英語でSapiens を読もう📖#５

ここは英語学習者と日本語学習者のみなさんのためのページです

For English learners!

Hello everyone, how’s your English learning journey going?😃 Reading an English book is sometimes a long journey. You might inadvertently stop if you are alone. But no worries. You are at the right place already. I would like to explore an English book here so that you can try reading the book with me. We are not alone. Let’s enjoy a fun time reading!

The book, which I picked up this time, is called Sapiens, published by Yuval Noah Harari. The Amazon Kindle link below allows you to read up to chapter 3. Today, I am covering chapter.5.

You can check out my recommending strategy of reading with a link below.

【英語学習者用】✖【日本語】英語のリーディングが苦手！でもいつか読めるようになりたい！！そんなあなた必読📖英語で読書をはじめる前にするべき３つのこと＋６つのTips

Read an English book for the first time 📖 ここは英語学習者と日本語学習者のみなさんのためのページです For English learners! Hello everyone, how's your...

Okay then, let’s get started📖

日本語学習者のみなさん！

みなさん、こんにちは。あずみです。日本語の勉強はどうですか？やさしい日本語で読むのに飽きてきたあなたに、もうワンランク上のリーディングをお届けしたい、ここはそんなブログです。英語部分で私が書いていることを、日本語で書くならこんな感じというのがテーマです。ぜひ、カジュアルな日本語のライティング表現を体験しながら、同時に興味深い本の内容も楽しんでボキャブラリーの幅を広げてくださいね。😃

英語の勉強、はかどってますか？英語の本を読むのって長い旅路ですよね。うっかり止まって挫折してしまうのはとても簡単です。でもこのブログを読んでいるあなたはだいじょうぶ。そんなあなたを応援するのがこのブログです。このブログで私は本を取り上げ、掘り下げていきたいと思いますので、よかったら私といっしょにこの本にチャレンジしてみてください。

今回読む本は、ユヴァル・ノア・ハラリさんの「サピエンス全史」です。本の内容はアマゾンキンドルのリンクから試し読みで確認してみてください。

また、こちらのリンクから英語の本のオススメの読み方について取り上げています📖ぜひ確認してみてくださいね。さぁ、５章を読みましょう。

Ch.5 History’s Biggest Fraud

第５章農耕がもたらした繁栄と悲劇

Grasp the structure!🦧構成を把握する
Summarize the chapter concisely🦧章をかんたんにまとめる
Make five questions to discuss🦧５つの質問を作る
Expressions and terms🦧覚えておきたい単語・表現

Grasp the structure!🦧構成を把握する

To grasp the chapter, you just try to see its hierarchical configuration. I strongly recommend drawing it either physically or virtually.

階層構造を追い、内容を把握します。実際にメモを取りながらするとはかどります。

The first section

Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, and Neanderthals had been foragers for 2,500,000 years. Meanwhile, about 10,000 years ago, Sapiens began to domesticate animals and plant species. By 3500 B.C., The main wave of domestication was over. By the first century, the 90% of foods we have today were already domesticated.

Although the Agricultural Revolution was considered a great leap for humanity, its disadvantages probably outweighed the advantages.

How it was begun?

Old believed theory:

Agriculture spread from a single Middle Eastern point to the four corners of the world. ➡️　✖

Today’s theory:

Agriculture sprang up in some parts of the world entirely independently. It erupted somewhere happened to have a few suitable domesticated species, such as the Middle East, China, and Central America and spread far and wide. By the first century, the vast majority of Sapiens were agriculturists.

Agriculture is good or bad?

It is a great leap:

scholars once proclaimed that the agricultural revolution was a great leap forward for humanity. Intelligent human brain power enabled them to tame sheep and cultivate wheat in order to abandon grueling, dangerous, spartan hunter-gatherer’s life.
- advantage 1: village life certainly brought some immediate benefits, such as better protection against wild animals, rain, and cold.
- advantage 2: it provided much more food per unit of territory, and it enabled them to multiply exponentially.

It was a terrible catastrophe:

it is not a great leap, rather, plants domesticated Sapiens and manipulated them. Wheat forced humans to settle permanently. The essence of Agricultural Revolution: the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions.
- disadvantage 1: It brought about a plethora of ailments, such as slipped discs, arthritis, and hernias since human’s body was not evolved for agricultural tasks.
- disadvantage 2: wheat is poor in mineral and vitamins, hard to digest, and bad for teeth and gums. While about 13,000 B.C., a hundred relatively healthy well nourished people were in a village, about 8500 B.C., a thousand cramped people suffered from disease and malnutrition.
- disadvantage 3: it provided less economic security. While foragers relied on dozens of species to survive, and therefore they could weather difficult years without stocks of preserved food, farming societies relied on a single staple, and it added up the risk of famine since agriculture is affected by a lot of natural phenomenon.
- disadvantage 4: it let human more violent because farmers had more possessions and needed to protect land for planting. Extra food turned out to trigger conflict between bands.
  - ex.) In Ecuador, perhaps 50% of adult male meet a violent death at the hands of another human!

第一節目

工事中

The Luxury Trap

Why did humans begin agriculture?
➡️Theory 1: the search for an easier life

This made humans begin agriculture. Nobody plotted but a series of trivial decisions had the cumulative effect. And consequently, it released immense forces of change that transformed the world in ways nobody envisioned or wanted.

How did Sapiens begin agriculture?

It began when when global warming happened, which was ideal for wheat. Then Sapiens gradually gave up their nomadic lifestyle. They discovered efficient work and had less time to gather and hunt. The population began to grow. Farmers lifestyle passed over through generations. The small improvements they made, paradoxically added up to a millstone around the necks.

Why such a fateful miscalculation?

Because they were unable to fathom the full consequences of their decisions. They were incapable of neither foreseeing, remembering that previous generations lifestyle, nor returning back that lifestyle due to demographic growth. It still continues today. Luxuries, the search for an easier life, become necessities and spawn new obligations.
- ex.) Compared to mail, email makes people’s lives more anxious and agitated.
Because population growth gave farmers’ sheer weight of numbers and it allowed them to overcome foragers easily.

贅沢の罠

工事中

Divine Intervention

Why did humans begin agriculture?
➡️Theory 2: culture

A sophisticated religious or ideological culture made Sapiens begin agriculture. Even though it is difficult to prove non-material factors, telltale clues have been discovered in Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey.

Foundings in Göbekli Tepe.

Founding 1:

Monumental pillared structures(worth a huge amount of effort and time). It showed the capabilities of ancient foragers, and the complexity of their cultures.

Founding 2:

There was neither signs of a settlement nor utilitarian purpose. It dates to about 9500 B.C., and it means Sapiens had pre-agricultural society.

Founding 3:

Einkorn wheat, one domesticated wheat variant, turned out to be originated originated in the Karaçadag Hills – about thirty kilometres from Göbekli Tepe. This means initial domestication of wheat occurred when Sapiens had been building the temple since construction required large quantities of food. The temple may have been built first. It may well be that foragers switched from gathering wild wheat to intense wheat cultivation, not to increase their normal food supply, but rather to support the building and running of a temple.

聖なる介入

工事中

Victims of the Revolution

Sapiens began the domestication of animals following after Agricultural Revolution. Agriculture impacted the fate of animals.

The discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering is the most important lesson people can draw from Agricultural Revolution.

How did Sapiens domesticate animals?

The primal domestication:

selective hunting: hunt only adult rams in order to safeguard the long-term vitality of the local herd ➡️ Result: sheep became fatter, more submissive, and less curious in the evolutionary process.
corralling into a narrow gorge: defend the heard against predators.
tailing: use their skin for humans needs.
exploitation of animals: use animals for muscle power: tasks such as transportation, ploughing, grinding, etc.
- bridling animals in harness and leashes
- training them with whips and cattle prods
- mutilating them for restrains male aggression and control of the herd’s procreation.
  - ex.) in New Guinean society and in Nuer tribe in the Sudan. They slice off a chunk of pig’s nose in order not to let them sniff, therefore pigs cannot find food or even find their way around, and this makes pigs completely dependent on humans owner.

Today’s domestication:

population of chickens, cattle, pigs and sheep exploded; it was a big boon for chickens, cattle, pigs and sheep: a million (10,000 years ago) ➡️ a billion (today), by the criteria of survival and reproduction. The price is subjugation to a way of life completely alien to their urges and desires. It is full of suffering and endures.
- price 1: their procreation is completely controlled.
- price 2: lifespan is shortened to the minimum.
- price 3: natural instincts, social ties are broken.
- price 4: their aggression and sexuality are contained.
- price 5: their freedom of movement are curtailed.

But, human affection gives animals great care, do they?

Humans showed affection for their animals. This affection could be seen between kings and their peasants as well as between slaveholders and slaves.

Sheep raised for wool, pet dogs and cats, war horses, and racehorses often enjoyed comfortable conditions.

Agricultural Revolution’s two narratives.

Plants’ narrative: make sense

Wheat and maize succeed and spread exponentially globally. Their evolutionary success is meaningful.
- 10,000 years ago: it was just a wild grass, one of many, confined to a small range in the Middle East.
- Today: wheat covers about 2.25 million square kilometres of the globes surface.

Animals’ narrative: make no sense

Population exploding animals
- Each animal has a complex world of sensations and emotions. However, evolutionary success neither help individual quality of life nor translates into individual experience.
Extinct dangerous animals
- A rare wild animal on the brink of extinction probably have more a satisfied life.

革命の犠牲者たち

工事中

Summarize the chapter concisely🦧章をかんたんにまとめる

To summarize, check the hierarchical configuration and make sentences with important points of each.

階層構造の各部分のポイントを確認して、文にしてまとめます。

In contrast that other Homos prospered as foragers for 2,500,00 years, Sapiens, who had the Cognitive Revolution, began agriculture about 10,000 years ago. It might have been motivated by the desire for an easier life or some religious or ideological culture. Along with the Agricultural Revolution, the domestication of animals expanded. In a way, it can be described that plants, which exploded to spread globally thanks to Agricultural Revolution, domesticated Sapiens, since Sapiens’ lives have become worse compared to the one as a forager while they exploited animals and let animals lives miserable.

ホモ属の他の種が250万年もの間狩猟採集民として繁栄したのに対して、認知革命を経験したサピエンスは約1万年前に農業を始める。それは、より楽な暮らしを求めてのものであったかもしれないし、文化的な発達のための要請で始まったものである可能性もある。農業革命を経て動物の家畜化が広がる。サピエンスは他の動物を搾取しながら人口拡大を広げるが、その一方でサピエンス一人ひとりの生活の質は低下しており、ある意味でこれは農業によってその種が地理的に爆発的に拡大する結果になった植物が、サピエンスを家畜化した結果とも言える。

Make five questions to discuss🦧５つの質問を作る

To discuss, make questions. It gives you a great topic to talk about in English.

本について話し合うための質問を作ります。作った質問は英語で話をするときのいい話題になりますよ。

Evaluative question　評価的質問

How effective is the presentation in whole or in part? Why did the speaker/author make these choices and how well do they work?

Many possible answers can be found outside of the presentation but it’s a reference.

この箇所は全体の中で／この部分においてどう効果的な役割を果たしていますか？どうして話者はこのような表現をしましたか、またそれはどのように機能していますか？

たくさんの答えが本文の議論の外でひとつの例としてみちびかれる可能性があります。

A Question of Chapter 5

Is it realistic that Sapiens had some kind of culture first, and it drove them to have the Agricultural Revolution?

My opinion: Considering the fact that other Homos prospered for 2,500,000 years as foragers, the Cognitive Revolution made difference crucially between other Homos and Sapiens. If so, it is convincing that the fictive language, which was born from the Cognitive Revolution, drove Sapiens to do something different even though they had ample food and rich social structures.

第５章の質問

サピエンスがある一定の文化を確立し、それが彼らを農業革命へと導いたという意見は、現実的だと思いますか？

私の意見：ホモ属の他の種類が狩猟採集民として250万年もの間繁栄した事実を考えると、認知革命はホモサピエンスに決定的な違いをもたらしたと言えます。その場合、認知革命がもたらした虚構の言語は彼らの行動に大きな影響を与え、十分な食料や豊かな社会構造を既に有していたホモサピエンスに新しい行動を駆り立てというのは非常に説得力があると思います。

Expressions and terms🦧覚えておきたい単語・表現

Pick some terms that you are unfamiliar with from sentences you high-lightened and memorize them　because you need them to discuss this chapter!!

読みながらハイライトした特に重要だと思う文の中から、使い慣れていない言葉を選んで覚えましょう。なぜかというと、ディスカッションで意見や考えを言うために必要になるからです。

term	example sentence
domesticate	Sapiens did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.
multiply	Cultivating wheat enabled Sapiens to multiply exponentially.
backfire	Why didn’t Sapiens abandon farming when the plan backfired?
necessitate	Our habits necessitate luxuries so easily and spawn new obligations that our lives become harder to fulfill the obligations.

term	example sentences
栽さい培ばい化かする家か畜ちく化かする	サピエンスが小麦を栽培化したのではなく、小麦がサピエンスを家畜化したのです。
急きゅう増ぞうする	小麦の栽培はサピエンスの人口を急増させました。
裏うら目めに出でる	どうしてサピエンスは計画が裏目に出たとき、農業をやめなかったのでしょうか。
必要不ふ可か欠けつにする	習慣は贅沢を必要不可欠なものとし新しい義務を生み出します。そして新しい義務を追った私たちの生活はより困難なものになります。

The book introduced a very interesting painting from an Egyptian grave. It had a pair of oxen ploughing a field with a hunched position of the Egyptian farmer. It described not only the miserable oxen’s life but also the miserable Sapiens’ life, in which he devoted his life in hard labor oppressive to his body, his mind, and his social relationship. This painting seems to convince us that Sapiens are domesticated by plants. Please take a look!

本の中にエジプトの墓から出土した印象的な画が紹介されています。そこには二頭の牛と腰を曲げた状態では丈を耕す人間の姿があります。この画が描いているのは惨めな牛の生活だけではありません。惨めな人間の生活も同時に表しています。彼の人生は肉体、精神、社会的な関係を抑圧して肉体の労働従事に捧げられています。この画は植物に飼い慣らされ惨めな生活を強いられているサピエンスという視点に説得力を与えています。ぜひチェックしてくださいね。

By the way, the Japanese translation of this chapter is also as disappointing as the previous chapter. This chapter’s title has a significance that how it is important for people to see our behaviors differently, otherwise we will end up having the disastrous consequence by the third wave. Why didn’t Sapiens abandon farming when the plan backfired? Because they don’t have the capability of seeing anything wrong!? That would end the game!!🥲

ところで、この章の日本語翻訳タイトルも前章に引き続き残念なんです。章タイトルは、サピエンスの行動を別の角度から見ることがどれだけ重要かということを示唆していると思います。それができなければ、今の行動様式を続ければサピエンスは第三波によって悲惨な結末を迎えることでしょう。どうしてサピエンスは裏目に出た計画をやめなかったんでしょうか？それは彼らが間違っているものを見極める能力がまったくないからですか？それではこの世界は終わってしまいます🥲