Work and Leisure

18 A. J. Vealbecause work is seen as the means to human progress – at both the individualand societal level and in a material and spiritual/intellectual sense. From sucha viewpoint, Sahlins (1974: 15–20) notes, anthropologists have inferred thatthe lack of material possessions of hunter-gatherer communities suggests anexistence involving scarcity and a ceaseless round of relatively unsuccessfuleffort to overcome the environmental odds. But he disagrees with this view,referring to hunter-gatherers as ‘the original affluent society’. Lack ofmaterial possessions, Sahlins argues, was far from being an indicator ofpoverty and a wretched existence, but can be seen as evidence of a society inwhich a satisfactory balance had been achieved between material needs, workand leisure. Achieving such a balance has been a major task for humanculture throughout history and is at the heart of much debate about work andleisure today.While the creation of artifacts, such as tools, pots, bags and clothing,resulted in the development of work activity among hunter-gatherer groups,it is the development of agriculture, and the permanent human settlementsthat came with it, that created a form of work which is particularly recognisableto the modern eye. Land, crops and domesticated animals created obligationsand a daily and seasonal rhythm to labour. The creation and maintenance ofphysical, communal human settlements and the social organisation whichwent with them gave a further boost to development of the phenomenon ofwork. With the growth of the size of settlements specialist occupations, suchas workers in stone, leather, wood and metal, also arose. As Veblen (1898)pointed out, it was this phenomenon which created the possibility for socialstructures to evolve which included chiefs, warriors and priests, and theirimmediate family members, the ‘leisure class’, who did not engage in manualwork, but extracted a surplus from the rest, whether voluntarily or otherwise– a phenomenon which continued into the industrial era. Membership of theelite was associated with exemption from work, thus creating the status dividebetween work and leisure echoed in the Genesis story.Work and culture in ancient Greece and RomeIt is often reported in the leisure studies literature that ancient Greek philosopherscelebrated the life of leisure and looked down on manual work as anactivity fit only for non-citizens and slaves. The implication is that this, at leastin part, has provided the basis for modern attitudes towards work and leisureand potentially provides a normative basis for an elevated status for a ‘pure’form of leisure. But the negative attitude of ancient Greeks towards work wasmore subtle. While work in general was despised, farming was held in highesteem. In the Homeric period (before the eighth century BC), the Greekslooked upon farming as submitting to the laws and rules of natureas much as applying technique to the soil. Agriculture was a form of