The making of the modern world.

This article presents information on the history of human evolution. Only a few tens of thousand years ago human beings were nomadic, egalitarian hunter-gatherers. Then, in the blink of an evolutionary eye, species invented civilisation. Long before ancestors had any trappings of civilisation, they had a taste for material goods. Mass consumerism may be a 20th-century invention, but its roots go back to the dawn of humanity. It is arguably the cornerstone of civilisation. Before ancestors invented writing, before they had laws and cities, before pastoralism and farming, even before the use of metal to make tools, there was trade. Trade in the necessities of life such as food and simple tools is probably at least as old as our species. But what is really surprising is that our taste for objects with no obvious survival value — trinkets, luxury items and "prestige goods" — also goes way back. Once trade gets off the ground, the economic benefits quickly make it irresistible.