The Evolution of Human Culture

In his book Sapiens, Yuval Harari argues that the cognitive and the agricultural revolutions shaped our modern civilization. The cognitive revolution occurred around 70,000 BC. The cognitive revolution was when Homo Sapiens evolved and began using their imagination. This is where species where able to communicate in a much more advanced way. This time period is when story telling of myths and fantasies came from. The cognitive revolution gave Homo Sapiens for the first time more advanced communication, this allowed for larger groups to come together and survive. The agricultural revolution occurred around 10,000 BC and was when humans first began to use agriculture as its main source of food. The switch from being a hunter-gatherer species to using agriculture was major. It allowed for humans to settle in a particular location instead of constantly moving from location to location. Without the need to follow the food humans were able to settle down, this made life much more stable. This also allowed for larger groups to live together successfully. This allowed for humans to create more of a society with everybody working together as a group.

Homo Sapiens were able to become dominant for many different reasons, but a large reason for this was the use of imagined orders. Imagined orders are a myth or an idea that can bring people together and get them to cooperate. According to Harari humans were not genetically designed to work together in groups, but with imagined orders it brings together people with common beliefs. This allows people to work together for the common goal, and this creates a more successful society. This is why humans were able to come together relatively quickly and become the dominant species on the planet.