# The use of Gold in Societies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 7, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284 "2013-03-07T12:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/1 "2013-03-07T12:20:11Z")
What/which Societies did not have a use for Gold and what/which Societies did use Gold in the past to present. Like, did the “Inuits” have a use for Gold? or the Australian “Aboriginals”? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![StJoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@StJoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StJoan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/2 "2013-03-07T13:32:07Z")
Indian (mainly Hindu) society. I was shocked to learn that gold and silver have been India’s 2nd largest imports in the recent years. Since no Indian bride will step to the altar without making a Christmas tree feel a little undressed, I suppose I should not be surprised. Anyway, Indians regard gold as an investment, and the jewelery will be one part of a bride’s dowry which she will (probably) have access to all her life long. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/3 "2013-03-07T15:30:18Z")
This is another of those questions that are so broad as to be meaningless. What does “use” mean? As a currency? As a precious metal? As an industrial component? As jewelry? As a dental filling? Every society that has access to gold has used it continuously. The U.S. uses gold every day in a thousand different ways. I hope the OP comes back to clarify and narrow the question. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/4 "2013-03-07T15:34:35Z")
Native Americans, at least those living in the foothills of Northern California, apparently didn’t have much use for gold… hence the gold rush of 1948. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/5 "2013-03-07T15:57:29Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Native Americans, at least those living in the foothills of Northern California, apparently didn’t have much use for gold… hence the gold rush of 1948. Make that 1848 :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/6 "2013-03-07T16:14:57Z")
1748 and that’s my final offer! ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/7 "2013-03-07T23:02:31Z")
That they did not have a use for it should be a pretty straightforward question, they knew about it, found it interesting but did not use it, or in other words , they were not seduced by it. The ones that are using it are easy, but it’s not used everywhere for the same reason, so maybe the question should be, what societies use it “greedy”? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/8 "2013-03-08T00:22:17Z")
In relation to Australian Aborigines They would have had access to alluvial gold particularly in the Ballarat & Bendigo regions of Victoria, but references to tribes wearing gold ornaments or precious stones are thin on the ground. Similarly the Paupua & New Guinea highland tribes who have never been backward in making wildly elborate costumes from the fanciest local resources but rarely featured gold, silver or precious stones. Never having developed iron or bronze age technologies, smelting gold would have been problematic as they’d have need to be wood fired as not many had ready access to coal but equally they hadn’t develped pottery/ceramics for casting. Based on this [paper on aboriginal mining](http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/109817/mining-by-aborigines.pdf) about 400 identifed aboriginal mine sites in eastern Australia have been identified, about 80% of these would be stone quarries, about 10% for ochre (iron oxide) and the balance indetermined ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/9 "2013-03-08T12:24:54Z")
Thanks for the link, the reason for my asking is, that I am wondering why the Western and the Indian societies are so interested in Gold in every aspect, I would like to know if in China Gold as Jewelery or as an Investment has any tradition? ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/10 "2013-03-08T15:19:11Z")
> [@Simple\_Mind](#): > > Thanks for the link, the reason for my asking is, that I am wondering why the Western and the Indian societies are so interested in Gold in every aspect, I would like to know if in China Gold as Jewelery or as an Investment has any tradition? Speaking from the ground floor, as it were, I can tell you that the Chinese also love gold, although it doesn’t have quite the same connotations to them because silver was their traditional money for many centuries . They regarded gold, so to speak, the same way we might today regard emeralds and rubies - as objects both valuable and beautiful, but not necessarily as a basis for currency. Nowadays, however, they do use gold for both jewelry and for investment. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/11 "2013-03-08T15:42:59Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > Never having developed iron or bronze age technologies, smelting gold would have been problematic as they’d have need to be wood fired as not many had ready access to coal but equally they hadn’t develped pottery/ceramics for casting. This is interesting to me, as the major Central American civilizations _adored_ gold and had some amazing amounts of it - enough to eventually wreck the Spanish economy and dramatically inflate it across Europe, in fact. They had pottery, but no bronze tools and no smithing technologies at all (Or wheels. Or real beasts of burden. And rather limited writing. Actually, it’s kinda impressive there was a civilizaiton at all.) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/12 "2013-03-08T22:32:08Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > This is interesting to me, as the major Central American civilizations _adored_ gold and had some amazing amounts of it - enough to eventually wreck the Spanish economy and dramatically inflate it across Europe, in fact. They had pottery, but no bronze tools and no smithing technologies at all (Or wheels. Or real beasts of burden. And rather limited writing. Actually, it’s kinda impressive there was a civilizaiton at all.) I’m more impressed that they developed agriculture. It took how many millenia for homo sapiens to develop agriculture in the ideal locations - Nile, Euphrates, China. Then these Siberian hunter-gatherer nomads with no external input (that we know of) develop the concept and the plants for agriculture within a few thousand years of arriving in the new world, having migrated south to totally unfamiliar climates and ecologies. To what extent was gold actually known? I know the Incas were quite familiar with it; the Aztecs too, IIRC, implying the Mayans also had it. But as far as more nomadic, less developed tribes? I don’t recall hearing about any goldwork north of the Aztecs. Why did the Inca get so heavily into gold? Did they have a fantastic rich source? To get the quality they had, they obviously knew about metalworking, if not smelting. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-use-of-gold-in-societies/652284/13 "2013-03-08T23:25:17Z")
Maybe the Gold in South America is ease to find and in very pure form, or is it possible to “clean” Gold by pounding it, can Gold be “welded” cold?