Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Prehistory Narratives”

After reading Harari’s description of human quality of life during different periods of prehistory, students demonstrate their understanding by creating two contrasting narratives centered on the daily life of a typical person.

In Sapiens, Harari explains how various prehistoric changes in human society impacted human quality of life. In this activity, you will choose two distinct eras in prehistory and create a character from each period. Then, you will write a narrative focused on a typical day in each character’s life, using details from both Harari’s book and your own imagination.

• Choose two time periods in which human quality of life is distinctly different.
• Create a character for each period.

o Your characters should be average people for their eras, not people whose backgrounds would make them part of a small minority.

o Decide what kind of tasks your characters would encounter in a typical day—are they hunters, gatherers, farmers, merchants, etc.?

o Decide what kind of person each character is—are they ambitious? lazy? anxious? carefree? sociable? introverted? etc.

o Imagine what your characters worry about and dream about and how they feel about their lives.