Sapiens did not win because its muscles were stronger or its tools were sharper. The advantage was cognitive: a mind that could juggle many relationships and hold shared fictions in common. The world stayed physical, but social reality became negotiable.
Language became more than warning cries. It carried gossip, reputation, and the subtle politics of small groups. Even more strangely, it carried stories about things no one could touch: spirits, clans, rules, and imagined debts.
Once a crowd can believe the same invented order, it can cooperate far beyond kinship. Hundreds, then thousands, can act as if they are one body, because they trust the same tale. This is the hinge of our history: real lions fear only teeth, but humans fear laws, gods, and flags, and will die for them.