Generosity From The Stone Age To The Bronze Age

Name Instructor Course Date Seeing a Better Country: Generosity from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age Summary Human beings have been generous to those close to them and even strangers as early as the Stone Age. Perceptions on helping others from being generous to those that people know well to being been generous to strangers have also changed over time. When the societies first changed from hunter gatherer lifestyle to more sedentary and agricultural systems there were changes in the way people interacted. For instance, the people would help strangers within their communities as they shared something in common, but strangers from other communities were like enemies. At the same time, people also helped others if this would benefit them. Typically, in the hunter-gatherer societies, strangers were people who had connections with others, but had no idea about such connections when living in the same territory. The hunter-gatherers were more likely to share with their peers as they also shared to survive, as the people also relied on unpredictable resources. The settled agriculturalists and even more complex hunter gatherers were less inclined to involve collective resource ownership. Over time governments in different societies identified systems that would protect the most vulnerable in their societies and this also helped to keep the societies stable. However, rulers have not always been generous for a noble reason, as some have sought to endear themselves to the people that they utilized institutional generosity to show that they cared for the people. Generosity has also been institutionalized in diverse societies and from the 19th century and in the 20th century social policy programs adopted have sought to alleviate poverty and impr...