Sharing as Cultural Preexistence

Abstract

Participating in social life and sharing spaces, activities, or resources within a community are ancient constituents of the living traditions all around the world. This chapter describes, with an in-depth analysis, 12 historical typologies of shared living, distributed on the five continents. The cases highlight (1) the influence of the ethnographic characteristics in the physical and social structure of the communities and (2) the importance of the communitarian dimensions for the survival of the groups.