Hunter/gatherer and early farming societies typically had a lot more leisure time than we do today. Some researchers estimated they only ‘worked’ 15-30 hours a week, and a lot of that was dependent on seasons. In addition, their egalitarian structure and lack of pursuit for excess material goods meant no pressure for long work hours.
Hunter/gatherer and early farming societies typically had a lot more leisure time than we do today. Some researchers estimated they only ‘worked’ 15-30 hours a week
That figure is both not a consensus, and it’s a number of hours that’s referring to time spent on food procurement only, nothing else of what’s needed to live/survive.
There’s an indirect one. The 40 hour week is the result of strikes from unions that are the result of factories which are the result of the industrial revolution which also led to improvements in medicine that massively reduced child mortality.
Hunter/gatherer and early farming societies typically had a lot more leisure time than we do today. Some researchers estimated they only ‘worked’ 15-30 hours a week, and a lot of that was dependent on seasons. In addition, their egalitarian structure and lack of pursuit for excess material goods meant no pressure for long work hours.
That figure is both not a consensus, and it’s a number of hours that’s referring to time spent on food procurement only, nothing else of what’s needed to live/survive.
And they just accepted that only a fraction of their babies would live to become infants, and only a fraction of their infants would reach adulthood.
Are you suggesting that the 40-hour work week has a causal connection with the infant morality rate?
There’s an indirect one. The 40 hour week is the result of strikes from unions that are the result of factories which are the result of the industrial revolution which also led to improvements in medicine that massively reduced child mortality.