Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers

[Chris]

Agriculture was not progres, and it was sexist!

Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers, study suggests

Hunter-gatherers in the Philippines who adopt farming work around ten hours a week longer than their forager neighbours, a new study suggests, complicating the idea that agriculture represents progress. The research also shows that a shift to agriculture impacts most on the lives of women.

...The study, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, reveals that increased engagement in farming and other non-foraging work resulted in the Agta working harder and losing leisure time. On average, the team estimate that Agta engaged primarily in farming work around 30 hours per week while foragers only do so for 20 hours. They found that this dramatic difference was largely due to women being drawn away from domestic activities to working in the fields. The study found that women living in the communities most involved in farming had half as much leisure time as those in communities which only foraged.

Dr Dyble, first author of the study, says: "For a long time, the transition from foraging to farming was assumed to represent progress, allowing people to escape an arduous and precarious way of life.

"But as soon as anthropologists started working with hunter-gatherers they began questioning this narrative, finding that foragers actually enjoy quite a lot of leisure time. Our data provides some of the clearest support for this idea yet."

...

[Private Pickle]

Agriculture was not progres, and it was sexist!

Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers, study suggests

How dependable are the two in comparison?

[Chris]

How dependable are the two in comparison?

Not sure I understand the question.

I can say that hunter-gathers were generally healthier, that the rise of agriculture, with its crowding of domesticated plants and animals and humans, introduced disease on a catastrophic level. See James C. Scott's Against the Grain.

[Mister D]

Not sure I understand the question.

I can say that hunter-gathers were generally healthier, that the rise of agriculture, with its crowding of domesticated plants and animals and humans, introduced disease on a catastrophic level. See James C. Scott's Against the Grain.

You can also say with some confidence that the transition was necessary due to population increase. That this transition occurred all over the world during the Neolithic seems to suggest common causes.

BTW, Medieval farmers had more leisure time than we do. Holidays and Christian feasts were dotted the calendar.

[Private Pickle]

Not sure I understand the question.

I can say that hunter-gathers were generally healthier, that the rise of agriculture, with its crowding of domesticated plants and animals and humans, introduced disease on a catastrophic level. See James C. Scott's Against the Grain.

Which method provides a sustainable foundation for growth?

[Chris]

Which method provides a sustainable foundation for growth?

Hunter-gathers, I'd say.

[Private Pickle]

Hunter-gathers, I'd say.

The population growth and expansion disagrees with you. Hunting and gathering provides limited resources. Agriculture expands those resources incredibly.

[Lummy]

The population growth and expansion disagrees with you. Hunting and gathering provides limited resources. Agriculture expands those resources incredibly.

That doesn't mean it's sustainable (key word). Agriculture often is not sustainable.

Cable TV programs "Life Below Zero" and "The Last Alaskans" are very good viewing of modern day quasi-hunter-gatherer lifestyles. While they aren't without a large amount of 21st Century technological integration, they do provide a believable glimpse into primitive existence, and I enjoy watching them.

[Chris]

The population growth and expansion disagrees with you. Hunting and gathering provides limited resources. Agriculture expands those resources incredibly.

From the dawn of agriculture to the industrial age man was caught in the Malthusian Trap. Farm production could not keep up with population growth.



(From Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms)

[Private Pickle]

That doesn't mean it's sustainable (key word). Agriculture often is not sustainable.

Cable TV programs "Life Below Zero" and "The Last Alaskans" are very good viewing of modern day quasi-hunter-gatherer lifestyles. While they aren't without a large amount of 21st Century technological integration, they do provide a believable glimpse into primitive existence, and I enjoy watching them.

They also grow in the the summer for stores in the winter.