Cavemen: what did they do in their spare time?

[Svartalf]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings. Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about. Plus, the distinction between work and play isn't so clear cut as it is for us. You can mend a bow or process food while sitting talking with friends, and I'm sure tracking game and hunting is a pretty enjoyable type of "work". While women tend to put more time and energy into gathering than men do hunting (and also provide more energy/protein too), the task of gathering is far from drudgery and is usually a community activity.

Is that true of all known HG cultures, or just those in tropical climates where nature is bountiful in the extreme?

[cowiz]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings. Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about. Plus, the distinction between work and play isn't so clear cut as it is for us. You can mend a bow or process food while sitting talking with friends, and I'm sure tracking game and hunting is a pretty enjoyable type of "work". While women tend to put more time and energy into gathering than men do hunting (and also provide more energy/protein too), the task of gathering is far from drudgery and is usually a community activity.

Is that true of all known HG cultures, or just those in tropical climates where nature is bountiful in the extreme?

I never understood Eskimos. Move South you twats, it's fucking warmer.

[Coito ergo sum]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings. Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about. Plus, the distinction between work and play isn't so clear cut as it is for us. You can mend a bow or process food while sitting talking with friends, and I'm sure tracking game and hunting is a pretty enjoyable type of "work". While women tend to put more time and energy into gathering than men do hunting (and also provide more energy/protein too), the task of gathering is far from drudgery and is usually a community activity.

Is that true of all known HG cultures, or just those in tropical climates where nature is bountiful in the extreme?

I never understood Eskimos. Move South you twats, it's fucking warmer.

Canadians, too.

[Seth]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings.

Estimated by whom, pray tell? Somebody who's never spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities?

Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about.

And they would know this how, exactly?

Plus, the distinction between work and play isn't so clear cut as it is for us. You can mend a bow or process food while sitting talking with friends,

Of course you can. So what? You can assemble widgets and talk at the same time to, but it's still work putting widgets together.

and I'm sure tracking game and hunting is a pretty enjoyable type of "work".

Ever tried it? It's only enjoyable when your life does not depend on finding, stalking and killing wild animals every day. It's a sport today because if you don't get your elk or deer, you can always go back to camp and open a can of beans. Even at that it's pretty frustrating to spend hours stalking an elk with a bow and arrow (and yes, I've done it) only to have the damned thing spook as you draw your bow and disappear at top speed over the ridge in the distance faster than you could possibly imagine.

Hunting for food is an all-the-time thing for a group which depends on fresh meat for survival. That's why "gathering" became part of the culture. It's way easier to harvest food that doesn't run away from you, and it stores better.

While women tend to put more time and energy into gathering than men do hunting (and also provide more energy/protein too), the task of gathering is far from drudgery and is usually a community activity.

Clearly you've never spent the day busting ass over the ridges and through the woods looking for something to shoot with your bow or stab with your spear. If you had, you'd understand that hunting is a high-calorie, high-energy activity. Even if you're still-hunting, which means concealed in a stand somewhere, like near a water hole, waiting for game to come drink if you succeed in killing something, then you have to field-dress it and then transport it back to camp, which is always the hardest part of big-game hunting. Took me two whole days to pack out one elk I killed, about six miles one-way to a trail where I could park my Jeep, over some pretty rugged terrain. Way more work than stalking and killing it.

Sure, gathering takes more time, and can be a social event, but it's a relatively easy, low-energy activity as compared to hunting, which is why the women do it. And while you can be social while you gather, when you're hunting silence is the key to success, so idle chatter is frowned upon, as game animals have very sharp hearing.

[Coito ergo sum]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings.

Estimated by whom, pray tell? Somebody who's never spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities?

People who have studied hunter-gatherer societies]

Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about.

And they would know this how, exactly?

By studying the topic.

For example: Sahlins, M. (2005). The Original Affluent Society [Online] in M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics http://www.eco-action.org/dt/affluent.

But, of course, the question is a difficult one to answer. I suppose the best evidence would come from studying the remaining hunter-gatherer cultures on the planet and see how much time they spend lounging, fucking, wanking, sleeping and whittling.

[Seth]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings.

Estimated by whom, pray tell? Somebody who's never spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities?

People who have studied hunter-gatherer societies

Such as? Have they ever spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities as a part of their "studies?" And how exactly would these ivory-tower academics have the faintest clue how much time hunter-gatherers, who lived tens of thousands of years ago, spend their time?

Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about.

And they would know this how, exactly?

By studying the topic.



For example: Sahlins, M. (2005). The Original Affluent Society [Online] in M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics http://www.eco-action.org/dt/affluent.

Bad link to an idiotic eco-zealot website with approximately zero content.

But, of course, the question is a difficult one to answer. I suppose the best evidence would come from studying the remaining hunter-gatherer cultures on the planet and see how much time they spend lounging, fucking, wanking, sleeping and whittling.

I suppose it depends a lot on the particular ecosystem that the hunter-gatherer group lives in. Life in the tropical jungle is quite different from life in Europe during the last Ice Age.

[PsychoSerenity]

People who have studied hunter-gatherer societies

Such as? Have they ever spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities as a part of their "studies?" And how exactly would these ivory-tower academics have the faintest clue how much time hunter-gatherers, who lived tens of thousands of years ago, spend their time?

What argument are you trying to make here Seth? It sounds like you attempted to survive in the wilderness and found it a real struggle, so therefore it must have been hard for cavemen too - because they couldn't possibly be better at surviving in the wilderness than you!

[Seth]

People who have studied hunter-gatherer societies

Such as? Have they ever spent a day in the wilderness trying to survive without modern amenities as a part of their "studies?" And how exactly would these ivory-tower academics have the faintest clue how much time hunter-gatherers, who lived tens of thousands of years ago, spend their time?

What argument are you trying to make here Seth? It sounds like you attempted to survive in the wilderness and found it a real struggle, so therefore it must have been hard for cavemen too - because they couldn't possibly be better at surviving in the wilderness than you!

Not at all, but the idea that anyone can say with any sort of authority that hunters spent only 4 hours a day on hunting is ludicrous to anyone who has actually spent any time subsistence hunting. I suppose you might average time, and yes, after killing a mammoth or other large animal it would provide some relief from the constant search for food for a short while, until the meat spoiled or ran out, but life in the wilderness is harder than academics think it is. That's all I'm saying. And my experiences in the wilderness had the assistance of modern weapons and tools, not obsidian-tipped or pointed sticks and crude stone implements.

[Tero]

I guess Seth doesn't find squirrels and raccoons edible.

[Seth]

I guess Seth doesn't find squirrels and raccoons edible.

Ever try to find and kill a squirrel or a raccoon with a stone-tipped spear...or even a sling?

It's not as easy as you seem to think it is.

[Tero]

I believe I could shoot a squirrel after some practice. They were shot with blunt arrows when their skin was worth something.

I would not spear the raccoons. I would trap them with bird eggs as bait.

[Svartalf]

Sew it with enough other skins, and it's always worth something.

[JimC]

When conditions were good, the people of the Kalahari and similar hunter-gatherers did not have to work as hard as most early farming communities, or workers of the industrial revolution...

When droughts and the like came, then many died...

[Tyrannical]

It's been estimated that hunter-gatherers use only four hours a day on all their practical needs, including hunting and gathering, making and repairing their tools/weapons/equipment/dwellings. Lots of anthropological reports also show that hunter-gatherers spend quite a lot of time lazing about. Plus, the distinction between work and play isn't so clear cut as it is for us. You can mend a bow or process food while sitting talking with friends, and I'm sure tracking game and hunting is a pretty enjoyable type of "work". While women tend to put more time and energy into gathering than men do hunting (and also provide more energy/protein too), the task of gathering is far from drudgery and is usually a community activity.

Yes, that all looks correct and saves me the time of having to type it. I will add that children are productive gatherers even at a young age, and can be nearly as productive as an adult in certain tasks.

I bet that Neanderthal were seasonally migratory, following animal herds as their primary source of food. Maybe they lived similarly to the American Indians on the Great Plains?

[Gawdzilla Sama]