On 16 Feb 2004 14:58:30 GMT, Michel Boucher >
wrote:

>Anthropological comparison of household labour between French nuclear
>families and Amazon tribes shows that "primitives" perform only as
>much labour as is necessary, usually about 2 hours a day for
>gathering and cleaning. Hunting takes a bit more time but it removes
>the men from the female controlled environment, which is part of its
>purpose.

I, too, have read that the change from hunter/gatherer culture to
purposful agriculture and animal husbandry *increased* the difficulty
of daily life. The idea of lying in a hammock and plucking fruit from
surrounding trees, supplemented by trapping a few fish or shellfish
sure sounds good. Not many opportunities for same in, say, northern
Europe.

In fact, I have a hard time understanding why human emigration
apparently followed a path from Asia north to some problematical
crossing to Alaska and then down through North and South America.
Following herds of animals? It surely couldn't have been "whoopee --
we've found the perfect natural freezer!"

>Hunting takes a bit more time but it removes
>the men from the female controlled environment, which is part of its
>purpose.

Nag, nag, nag. :-)