianus, Scipio 210-n, 293

190

Afghanistan 187, 292, 351, 410, 414, 415

Altamira, cave art of 112

Africa xi, 4, 6, 8, 15-21, 16, 22, 23, 49,

Alyattes of Lydia, King 203

54, 71, 72, 75, 77, 79, 80, 87,

Amazon 69, 78, 412

88, no, 125, 151, 156-7, 175,

.America xi, xii, 20, 33, 66, 70, 71, 74,

186, 193, 194, 198, 217, 223, 225,

76-9, 80, 87, 88, 90, no,

226, 227, 234, 238, 243, 247,

117-18, 121-3, 125, 126, 132,

259, 269, 292, 307, 311, 313, 314,

149-50, 152, 154, 156-61, 163,

317, 320, 321, 322, 324, 325, 326,

169, 172, 183, 186, 187, 189, 192,

331, 355, 369, 370, 371, 372, 384,

205, 206, 213, 217, 219, 221,

415, 421, 423,

222, 243, 256, 260, 277, 278,

465

290, 291-2, 304, 311, 315, 316,

Afro-Asian World 70, 71-2, 75, 80,

317, 318-22, 323, 325-30, 331-2,

104, 172, 186, 187, 188, 189, 193,

340, 352, 354, 363, 369, 370,

205-6, 243, 249, 272, 293, 319

423 see also United States

Agricultural Revolution xii, 3, 44, 47,

American Indians/Native Americans 79, 149, 169, 189, 278, 316, 318,

50, 51, 53, 54, 58, 65-6, 67, 80, 82, 85-178, 181, 195, 236, 237,

423 Anatolia 116, 203

355, 366, 372, 382, 398, 446 Ahura Mazda 247

Andean World 186, 187, 219

Akhenaten, Pharaoh 242

Angra Mainyu 247

Akkadian Empire of Sargon the Great

animals: biological engineering of 448-51,

xii, 116, 145, 145n, 217, 218 Alabama 158-9, 173

449

Alamogordo, first atomic bomb deton¬

cruelty to 102-9, 1°6> 1°8> 382-8, 384, 386, 392, 425, 448-51, 449

ated at, 1945 273, 277, 305

domestication of xii, 51-2, 58,

Alaska 77, 78, 88, 217, 219, 331 Alba (green fluorescent rabbit) 447

87-8, 102-9, 106’ iq8

485

486

Index 132, 185, 186, 187, 189, 259, 260,

extinction of xi, xii, 70-83, 81, 94,

!09>

308, 309, 310, 311, 313, 336, 340,

341, 392, 393

industrial agriculture and 382-8, 384, 425

380, 423 Australian World 186

animism 60—2, 235-8, 244, 248

Australopithecus 6

Apollo 11 71, 318, 320, 462-3

Aztec Empire 62, 172, 187, 193, 213,

Arab Empire 146, 171, 194, 205, 217, 222, 224-5, 226, 227, 243, 267,

239-40, 244, 317, 325-30, 527, 419

269, 281, 292, 316, 317, 415 Arab Spring, 2011 268

Babylon 118, 121, 129, 130, 421

Arabian peninsula 15, 243

Babylonian Empire 116, 117, 118-22, 125, 129, 130, 135,

Arabic numerals 146 Arctic 40, 66, 74, 77, 78, 82, 354, 450

215, 217, 218, 333, 334, 407, 421

Argentina 65, 78, 141, 187, 189, 416

Bacon, Francis 288-9

Aristotle 150, 152

Banks, Joseph 308, 311, 336

Armenians 215, 409

barbarians 191, 211, 221, 222, 223, 225,

arms race 271

237, 399

Armstrong, Neil 318, 340, 421

Bari Indians 46

Arthur, King 128, 182-3

Battuta, Ibn 188

Aryan race 155, 157, 258, 259, 261,

Beagle, HMS 318

337-8 Asia 6-7, 8, 16, 17, 23, 70, 71, 72, 75,

bees 24, 27, 135, 190, 447 Behistun Inscription 333

79, 80, 87, 104, 157, 172, 184,

Berbers 224, 225, 226, 227

186, 187, 188, 189, 193, 198,

Bernoulli, Jacob 286

205-6, 217, 233-4, 240, 243,

Bible 27, 142, 162, 280, 284, 285, 318,

247, 249, 253, 272, 293, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 319, 320, 330, 331,

320, 322 Big Bang 3, 281, 461

334, 337> 353, 354, 355> 359, 413,

Bin Laden, Osama 191-2, 292

414 see also Afro-Asian World

binary script 148

Assyrian Empire 116, 171, 215, 217, 218, 334, 397

Atahualpa 330 Athens, ancient 163, 167, 170, 213, 324, 416 Atman 238, 239 atomic bomb 273, 275, 277, 291, 292,

bio-dictatorships 450 biofuel 277, 450 biology: birth of xi, 3 biological determinism 164-5 biological engineering 448-51, 449, 452

378, 417 see also nuclear physics

equality and 122-3

weapons Augustine, St 216, 440

gender and 163-5, 166, 167-8, 170,

Augustus, Emperor 176 Aurelius, Emperor Marcus 224 Australia xi, 17, 23, 27, 50, 54, 66, 69, 70, 71-6, 77, 80, 87, 88, no,

172, 176, 178 happiness and 425-6, 431-7, 437, 438, 441, 443 history of 41-4

487

Index

race and 150-1,

151,

152, 155, 157,

161, 163, 259, 261-2, 263, 337-9 bionic arms 454-6,

455

Catholic Church 30, 34, 37, 38,

jp,

154, 173, 175, 194, 199, 211, 240, 241, 244, 355

biotechnology 352

Celts 210, 211, 223, 244, 335, 337

bonobos 37, 46, 63, 177

Central America 78, 88, 99, 142, 186,

Brahmins 152, 153, 154, 160, 161

219, 326

brains 9-10, n, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23,

33, 45, 55,

89,

134-7,

138, M3,

The Siege of

Cervantes, Miguel de:

Numantia

2.11

145, 147, 152, 161, 199, 281,

Chak Tok Ich’aak of Tikal, King 186

292, 432, 433, 435, 436, 451,

chaotic systems 267-8

452, 453, 454, 455-7, 458,

Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, France /, 112, 139, 421

464 British East India Company 229, 320, 363, 364, 370

chemistry, beginning of xi, 3 Chhatrapati Shivaji train station,

British Empire 50, 121, 154, 187, 198, 212, 213, 215, 221, 223, 228-31, 309-10, 314, 315, 332-3, 335-7,

Mumbai 229,

22p

child mortality 10-11, 57, 58, 97, 299, 372, 423, 424

360, 362, 363, 364-6, 370,

childbirth 10-11, 166

413

childrearing 10-11, 107, 120

Buddhism xii, n, 37, 142, 189, 191, 221,

chimpanzees xi, 4, 5, 10, 13, 27-8, 29,

235, 249-53, 257, 254, 255, 256,

35, 37-8, 42, 46, 63, 124, 129,

265, 279, 288, 294, 391, 441,

166, 173, 177, 190, 263, 392,

442, 443

429, 446, 464 China xii, 16, 20, 2472, 37, 54, 56, 57,

Buka 71 Byron, Lord 365

62, 88, 93, 116, 142, 144, 152,

Byzantines 267, 292

162, 171, 175, 185, 188,

ip8,

205,

206, 219-20, 221, 222, 225, 226, Caesar, Julius 176, 189

227, 231, 233, 247, 249, 259,

Caledonian tribes 216

266, 272, 292, 293, 312, 313-14,

Calgacus 216

315, 316, 324, 325, 330, 331, 353,

California 307, 342,

417,

359, 364, 376, 378, 400, 406,

418

416, 418, 424

Caligula, Emperor 107 capitalism xii, n, 126, 128, 151, 187, 222, 225, 254, 256, 267, 279, 283, 294, 302, 305, 306, 315, 340,

341-73, 374,

388, 390-1,

418, 422, 438, 463, 464

see also

Christianity xii, 11, 22, 42, 122, 126, 165, 182, 183, 184-5, I91, x94, 207, 208, 224, 240-1, 242-3, 244, 245,

247,

247, 248, 255,

257, 263, 264, 265, 266, 269,

money Caribbean Islands 79-80, 325, 326, 329, 349

chivalry 182-4

see also under indi¬

vidual island name

270, 272, 279, 280, 296, 297, 310, 322, 368, 370, 391, 419, 440, 463

Carthage 210, 213, 292, 293, 324

Church, Professor George 451

(^atalhoyiik, Anatolia 116

Cicero 216

488

Index

credit 344-6, 347, 352-3, 354, 355, 356,

Claudius, Emperor 224

358, 362, 364, 366, 367, 368

Cleopatra of Egypt 171, 430 Code of Hammurabi, 1776 BC 117,

ny,

118-19, 120-2, 124, 126, 135,

143, 149, 150, 203, 407

Crusades 182 Cuba 79, 80, 329, 330 cultures, human:

cognitive dissonance 181-4

‘authentic’ 188

Cognitive Revolution xi, 1-69, 70,

biological laws and 42, 163-70

80, 82, 190, 279, 398, 421,

birth of 3, 19, 41, 181

452

clash of 183-4, 287^ 339

coinage xii, 33, 194, 197-9, 7P& 201, 202-5,

204,

206, 208, 233, 272,

343> 349, 35b, 357, 358,

421

Columbus, Christopher 71, 275, 303, 317, 319-20, 324, 425, 326, 340,

constant flux of 181—2 contradictions in 182-4 empires spread a common culture 210-32, 264

see also

empire

global culture, emergence of a single 189-92, 312-13

352-4 Communism 38, 162, 183, 225, 254-5, 261, 270, 282, 302, 305, 372, 414, 422, 424, 463

history and 41, 181, 181-92, 264, 269-72 ideal of progress and 294-7 memetics (cultures as mental infec¬

communities: collapse of 398-405, 428

tions) 269-71 universal orders and 189—92

imagined 405-8 Confucianism 249, 279, 284, 288, 294,

see also

under individual order cuneiform 142, 333

39i Congo Free State 371, 372 conquest, the mentality of 316—19 Constantine, Emperor 240, 265, 266,

cyborg engineering 448, 453-7, 455, 459, 461 Cynics 126, 249 Cyrus the Great of Persia 217, 218, 219,

293 consumerism 129-30, 388-91, 406, 408

221

Cook Islands 8 Cook, Captain James 308, 309-10, 311, 313, 317, 336, 340 cooperation, social 26-8, 29-31, 36-40,

Dani, the 93 Danube Valley 67-8,

6/n

Daoism 249, 256, 293

41, 43, 46, 52, 102, 115-18, 121,

Darius I, King 333

124, 131, 132, 134-5, 149, 175,

Darwin, Charles 20, 261, 281, 287, 303,

177, 178, 181, 190, 195, 207-8, 282

David, King 215

Copernicus, Nicolaus 307 corporations 31, 33, 34, 36, 40, 305, 347, 360, 368, 383 Cortes, Hernan 193, 206, 326-7, 328, 329, 330 cowry shells 198,

316, 318, 338, 440, 445-6, 447

Declaration of Independence, US, 1776 20, 117-18,

118,

121-3, 150

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) 453-4 demography 53, 77, 99, 100, 287, 312,

ip8,

206, 207, 208

200, 201, 205,

34i denarius coin 204, 205

Index

489

Denisova Cave, Siberia 8

Elizabeth I, Queen 171

Denisovans 8, 17, 18-19, 20

energy 373, 374-82, 389, 392, 393

Department of Defense, US 292

empire:

determinism 265-7

capitalism and 363-73

Dickens, Charles 183, 409-10

common culture, spreads 210-32

dinar 205

cultural assimilation under 210-32

Dinka people 219

cycle, imperial 226-7

Diogenes 126

definition 212-13

diprotodon 72, 73, 75, 76, 82, 83

evil’ nature of 214-17

DNA 4, 17, 20, 23-4, 36, 37, 38, 42,

first xii, 217-20

46, 65, 94, 104, 135, 138, 393,

global 231-2

441, 447, 451, 459-60

language, emergence of and

Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) 360

139-48 majority of cultures as offspring of

dwarfing 7

227-8 positive legacies of 220-31

East Africa xi, 4, 6, 8, 15, 16, 22, 54, 87, 324, 331

religion and 234, 235, 239-41, 242-3, 244, 247, 265-6,

East Asia 6, 16, 23, 157, 198, 206, 217, 243, 253, 320, 353

269-70, 272 modern, collapse of 412-14

Easter Island 82

science and 307-40

ecological disasters 76-83, 266, 393

as universal order 189-92

Ecuador 93, 141, 415

Enga 93

Edward I, King 300, 301

Epicureanism 249

Edward II, King 301

equality 122-6, 127, 149, 150, 183, 225,

Egypt 85,

8y,

130,

106,

106,

116, 129, 130,

131, 140, 142, 144, 171, 172,

258, 260, 315, 339, 459, 460 Euphrates River 113

173, 191, 217, 224, 225, 226, 227,

Eurasia xi, 7, 15, 74, 313

239, 240, 242, 268, 297, 314,

Europe xi, xii, 6, 8, 15, 17, 23, 31, 38,

317, 364-5, 421, 430, 431,

431

50, 66, 87, 146, 152, 156, 157,

Einstein, Albert 24, 43, 283, 378

161, 168, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186,

Eisenhower, Dwight 290

187, 188-9, 2°5> 2°C 215, 225,

El-Asad, Hafez 407

226, 227, 233, 240, 243, 257,

Eleanor, Queen 300, 301

269, 272, 279, 280, 287, 293,

electricity 278, 295, 378, 379

298, 300, 303, 307, 308, 310,

elephant bird 81

311-15, 316-17, 319, 320, 321,

elephants 4, 5, 8, 24, 177, 238, 249,

322, 324, 325, 328, 330, 331, 332,

392> 45i elites 37, 90, 114, 119, 125, 126, 129, 131,

333’ 33A 335> 33C 337’ 338, 339, 340, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 359,

175, 214, 216, 221, 222, 223,

360, 364, 368, 369, 370, 371,

224, 227, 232, 240, 259, 316,

372, 382, 390, 397, 406, 411,

329> 338, 350, 353’ 390, 4H>

412, 414, 415, 416, 421, 423,

418-19, 460

425» 435’ 459

Index

490 European Union 406, 459

French Revolution, 1789 42, 114, 183,

evolution xi, 4, 8, 9, 10, n, 17, 18, 22-3, 36, 43, 45, 46, 79, 89, 90,

363, 408, 410, 435-6 Front national 338

94, 104-5, 108, 109, 115, 122, 123, 134, 136, 165, 174, 176, 191,

Galapagos Islands 82, 280, 318

218, 258, 259, 260, 261,

game theory 271

263,

270, 271, 276, 281, 287, 303, 318, 384-5, 403-4, 423, 432-3, 438, 447, 457, 458

see also

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand 223, 413, 420 Ganges Valley 235 Gauls 221, 226, 227, 323

genetics evolutionary humanism 258-63

Gautama, Siddhartha 249-52, 254

evolutionary psychology 45, 46, 384-5

gender 120, 161-78,

extinction xi, xii, 19, 20, 22, 23, 72,

168, 169,

457) 463

73-83, 94, 109, 259, 261, 332,

genetic programming 457-8

341, 392~4> 432

genetics 4, 8, 16, 17, 18, 23-4, 36-40,

family and the local community, collapse of 398-405, 428 famine 58, 294, 295, 337, 370-1, 424,

425,

18,

39,

19, 20,

42, 46, 48, 50,

55, 65> 78, 94> 95> 102, 104, 122, 134, 135, 138, 151, 157, 176-8, 259, 263, 266, 270, 271, 287, 298, 301, 305, 316, 352, 393,

465

fictions, evolution of 27-40, 150, 181

see also

339, 422,

mythology

Fiji 81

425, 432, 435, 440, 441, 446,

447) 448, 449-51) 452. 453) 457-60, 464

fire, domestication of xi, 13-14, 15, 75

genus xi, 5-6, 8, 9, 12, 20

First World War, 1914-18 26, 290,

Germany 25, 38, 163, 214, 215, 221, 261,

381-2, 409, 419

286, 290, 291, 314, 335, 338,

fishing villages 54, 71

356, 381-2, 397, 406, 407, 408,

Flores Island, Indonesia 7-8, 20, 70

416, 454

food chain, man jumps to top of 12-13,

72~3>

7&> 173

France 1, 33-5, 36, 42, 114, 132, 133,

Gilgamesh Project 297-302, 460, 464 global warming 78, 95, 231, 393 Gnosticism 247, 248

101,

168, 175, 183, 213, 215, 217, 225,

Gobekli Tepe 100-1,

226, 241, 244, 301, 314, 315, 316,

gold 33, 193, 194, 201, 203, 204, 205-7,

102, 139

331, 332, 335, 338, 345, 354, 356,

209, 233, 234, 272, 332, 353,

357, 360-3, 364, 381, 407, 408,

354) 35G 357)

409-10, 413, 414, 416, 418, 422,

380, 381, 417, 418

435-6, 447

3^9) 379)

Gorbachev, Mikhail 414

Frankenstein 461-4 Franklin, Benjamin 295,

358,

Great Leap Forward, 1958-61 424

293

free market 126, 256, 366-8, 370, 399, 422

Great Pyramid of Giza 130,

130

Great Survey of India 332 Greece 62, 126, 142, 163-4, I72> 2IO>

free trade 221, 364

213, 222, 237, 238, 239, 316, 335,

French Empire 175, 215, 362, 413

337) 338, 3^5) 366. 4ib

Index

491

Greek Rebellion, 1821 365-6,

365

home no-11, 145

green monkeys 24, 35

Homo denisova

Green, Charles 308

Homo erectus

Gulf War, 1990-1 415

Homo ergaster

Gupta Empire 230, 333

Homo floresiensis

8, 17-19, 20

6, 7, 13, 37, 87 8, 87 xii, 8

Homo neanderthalensis see Haber, Fritz 381-2

Homo rudolfensis 6,

Habsburg Empire 213, 216

Homo sapiens:

Hadrian, Emperor 224

Neanderthals

8

Agricultural Revolution and

Halley, Edmond 286

see

Agricultural Revolution

Ham, son of Noah 157

appearance of in Africa xi, 6, 8,

Han Empire xii, 217, 225

13-21, 23, 26

happiness 94, 104, 121, 122, 123, 148, 271, 351, 421-44

becomes a god 465-6 Cognitive Revolution and

Harlow, Harry 385-7

see

Cognitive Revolution

Harry Potter 154

end of 445-64

Hawaii 70, 82, 186

global migrations xi, 5-6, 15-21,

Henry the Navigator, Prince 317

16,

23, 26, 54, 87

Hephaestion 164

other human species and 15—21,

hierarchy, principle of 28, 29, 37, 59, 61, 62, 63, 120-4, i28, 149-78,

22-44 Scientific Revolution and

234, 269, 339, 383

see

Scientific Revolution unification of humankind and

hindsight fallacy 265-9

179-272

Hindu religion 48, 142, 146, 151-2, 154-5, 156, 160, 169, 229, 230,

as xenophobic creature 218-19

238, 239, 253, 256, 305, 335,

Homo soloensis

456

Homo:

evolution of genus xi, 5, 6

also

Hispaniola 79

7, 20

see

human

Hong Kong 364

history: biology and 41-4

Huitzilopochtli 240, 244

birth of xi, 3, 41-4

Human Brain Project 458

direction of 181-92, 265-9

Human Enhancement question 463

hindsight fallacy 265-9 human well-being and 269—72

also

see

human rights 31, 35-6, 41, 123-4, I26> 132, 187, 222, 225, 226, 228,

happiness

justice in 149-78

231, 257, 261, 267, 406,

next stage of 445-6

449-50, 460

prediction of 269—72

humanism 256-8, 260, 261, 263, 282

timeline of xi—xii

humans:

Hitler, Adolf 259, 262, 419 Hittite Empire 217 Holy Grail 182

262,

263, 409,

appearance of 3-4, 5-9 brains of

see

brain

common defining characteristics of 9-10

Index

492-

distinct species of xi, 5-8,

6,

7

see

332-3, 334-8, 353, 359, 363, 370,

also under individual species name

381, 413 individualism 127, 128, 258, 260, 263,

fire and cooking, discovery of

280, 402-4, 410, 428, 439, 440

13-14

Indonesia 6-7, 14, 54, 71, 188, 231, 320, 324, 325, 359-bo, 363, 371, 372,

food chain, jumps to top of 12-13, 72-3, 76, 173

4i5

other apes and xi, 5

Indus River/Valley 113, 236, 332

relations between different species

Industrial Revolution xii, 82, 158, 294,

37i, 375, 377, 379, 380, 382,

of 14-21, 22-44 spread from Africa to Eurasia xi,

388, 392, 393, 394, 395-6, 398, 401, 407, 421

6-7, 15-21, 23, 26, 54, 87 superhumans use of tools

see

see

Scientific

Revolution

superhumans

tools, first stone

intelligent design xii, 445-6, 447,

walk upright 10-11

448

see also under individual species

inter-subjectivity 131-3, 170, 197, 406

name

Interbreeding Theory 15, 16, 17

hunter-gatherers/foragers 43, 45-69,

internal combustion engine 352, 378-9

72, 88, 89, 90, 91, 96, 101, no,

Internet 409, 456, 457, 463

hi, 136, 185, 194, 195, 236,

Iran 62, 87, 118, 187, 217, 224, 225,

302-3, 421, 422, 423, 424

226, 227, 415, 416

Hussein, Saddam 407 Huxley, Aldous:

Iraq 118, 205, 217, 407, 410, 415, 418

Brave New World

436,

Isabella of France, Queen 301, 354 Islam xii, 191, 224, 226, 227, 233-4,

437

235, 243, Iberian peninsula 14, 193, 210, 211, 223,

24s,

254, 255, 267,

270, 279, 297, 316, 331, 406,

224

421, 463, 464

Ice Age 7, 73, 95, 185

Israel 53, 67, 68, 187, 242, 389, 416,

ignorance, discovery of xii, 275-306

Iliad

see also

419, 433

142, 164

imagined communities 405-8

Jabl Sahaba, Sudan 67-8

imagined orders 114-24, 125, 126,

Jainism 249

12.7—33, 149, 191

Japan 233, 253, 291, 320, 325, 331, 359,

imagined realities 35, 36, 41, 50, 126-33 Inca Empire 141, I97>

141,

325-30,

144, 172, 187,

^27, 397

382, 416, 451, 456

jati

(Indian caste groupings) 156

Java, Indonesia 7, 371

Incitatus 107

Jefferson, Thomas 124, 126

India xii, 130, 146, 152, 154-6, 157, 161,

Jericho 94, 96, 97, 116

163, 188, 205, 206, 207, 216,

Jerusalem 143, 215

219, 223, 225, 226, 227, 228-30,

Jesus of Nazareth 20, 242, 265, 288,

22P,

230,

234, 243, 246, 247,

249, 250, 253, 267, 271, 272, 312,313,314,316,317,324,331,

294, 296, 345 Jews 62, 155, 215, 218, 242, 243, 247, 248, 258, 259, 381, 409

Index

493

‘Jim Crow’ laws 159

liberalism 221, 225, 254, 256, 261, 302,

Jones, William 334-5, 337

339> 439)

Jordan 205, 213 407, 415

440,

44i

liberty, concept of 121, 122, 123, 125,

Judaea 215, 218

149, 150, 183, 257

Judaism 242, 265

Libya 36, 224, 415 life expectancy 57, 299, 301, 372, 450,

Ka aba, Mecca 779, 217, 233

452

Kac, Eduardo 447, 448

life sciences 263

Kahneman, Daniel 437

life insurance 285-7

Kalahari Desert, Africa 49, 56, 66

limited liability companies 32-5, 41,

Kara^adag Hills 102

123, 355, 358-63, 406

King, Clennon 160

Lind, James 309

Kipling, Rudyard 336

linguistics 2472, 26, 288, 317, 334-9

also

Kshatriyas 152

language, evolution of

Ku Klux Klan 160

locked-in syndrome 456

Kublai Khan 233

Louis XIV of France, King

Kushan Empire 230

Louis XV of France, King 360—1,

‘Kushirn

138, 139

see

168

362 Louis XVI of France, King 125, 294,

Kuwait 415, 418

362-3, 435 language, evolution of xii, 21, 23-8,

24«, 5°> 52> 135-48, 149, 187, 194,

198,

185,

luxury trap 94-100 Lydia 203, 204,

204,

205

206, 207, 211,

214-15, 217, 219, 221, 223, 224, 233, 280, 284, 285, 288, 313,

Macedonian Empire 164, 171, 205, 210, 292

318-19, 322, 329, 332, 333-5, 337

Maclaurin, Colin 285-6

see also under individual

Madagascar 70, 80-1, 307, 325

language name

Magellan, Ferdinand 187, 217, 276, 317

Lascaux Cave 64,

64,

112

Latin language 5, 6, 33, 34, 60, 91, 140,

Majapahit, empire of 324 Mali 234

142, 185, 211, 223, 226, 279, 335,

Malthus, Robert 287

337

mammoths 5, 54, 63, 74, 77-8, 79, 83,

Law of Large Numbers 286—7

88, 101-2, 423, 451

Law, John 360, 362

Mandate of Heaven 220, 221, 231

Le Pen, Marine 338

Manhattan Island 356, 361,

Lebanon 407, 415

Manhattan Project 291, 293

legal fiction 32-3

Manichaean creed 247, 248, 264, 265,

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich 254, 255, 282, 409

269, 284 Manus 71

Leopold II of Belgium, King 371

Maoris 74, 225, 310

Levant 22, 87, 88, 96, 224

maps 319-25,

liberal humanism 256—9, 260, 261, 263,

Mari 143-4

282

421,

52^

Marquis Islands 82

461

Index

494

marriage 47, 156, 158, 160, 178, 213,

moon, humans land on the, 20 July 1969 4, 71, 276, 277, 278, 305,

224, 286, 427-8, 434

318-19, 320, 340, 421

marsupials 72, 75, 76 Marx, Karl 20, 254, 255, 270, 282, 302, 316, 364

Mubarak, Hosni 268-9, 43°> 431 Mughal Empire 216, 230, 312, 330, 333

masculinity 163, 166,

168, 169,

Muslims 48, 49, 161, 172, 184, 188, 193,

170,

194, 205, 206, 207, 219, 221,

171-8 mathematics 43, 100, 137, 140, 141, 142,

224, 225, 226, 227, 230, 234,

146, 147, 148, 279, 283-8, 307,

247, 248, 264, 269, 270, 313,

335

314, 315, 316, 332, 335, 338, 339, 353, 406, 415

Mauryan Empire 221, 230, 333 Mayan Empire 186, 326

Mussolini, Benito 290

meditation 252, 441, 442

mythology 27, 30-1, 36, 40, 42, 52,

Mediterranean xii, 38, 82, 115, 116, 205,

115, 117, 122, 124, 127, 128, 129,

206-7, 2IO> 2I3> 2I7> 249> 266,

130, 131, 132, 151-2, 155, 157-8,

311, 381

159, 161, 164, 166, 167, 176,

Melanesians 17

178, 181, 215, 236, 282, 284,

memetics 269—71

294, 297, 314-15, 336, 406, 461,

Menes 190-1

462

Mesoamerican World 186, 187 Mesopotamia 117, 118-19, 137, 142, 144, 185, 181-2, 202, 217, 225, 233 Mexico 62, 78, 88, 189, 193, 206, 213, 326-30, 419

Nader Shah 353, 354 nanotechnology 292, 301, 352 Napoleon Bonaparte 69, 125, 174, 293, 294,

317, 363> 435

microorganisms 277, 278, 446

Napoleon III of France 381

Middle East xi, 15, 17, 22, 23, 87, 88,

nationalism 27, 225, 226, 228, 229,

90, 94-5, 96, 99, 116, 146, 157,

230, 231, 254, 256, 267, 270-1,

162, 215, 247, 268, 311, 333, 334,

302, 363, 364-5, 402, 406, 422,

339> 369>

438

407

military-industrial-scientific complex 290, 313, 314

natural selection xii, n, 37, 261, 303,

Ming Empire 312, 324, 400-1

338, 432, 440, 445-8

Mississippi Bubble 360-3, 368

Navarino, Battle of, 1827 365,

Mississippi Delta 78

(movie)

Nazism 38, 254, 258-63,

395

money xii, 191-2, 193-209

261, 262,

282,

305, 370, 397

Mohenjo-daro 332

Neanderthal Genome Project 402

see also

capi¬

talism Mongol Empire 184, 185, 222, 233, 292, 293>

363,

3 66

Mitchell, Claudia 455, 475

Modern Times

Natufian culture 96, 100, 139

3J7> 4H

Neanderthals

(Homo neanderthalensis)

xi, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,

18,

19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,

26, 38-9, 40, 42, 68, 77, 87,

monogamy 44, 46, 47, 63, 450-1, 452

115, 139, 259, 446, 451-3, 461,

Montezuma II, Emperor 328-9, 332

462

Index

495

Netherlands 316, 338, 355-60, 363, 371 New Amsterdam 360,

3X4> 330, 331’ 332, 353’

361

365, 366,

400, 414

New Britain 39, 71

‘Outer World’ 70, 74, 311

New Caledonia 81 New Guinea 39, 88, 92,

92,

93,

105-6

Pakistan 246, 271, 415 patriarchy 5, 171-8, 398

New Ireland 39, 71

Patroclus 164

New Testament 38, 296

Paul of Tarsus 242-3, 440

New Zealand 51, 70, 74, 82, 186, 308,

peaceful era, modern times as

310

410-20

Newton, Isaac 287, 316;

The

permanent settlements, emergence of

Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

284-5

xii, 54, 58, 98,

iio-ii

Persian Empire xii, 116, 171, 217, 218,

218,

Nietzsche, Friedrich 437

219, 222, 247, 269, 314,

Nile Valley 116, 431

315, 316, 323, 324-5, 331, 333,

Nordic gods 238

334’ 335’ 337’ 338

North Africa 6, 193, 194, 243, 247, 292, 311

personalised medicine 459 Peugeot 28-36,

North America 66, 74, 79, 88, 90, 121,

32,

117, 132, 133

Peugeot, Armand 33-4 Philip, Emperor 224

186, 189, 307, 363 Nil Wa 152

Philip of Macedon, King 164

nuclear family 44, 46, 47, 50, 62-3,

Philippines 317 physics, beginning of xi, 3, 23

398-9, 404, 405 nuclear physics/weapons xii, 26, 43,

Pius, Emperor Antonius 224

187, 271, 273, 275, 278, 288,

Pizarro, Francisco 326, 330

3°4> 375’ 378,

plants:

380, 393, 414,

417, 419-20, 424, 448, 462

domestication of xii, 87-8, 90, 91, 92, 94, 96, 109, hi, 113, 236

Nuer tribe 107, 219 Numantia 210-11, 213, 214, 223, 293

genetic engineering of 450

Nurhaci 353, 354

mechanisation of 382—3 Polynesians 81, 316

Obama, Barack 169,

169,

430

population numbers 57, 66, 90, 95,

obsidian 39, 40, 194, 235

96, 98, no, 126, 212, 213, 275,

Oceanic World 186, 187

310, 330, 364, 372, 387, 390,

Ofnet Cave, Bavaria 68

393-4

Old Testament 203, 247, 248 Olympias of Macedon, Queen 164

Portugal 67, 68, 217, 221, 316, 332, 353,

354

Opium War, First, 1840-2 364-5

postmodernism 270-1

Oppenheimer, Robert 273, 417

poverty 148, 161, 239, 249-50, 294,

organisms, emergence of xi, 3 Orwell, George:

Nineteen Eighty-Four

43 6 Ottoman Empire 154, 172, 311-12, 313,

295, 296-7, 371, 428, 430 progress, the ideal ol 294—7 Protestant Church 154, 240-1, 355 Purusa 152

Index

496

Qin dynasty 116, 117, 400

syncretism 248, 256

Qing dynasty 312, 353

see also mythology and under indi¬

Qin Shi Huangdi 220, 221 quantum mechanics 23, 147, 281, 285, 287, 288 quipu 140-2, 143, 141

vidual religion name Replacement Theory 16-18 research, funding of scientific 302-6 Roman Empire xii, 20, 62, 107, 114-15, 116-17, 171, 172, 186, 204-5,

race 17, 150-1, 152, 156-61, 163, 219, 259, 261, 269, 282, 310, 338

210, 211, 213, 214, 215, 216, 219, 221, 222, 223-4, 22G 227, 232>

railways 229, 229, 314, 378

239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 247,

raw materials 54, 56, 104, 201, 373,

265, 266, 272, 292-3, 311, 317,

374-5, 380-2, 383, 407

323, 324> 338, 4H

Rawlinson, Henry 333-4, 335

romantic consumerism 129—30

religion 19-20

Rousseau, Jacques 439

Agricultural Revolution and 100-2, 101, 236-8

Royal Navy 171, 309, 318 Royal Society 307-8, 309

animism and see animism birth of 19-20, 23, 27, 27, 30, 48, 61-2, 68, 69

sacrifice, human 58, 64 Safavid Empire 312, 330

definition of 235—6

Salviati World Map, 1525 424

dualism 245—8

Samarkand 233

free will and 246, 263

Samoa 82, 181

happiness and 440-3

Sargon the Great xii, 116, 217

hierarchies and 154—6

Sassanid Persian Empire 247, 269, 292,

hindsight fallacy and 265-6 humanist 254—63 hunter-gatherers and 61-2, 68, 69 language and emergence of 27, 30, 31’ 34

397

Scientific Revolution xii, 3, 272, 273-464 Scotland 216, 244, 285-7, 330-1 Scottish Widows 285-7 script, partial and full 139-42, 140, 143

local and exclusive 235

scurvy 308-9

monotheistic 238, 240, 241-4,

sea levels 7, 71, 77, 185

245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 253,

seafaring societies, first 71

256, 257, 258, 264, 266,

Second World War, 1939-45 259-60,

449

290, 365, 397, 409, 410, 414

natural-law religions 249-53, 254

Seleucid Empire 210, 292

patron saints 244

Seneca 216

polytheistic xii, 237-41, 245, 248,

Severus, Emperor Septimius 224

249, 265

sexual relations 4, 15, 16, 18, 19, 38, 39,

Problem of Evil 245—6

45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 95, 105, 158,

science and 282-3, 2.84, 297, 302,

160, 162, 163, 164, 166-70, 178,

303, 304, 305, 317, 351-2, 370,

199, 252, 258, 404, 432-3, 440,

389-90, 391

461

Index

497

Shaw, George Bernard: Pygmalion 153

statistics 285-8, 299, 410-11

shells, trading in 38, 39, 40, 52, 115,

Stoicism 249

i94> i95> 198, ip8, 200-1, 205,

Stone Age 13, 44, 46, 48, 62, 75, 422

206, 207, 208

Sudan 67, 107, 219

Shudras 152, 153, 161

Suez Canal 364

Siberia 8, 69, 74, 77, 78, 219, 307, 380,

Sullivan, Jesse 454, 455, 477

45i silver shekel 120, 135, 202-3

Sumer/Sumerians 137, 138-42, 144, 145,

singularity 459-61

Sungir, Russia 63-5, 77-8

skeleton, effect of Agricultural

superhuman order 234, 235, 249, 254,

Revolution on human 10, 91 slavery 83, 108, 117, 119, 120, 124, 125, !35, *49, i5°> 152, 153, 155, 156-9, 173, 174, 202, 203, 208, 211, 216, 233, 311, 326, 368,

i45», 202, 297, 334, 344

255

superhumans xii, 255, 260, 263, 421, 452, 460

Syria 47, 116, 118, 204, 217, 224-5, 233, 407, 415, 416

369-70, 371, 372, 379, 384, 404, 411, 418 Smith, Adam 126, 302, 316, 348-9,

Tacitus 216 Tahiti 308

368; The Wealth of Nations

Taj Mahal 216, 230, 240

348-9

Talmud 215

social structure n, 28, 38, 46-7, 68, 87, 106, 135, 161, 315, 408, 444, 451 see also hierarchy, principle of

Tasmania 181, 185-6, 187, 310-11, 4/2, 424

taxes 32, 116, 135, 137, 138, 140, 141,

socialist humanism 258, 260

142-3, 145, 183, 194, 198, 201,

Solander, Daniel 308

204, 213, 221, 244, 268, 278,

Solomon Islands 81

304, 345, 351, 353, 358, 367, 376,

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander 183

400-1, 403, 418

Song Empire 293

Tenochtitlan 328, 329, 330

South Africa 88, 151, 151, 217, 223, 243,

Teotihuacan 186

307 South America 79, 88, 141-2, 186, 318, 325-30, 355, 4i5> 419

Theism 62 see also monotheism; poly¬ theism and dualism Theory of Relativity 147, 255, 285

Soviet Union 197, 219, 221-2, 254-5,

thought-control 456

268, 290, 304, 413-14

Tierra del Fuego 78

Spain 141-2, 141, 187, 189, 193, 211,

time, modern 394-8, 497

217, 225, 275, 276, 316, 317,

Toltecs 326

319-20, 325-30, 332, 333, 349>

Tonga 82

354, 355> 356, 357> 358, 359

tools, first stone xi, 8, 10, 11,12, 15, 20,

species, classification of 4—5 St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572 241 Stadel Cave: lion-man in 23, 25, 27, 31, 35, 44, 449

22, 37, 39, 42-3, 48, 68, 96 tourism 130 trade 39-40, 42, 52, 71, 115, 134, 157, 158, 189, 195, 196, 197, 199, 201, 206, 208, 221, 237, 268, 303,

Index

498

322, 347, 350, 353, 356, 359,

Vietnam War, 1956-75 331-2, 413

360, 361, 364, 368,

Voltaire 124

369-70, 371, 372, 384, 418, 419, 465

Waldseemuller, Martin 320-1

Trajan, Emperor 224

Wall Street 42, 360, 361, 418

Truganini 310-n, 3/2, 424

Wallace, Robert 285-7

Turkey 87, 100, 217, 233-4, 378, 415

war, disappearance of international 410-20

unification of humankind 179-272

Waterloo, Battle of, 1815 299

United Nations 42, 414

weaponry 290-4, 2y/, 309

United States 4, 20, 33, 78, 117-18, 118,

Webster, Alexander 285-7

121-2, 123, 125, 126, 132,

wheat, Agricultural Revolution and 13,

149-50, 152, 154, 156-61, 163,

57, 87, 88, 89, 90-2, 93-4,

169, 172, 183, 187, 192, 205, 219,

95-8, 102, 109, 143-4, 196, 200,

222, 256, 260, 266, 277, 278,

204, 350, 376

290, 291-2, 307, 312, 314, 315,

women:

318, 331, 369, 370, 387, 389-90,

Agricultural Revolution and 96-7

426-7, 430, 454-5 see also

hierarchies and 149, 150, 155, 160,

America US Civil War, 1861-5 125, 158 US Constitution 158 universal orders 62, 189-91 see also empire, money and religion University of Mississippi 160

161-78, 403, 411 hunter-gatherer 10-11, 46, 57, 59, 80, 91, 95, 97 liberation of the individual and 403 sex and gender 161-78 Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean 74

V-2 rocket 290, 291

writing, evolution of 137, 138-48

Vaishyas 152

Wu Zetian of China, Empress 171

Valence, Emperor 186 van Leeuwenhoek, Anton 277

Yoruba religion 238

Vasco de Gama 317

Yupik 219

Vereenigde Osstindische Compagnie (VOC) 359-60, 363, 370-1

Zheng He, Admiral 324-5, 323, 331

Verne, Jules 276

Zimrilim of Mari, King 143

Vespucci, Amerigo 320—1

Zoroastrianism 247, 264, 265

Victoria, Queen 365

Zulu Empire 217

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100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

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