# The most mission-critical human invention? (The mission being civilization)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 27, 2025, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521 "2025-08-27T08:13:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-mission-critical-human-invention-the-mission-being-civilization/1022521/101 "2025-08-30T14:35:31Z")

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> [@PlaceboTarget](#):
>
> every cultural structure or particular civilization on Earth is built on a narrative bedrock

This is convincing to me.

A society is bound together by its myths. Oral histories pass on information but more so they are both a society’s foundation, and its needle and thread tying the group into a unit with identity beyond kinships.

The pouch vs spear question? In a Freudian way even, you don’t have a functioning self perpetuating society without each working together. (No disrespect to spear on spear or pouch on pouch …) In a literal way, hunting and gathering using basic tools very likely occurred at the same time and required each other.

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