The Agricultural Revolution was the revolution that began with homo sapiens controlling plants and animals. On the “plant side of the spectrum” Harari mostly talks about wheat and how it has influenced us to start living around the wheat and not the other way around. In a way, the homo sapiens went backwards in revolution due to the misconception of stock piling wheat. The idea was a simple one, that “If I have wheat, then my children will never go to bed hungry” For the time, the idea made sense. Why work harder when you can work smarter? Unfortunately as Harari points out on page 86 and 87, the children’s immune system is getting weaker due to the lack of knowledge of malnutrition. Kid’s immune system were being weakened due to the lack of protein and dairy. Harari said on page 86 that sapiens lived easier in 9500 B.C.E than 8500 B.C.E. So the end impact of the agricultural revolution is that when enslaved homo sapiens and achieved its goal of spreading all over the world…. Go plants.
The classic match up of the Neanderthals and the sapiens… who will come out on top??? Okay we all know that the sapiens came out on top. But the result is what’s important, it’s the why and how. In terms of an all out brawl, the Neanderthals had the advantage. They had much more muscle mass than any other sapiens. But we had the true power.. knowledge. Okay, not all knowing knowledge (because we killed countless kids due to malnutrition). But we had the ability to sacrifice our muscle mass for brain development. It makes sense. Being big and have the advantage in a hand to hand is one thing, but knowing that you’re small, and looking for ways to defeat your enemy using your surroundings is completely different. If I were to have any doubts about Harari statement it would be that he doesn’t actually clarify how smart the Neanderthals really were. Yes they didn’t have as week developed brains as sapiens, but were they savvy in fighting because they were good at it? Usually experience is the best teacher. But being able to have more brain power to comprehend learning defeats my argument of the what ifs.
I agree with the fact that Sapiens are more knowledgeable than Neanderthals. They had the advantage because they could outsmart the Neanderthals and tire them out. Although I wonder what you actually think killed off the Neanderthals. I like how you talk about the malnutrition with children because of the lack of meat and dairy. Then when you tied that to the agricultural revolution I thought that was a great idea.