Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. An important point in Harari’s discussion of cultural change over time is that things that are initially seen as luxuries eventually become necessities.

• What is the implication of this claim for culture change and human quality of life? (topic sentence)
• Offer at least three examples of “luxuries” that became “necessities” and show how this change impacted both culture and human quality of life—positively, negatively, or both.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this phenomenon relates to the book’s concern with Happiness and Meaning or its assertion that Evolution Has No Purpose.

2. Harari devotes a considerable amount of space to a discussion of the domestication of wheat.

• What point about the Agricultural Revolution is Harari using this extended discussion to illustrate? (topic sentence)
• Explain his argument, using details from the text to support your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate whether the case of wheat persuasively demonstrates what Harari is using it to demonstrate.

3. Harari asserts that there is a causal connection between patriarchy and warfare.

• What is the precise nature of the causal link that Harari proposes? (topic sentence)
• Explain his argument, using details from the text to support your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain what this connection highlights about the power of Shared Fictions.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. What are the various claims that Harari makes about the development of human language? What role does he claim for gossip? How does he see language influencing cooperation and group size? What future evolutionary developments rest on the development of language? Write an essay that evaluates Harari’s claims about human language. Summarize his arguments and then offer a critique of their construction. Support your discussion with evidence from the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in the format your instructor suggests.

2. Harari makes claims about the origins and inevitability of human inequality that might be unpalatable to many readers. What are these claims? Why might these claims be hard for some readers to accept? How does ethos impact the audience’s willingness to accept Harari’s claims? In the end, is his argument persuasive? Write an essay in which you evaluate Harari’s ability to persuade an audience to accept this controversial claim. Identify the strategies that he uses and analyze whether they are sufficient. In your essay’s conclusion, comment on Harari’s rhetorical purpose in advancing this argument: How does it support his overall contention that Evolution Has No Purpose and his perspective on Happiness and Meaning? Support your discussion with evidence from the text; be sure to cite any quoted evidence in the format your instructor suggests.

3. What are “Shared Fictions”? What role does Harari assert that these played in early evolutionary change? How do they contribute to cultural stability? Write an essay in which you first offer a broad overview of Harari’s definition of shared fictions and their role in human evolution, society, and quality of life. Then, comment on the relative strength of his arguments for these three differing functions. Finally, offer a commentary about how much the quality of each argument matters: Which of the arguments are central to accepting other premises within the text and impact Harari’s credibility as a science writer, and why might other arguments be less central to the book’s overall impact?