Communalism, the Natural Way?

The more time I spend outside of the United States the more I realize that communal societies, defined as societies where the scope of individual activity is normatively seen to be subordinate to, and legitimately curtailed by, the interests of whatever group that individual belongs to, are the norm in the world. Normative individualism is, as far as I can tell, found only in the United States and to considerably lesser extents in most other Western nations. Thirty years ago we might have been able to say that modern economies demanded such individualistic norms. But with the rise of many Asian economies whose societies remain strongly communally orientated, that argument can certainly no longer be even tentatively made.

So if this strange individualism was not responsible/necessary for, or did not develop because of, the West's 200 or so years of modernization, where did it come from?

And related to that question, if a society's ability to have a modern economy is not coupled to its adopting individualistic norms, is the reverse true? I.e. were/are there any cases of earlier, or simply less economically advanced societies, that were/are also normatively individualistic?

Communalism, the Natural Way?