Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Human culture is filled with inconsistencies, and through these inconsistencies we can strive to understand cultural development and progress. Currently, we try to reconcile freedom and equality in our culture, but these ideas clash, and we fall short of the ideal.

As the population grew and societies merged and became larger, the imagined order became clearer and more structured. Citizens are indoctrinated almost from birth to think a certain way and behave according to acceptable standards based on rules and regulations of the society into which they are born. These standards help strangers in the society to understand each other, to predict behavior, and to work together in cooperation. History shows us that the planet is moving toward one culture. Any divisions or separations are temporary diversions.

The idea of creating money for use as currency developed as societies grew larger and more intricate and thus the barter system no longer sufficed. The Spaniards valued gold, and when they arrived in Mexico and found the Aztecs and their gold stores—though the Aztecs thought gold quite useless for anything other than decoration and instead used cloth and beans as currency—the value of gold increased as the Spaniards spread the use of it across Afro-Asia.