Su.Ki. gave an excellent answer for your original question. "would" has different meanings in different situations. It can be the "would" of politeness, it can be the "would" of an unreal condition and result, and many more. Here is a good article: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modal-would.htm

This usage of 'would' is equivalent to 'used to': it tells us what ancient peoples used to do before the invention of writing. We can use either 'would do' or 'used to do' to indicate a repeated practice or custom in the past which no longer happens. Note that this is unrelated to the more common use of 'would' in conditional statements and questions (e.g. What would you do if....?). The use of 'would' in your example only refers to past habits. Where else do we use "would"? Here's another example: "When I was a small child we used to visit my grandparents every autumn. My grandfather would take me out into the forest to collect mushrooms." Could we use something else instead of "would" in that sentence? You could use 'used to' in either of those sentences and the meaning would be the same. Note two important differences between 'would do' and 'used to do': While 'used to do' can refer to both repeated actions and customs in the past (dynamic/action verbs) and situations in the past (stative verbs), 'would do' can only refer to habits and customs. For example, you can say either "We used to visit my grandparents every autumn" or "We would visit my grandparents every autumn", because this is an action. But if you are talking about a state, e.g. "My granddad used to be very strong and athletic", you cannot use 'would'. 'Would' is relatively formal and tends to used in more literary/academic contexts or recollections of childhood. It's less common than 'used to', and it is not often heard in casual conversation. I hope that helps. You can find more about this in any grammar book.

would you jump off a bridge if your friend did ! Also the word WOOD is the same pronunciation ..but means " wood comes from trees "

Yes, "would" can also speak about past habits, the same as "used to". In the sense of past habits, you can use "would" or "used to" indistinctively whereas to refer to past STATES you can only do it with "used to" and not would. Hope it helps!

I heard "would" there has the silimar meaning to that of "used to". I am not sure what the difference between the two is, though.