SAPIENS BOOK REVIEW | UCLA Anthropology Student

This is a book review on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari! Sapiens is a brief history of humankind which can be understood by almost all academic backgrounds! I am an anthropology student myself and wanted to give this book a try. This video is my thoughts and comments on the book as a whole. Enjoy!

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Who am I? My name is Alivia Brown and I am currently an undergraduate Anthropology student at UCLA on a mission to find a career that I love. My major does not have a straight forward "path" as many would say and I am not only determined to prove that I can be successful in my major but also demonstrate my ability to find a career that brings me joy. This is my journey to expanding my global and anthropological knowledge. This is my journey to finding the best career I can. This is my journey to finding happiness. This is my journey to success.

Keywords: Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, Brief History of Humankind, book review, Ucla student, Ucla anthropology, biological anthropology, anthropology majors, history majors

[AliviaBrown]

Did you know I wrote a course on human evolution? 🧬🦍🦧🐒🌱🌳

[haydenayotte]

I wouldn’t say he was anti-religion. Just acknowledged the fact that all ethics/moral are imagined or created by humans.

[JeremiahTatola]

Even though a negative aspect of the book for you was his stance on religion, it definitely sold me! haha I think that, as anthropology students, it's important not to minimize the roll of religion in the development of humankind, but it's also important to put aside the believes of the peoples we are studying or our own personal biases to consider the religions and come to our own rational and logical conclusions rationally. If the writer of the book was going at it from an angle of "maybe these things are or are not real" could it have affected the writing in any way?
Anyways, love your videos as always! :)

[chickennuggets_]

Very great and informative review. I got the book as an gift and it was sitting in my shelf for the longest time. You have sold me. Thank you :)

[akashkaushik]

I'm in the process of finishing the book and it's quite interesting. I also enjoyed your review of the book. I look forward to more book reviews from you. Keep up the good work!

[Robermann.McCloud]

I found the whole book very interesting and I was passionate reading it all. I think it's a book everyone should read. But not everyone has the same interests and starts from different maturity and knowledge points. Therefore maybe not everyone is prepared for something like this. Especially if they think their religion is the only true one, among the thousands of religions the humanity created...

[deoarlo]

Love the concise review, please do more of these :)

[noeditbookreviews]

Thank you for the review. It sounds great! It's officially on my tbr.

[kimthelionheart]

I'm almost done reading this book. I'm in the last chapter of the book right now. Thanks a lot for more info about the book.

[whoknows]

I also disagree with the notion that is general rather than specific means you may not learn something rather that if you consider the book as a whole it can influence you so that it challenges the entire way to observe life as a whole and such affects almost if not all aspects of your life and how you engage with your life

[MiamiRealEstateAgent]

Regarding the religion part. And these are just my thoughts because I find this topic very interesting. I am not saying I'm 100% correct (disclaimer).

I wouldn't necessarily say he's anti-religion. He (and we) just need to view history from a very objective POV in order to understand how everything flows together and is interconnect. If he was I guess "for" religion, the entire beginning part of the book (your fav anthropology part) wouldn't even exist. It would just be one page: "God created man. Possibly Adam and Eve." And that's it, next chapter. Furthermore, people would even still disagree with that because that's Catholic, and there are billions of people who can read the book who are Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc... So instead, let's focus on what ALL religions have in common and how they affect mankind's development throughout history.

I think religions are a beautiful part of cultures and the human experience. Without them we'd just be soulless and purely objective/logical all the time, which would be very mundane. Now are religions the pure truth? No. But that's fine; it doesn't need to be true to be useful, beautiful, cherished, and promote good values / ways of life / unity.

Now I'm typing too much haha sorry. Very thought-provoking read for sure! Loved your video :)

[Nixreads]

Great review Alivia! I left this book unrated on my goodreads cause I find it hard to judge non-fiction books! I'm trying to find the words for my wrap-up to summarize my thoughts so I was looking through reviews to find inspiration for a concise way to talk about it :) I found the first part of the book the most interesting! Do you have an anthropology centered book to recommend to people who are not particularly well-read on the subject? It left me wanting to read more on that topic!

[daxcoco]

I disagree about the book is not religious, He states no matter what people of science do to the body... they could never break the spirit. ( Death Becomes Her the movie) That makes a good point. I do believe in God and the afterlife and loved this book and it was an amazing read. Good video Alivia Thank you.

[peacew]

The author does NOT take antireligion stand point. He lays out historical facts that religious people would not appreciate. But then again, I'm sure you can understand why they would not appreciate that since you think religion is false. Harari even claims religion is one of the reasons we humans became so powerful.

[Jammo]

I read Sapiens about 5yrs ago and I've got to say it's 1 of the most interesting/informative books I've ever read and I read it in about 2wks and I actually thought it was better for not taking a religious view and for not incorporating religious views as if it was fact 💯💯😉

[CZinDC]

As an Anthropology graduate, this channel is great.

[alejandrosapiens]

Good Review! I was listening and not watching and your California accent was flowing out of you very naturally. Gave me nostalgia.

[Jgamingmjl]

You’re so well spoken and intelligent! Thanks for the great review

[andrewgonzales]

When I worked as a campaign worker, I was accidentally sent to a church where a pro-life meeting occurred. The Midwest is so much more conservative than the West Coast, although I know there nuances. Saying “religion is false”, would be so radical here. Discussing an ethnography of America itself would be interesting... an ethnography of the Midwest was mentioned during one of my anthropology classes but I’ve never seen work done on the topic.

[cbthunderpig]

Does it review the evolutionary crossing point of sentient life forms?