The History Of Begging

In ancient Greece, beggars were a recognised social category — sometimes despised, sometimes considered sacred (the gods could be disguised). The Hebrew Bible mandates leaving the corners of fields unharvested so that the poor could glean. Buddhism made begging a spiritual practice.

The mendicant orders — Franciscans, Dominicans — institutionalised begging as a religious vocation. Outside the orders, civil authorities oscillated between charity and criminalisation, often within the same century.

Mass urbanisation produced visible street poverty at a new scale. Most modern panhandling laws date from this period and most were written to make the poor less visible, not to help them.

The website replaces the street corner. The wallet replaces the cup. The audience expands from passers-by to the entire connected world. The act itself is unchanged.