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For hundreds of thousands of years, people have been living together under a number of very strict rules. Our rules are different in nature, and different in that we feel we have the right to challenge them, but rules are hardly a new thing.
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From what is known of hunter-gatherer groups, some of them, at least, manage with very few rules, and have all sorts of ways round those rules they do have. There do seem to be two fairly basic rules, which are both ways of saying the same thing;
a) women should not marry their brothers
b) men should not eat the meat of an animal they have killed
Which is to say: "Spread stuff around: don't hang onto it for yourself". (Symbolically - "You should not taste your own blood" covers both of them).
How strict are the rules? Evidence suggests that they are only as strict as the enforcement system. Malinowski observed the incest rule being applied very strictly in the case of a young man with few family connections, and not applied at all in the case of a chief and his sister (who was understood to be a very powerful witch). Among some African groups, men will go off hunting on their own and happily consume what they have killed out of sight of the main group.