“Work,” following herds of game and hunting, is not the same thing as schlepping it to some multinational soulless corp 5 days or more a week for what is now approaching starvation wages for many.
The hunter gatherers are understood to have had more free time, and a higher standard of living in many respects, than their ancestors that started to farm, and were subsequently conquered by organized groups of armed men that subjugated them.
“Work,” following herds of game and hunting, is not the same thing as schlepping it to some multinational soulless corp 5 days or more a week for what is now approaching starvation wages for many.
You’re right, it’s much fucking harder and ‘starvation wages’ in the context of hunter-gatherer society is fucking laughable.
Don’t mistake an unfair scenario in the modern day with it being worse than the past.
The hunter gatherers are understood to have had more free time,
Slightly more, yes.
and a higher standard of living in many respects,
Fucking what.
Material accumulation was only possible with the advent of sedentary societies, which were overwhelmingly based on subsistence farming.
than their ancestors that started to farm, and were subsequently conquered by organized groups of armed men that subjugated them.
The ‘neat’ notion of hunter-gatherer societies being overwhelmingly conquered is deeply outdated - as is, for that matter, the notion of a strict and immediate demarcation between hunter-gatherer and sedentary farming societies in most regions.
Hunter-gatherers definitely had a lower quality of life in many material ways, but I’d assume that they were doing pretty well in terms of social and psychological wellbeing.
I dunno that I’d take a stance either way. “Evolved for” is different from “thrives in”, after all. We also evolved for the physical health conditions of being pre-civilizational hunter-gatherers, but that doesn’t actually mean that our physical health is optimal in the conditions we evolved for.
Only if you were the same as everyone else. If you were an unwanted child, or one with deformities or anything else that could be a “bad omen” you would have been left to die. Same if you were too injured or sick to treat or past your useful lifespan.
Sure. Lack of material goods and modern science is an issue. I certainly wouldn’t trade access to modern medicine with a healthy social life. But it’s a fact that tons of people in wealthy countries suffer from social isolation and stress from modern work life.
As to the last paragraph, I said the opposite, that farmers were subjugated in a way the tribal hunter gatherers were not.
You can talk better or worse, but for a lot of people, life is hell right now. More than you may know. The people building you phones for instance. Or making your clothes. Or most of your other cheap bullshit we used to make here with union labour.
“Work,” following herds of game and hunting, is not the same thing as schlepping it to some multinational soulless corp 5 days or more a week for what is now approaching starvation wages for many.
The hunter gatherers are understood to have had more free time, and a higher standard of living in many respects, than their ancestors that started to farm, and were subsequently conquered by organized groups of armed men that subjugated them.
You’re right, it’s much fucking harder and ‘starvation wages’ in the context of hunter-gatherer society is fucking laughable.
Don’t mistake an unfair scenario in the modern day with it being worse than the past.
Slightly more, yes.
Fucking what.
Material accumulation was only possible with the advent of sedentary societies, which were overwhelmingly based on subsistence farming.
The ‘neat’ notion of hunter-gatherer societies being overwhelmingly conquered is deeply outdated - as is, for that matter, the notion of a strict and immediate demarcation between hunter-gatherer and sedentary farming societies in most regions.
Hunter-gatherers definitely had a lower quality of life in many material ways, but I’d assume that they were doing pretty well in terms of social and psychological wellbeing.
I dunno that I’d take a stance either way. “Evolved for” is different from “thrives in”, after all. We also evolved for the physical health conditions of being pre-civilizational hunter-gatherers, but that doesn’t actually mean that our physical health is optimal in the conditions we evolved for.
Only if you were the same as everyone else. If you were an unwanted child, or one with deformities or anything else that could be a “bad omen” you would have been left to die. Same if you were too injured or sick to treat or past your useful lifespan.
Sure. Lack of material goods and modern science is an issue. I certainly wouldn’t trade access to modern medicine with a healthy social life. But it’s a fact that tons of people in wealthy countries suffer from social isolation and stress from modern work life.
As to the last paragraph, I said the opposite, that farmers were subjugated in a way the tribal hunter gatherers were not.
You can talk better or worse, but for a lot of people, life is hell right now. More than you may know. The people building you phones for instance. Or making your clothes. Or most of your other cheap bullshit we used to make here with union labour.