Progress and development are usually associated with a higher standard or quality of living and generally a more convenient lifestyle. However, apart from the effects that digital technology has had on human populations, in terms of mental health, social dynamics, and even political and economic issues, new technologies in general might be accelerating too much for us to handle.
But let's go back to basics for now. The most fundamental means by which humans have survived and sustained themselves without the use of technology was through hunter-gathering. We looked for food available naturally in the wild. We foraged, hunted, and fished. Then agriculture was developed and most of us never looked back.
Now, it seems that agriculture jump-started much of our technological innovation. However, researchers are suggesting that perhaps, the hunter-gathering lifestyle might have been a lot easier than farming.
A paper published in Nature Human Behaviour explores how this shift affects the time budgets of hunter-gatherers in the Philippines, finding that women who participate more in agricultural work have less leisure time—around half the leisure time of women who prioritize foraging.
The results fall in line with past research that challenges the concept of hunting and foraging as arduous work with scant rewards, and this work contributes to a growing understanding of the social dynamics that go along with a shift to agriculture.
(Image credit: sasint/Pixabay)