re: #45 Obdicut

If you look at hunter-gatherer societies, they do indeed give help— and place a high premium on hospitality for— strangers.

So why do you say it’s human to only help inside a societal boundary?

What are you defining as a societal boundary?

It depends on how the H-G society forms group identities. There have been some even relatively recently who will war on neighbouring tribes/groups yet accept strangers into their community, think Blackfoot vs Cree.

Modern humans tend to move in multiple groups and many times those groups nest into one another. Our modern group boundaries are also fuzzy when compared to smaller, more formal groups like H-G societies.

The societal boundary is defined by the group and if you go far enough back groups are determined by our selfish genes.