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>Before agriculture, humans spent almost all of their time hunting and gathering. Agriculture freed up some time Agriculture is more work than hunting and gath

>Before agriculture, humans spent almost all of their time hunting and gathering. Agriculture freed up some time Agriculture is more work than hunting and gathering, but it's a much more consistent food source. https://www.zmescience.com/science/hunter-gatherer-farmer-time-834234234/ https://www.zmescience.com/science/hunter-gatherer-farmer-ti...

monocasa 5y ago
And agriculture itself is less work than we think of. Medieval peasants worked less hours than we do. https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...
- Ancapistani 5y ago
  > And agriculture itself is less work than we think of. That depends entirely upon the ratio of agriculture to other industries in a society and the level of automation. People operating today's corporate farms in the US probably work fewer hours than their 1920s analogues, but produce far more output. People operating today's small/"family" farms are probably about on par in terms of hours worked, but still produce much more and there are far fewer of them.
  - monocasa 5y ago
    It doesn't. People working today's farms (corporate and self operated) AFAICT put in more hours than their 1920s analogues as much more of their time is consumed by the other parts of the business rather than working the fields component. They do create significantly more for their time, true. But this idea that exists that automation has given us more free time isn't quite borne out by the evidence.
thereddaikon 5y ago
I didn't say agriculture gave us leisure, I said it freed us up to do other things. You may spend less time hunting and gathering but everyone is a hunter and gatherer. With agriculture a smaller part of your society is dedicated to food production. This allows for specialization and civilization. Leisure, as we understand it is a pretty modern development. In that study they are defining leisure as the opposite of labor. I wouldn't call that leisure personally. Partaking in or consuming entertainment and hobbies is leisure.
- mc32 5y ago
  It would seem plausible to claim agriculture put demand on innovation; tools to make more efficient agriculture. Things like irrigation channels, planting tools, harvesting tools, etc. Maybe technology developed for conflict came first but I’d guess peacetime uses also put demands on innovation. Interestingly, I watched some video somewhere where in some part of India[1] there were people who were harvesting wheat with a curved knife (sickle) like implement rather than a scythe. So people had to bend down to harvest a field. Meaning sometimes technology doesn’t diffuse everywhere —even well known solutions. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU0uYeO7XI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU0uYeO7XI

monocasa 5y ago

And agriculture itself is less work than we think of. Medieval peasants worked less hours than we do. https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...

Ancapistani 5y ago
> And agriculture itself is less work than we think of. That depends entirely upon the ratio of agriculture to other industries in a society and the level of automation. People operating today's corporate farms in the US probably work fewer hours than their 1920s analogues, but produce far more output. People operating today's small/"family" farms are probably about on par in terms of hours worked, but still produce much more and there are far fewer of them.
- monocasa 5y ago
  It doesn't. People working today's farms (corporate and self operated) AFAICT put in more hours than their 1920s analogues as much more of their time is consumed by the other parts of the business rather than working the fields component. They do create significantly more for their time, true. But this idea that exists that automation has given us more free time isn't quite borne out by the evidence.

thereddaikon 5y ago

I didn't say agriculture gave us leisure, I said it freed us up to do other things. You may spend less time hunting and gathering but everyone is a hunter and gatherer. With agriculture a smaller part of your society is dedicated to food production. This allows for specialization and civilization. Leisure, as we understand it is a pretty modern development. In that study they are defining leisure as the opposite of labor. I wouldn't call that leisure personally. Partaking in or consuming entertainment and hobbies is leisure.

mc32 5y ago
It would seem plausible to claim agriculture put demand on innovation; tools to make more efficient agriculture. Things like irrigation channels, planting tools, harvesting tools, etc. Maybe technology developed for conflict came first but I’d guess peacetime uses also put demands on innovation. Interestingly, I watched some video somewhere where in some part of India[1] there were people who were harvesting wheat with a curved knife (sickle) like implement rather than a scythe. So people had to bend down to harvest a field. Meaning sometimes technology doesn’t diffuse everywhere —even well known solutions. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU0uYeO7XI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU0uYeO7XI