Right, and I don't doubt you, empathy is how society grew. But empathy is not why society started.

Keep in mind that you wanted to keep old people in your tribe to look after the children. The men and women were looking for food and firewood and building materials. Losing children means the end of the tribe. Feeding the elderly is still security. It simply makes sense from a survival standpoint.

Obviously they had empathy as well. If you didnt, you wouldn't bother to bury the dead, let alone give up valuable items as offerings, such as an ax. As far as I'm aware, that practice dates back at least 40k years. So obviously there was empathy there.

However, I would say that that empathy comes from security. "They were one of us"

But a rival tribe member dies? Do you think they would gather for that scenario? That would be empathy. And there's no proof of that in a prehistorical context.