http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers
Friendship
In the days of the Foragers sharing, friendship, and kinship were the most important virtues to people. This was partially because they didn't know any better and there were not conflicts that make people dislike each other like there are today. This is still true in some aspects of the world today, The Quaker religion believes in these same qualities. They often refer to themselves as the Religious Society of Friends or just Friends. Acceptance like this is extremely scarce in today's world. The Foragers believed in the same qualities as the Quakers and it helped their community stay tightly knit and make everyone feel like they were just as important as the person next to them. They also share the belief that even though some of their closest friends may not be related to them in blood they treat them as if they were. The foraging era was also the longest era of human history, so this idea of friendship and sharing was the core of everyone's beliefs for about 250,000 years.
The Quakers do have a more Christian spin on their religious beliefs unlike the foragers. Quakerism was started around 1650, so like the foragers their beliefs have been running strong for a long time. When everyone feels included and important they seem to be much less arrogant and mean and actually are happier and more cooperative. When Quakers pray they stand in a circle as opposed to a regular church where they sit in rows with a priest at the front. This is a way to represent an understanding that there is no hierarchy and everyone is equal. Similarly, Foragers treated everyone in their community with the same amount of respect and kindness which was crucial to their long lived era.
Community was extremely important to Foragers because they would hunt, live, and survive together. Foragers believed in putting the community before themselves because if they did not they would die without each others support and services. Quakers also believe in putting their community first, but for different reasons. Quakers live a very simple life for the purpose of focusing more on God than things like money or clothes. This makes live without certain luxuries, and therefore be more inclined to live a philanthropic lifestyle. Doing this means not taking more than you need and also sharing what you have.
Foragers also had ways of maintaining tightly knit communities. One way they would do this is giving one another gifts or things they need. This can be easily misinterpreted and trading but they would not give each other goods for goods in return they do it to just show their appreciation for one another. This brought their communities closer together and made everyone realize how important community is.
There are many similarities between a group of people who were some of the first to inhabit the earth and those who's religion was created in only the 1600's. It's truly astounding to see the many connections between these two groups of people because of how different they are in some ways, but if you can see them it will open your eyes and your mind to the idea that just because we live in a different time period than the foragers doesn't mean we don't live like them in someways.
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