memes

It usually depends on if you are working from scarcity or surplus. One of the more interesting finds within cultural materialist anthropology, is that scarcity usually drives collective behaviors, while surplus usually drives wedges as more surplus can be gained from more fertile areas, better techniques, better knowledge of the land, etc, which means that it is inevitably unequally distributed if left alone.

And different societies have had different ways of dealing with this phenomena, with some cultures using shame and sarcasm to bring individuals with surplus back into the communal fold and have them distribute it, and others having large ceremonial gatherings where burning or bringing as much stuff as you can to the gathering is a way to secure prestige within the group. The group incentive is to use all of your surplus, thus start out at the same level as everyone else every year.

Most of Europe had similar traditions well into the medieval period, with modernity, and in particular capitalism, really driving the nail in the coffin on those particular set of behaviors, which is one of many reasons why capitalism is extremely misanthropic to it's core, as it promotes the exact opposite behavior.