Time and Leisure in the Elaboration of Culture

TL;DRAbstract

The amount of leisure time available to members of hunting-gathering societies appears to be far greater than formerly supposed. Current theories also hold that increasing sophistication in agricultural technology and cropping intensity result in progressively decreasing amounts of leisure for farmers. This requires a critical re-evaluation of that aspect of traditional "surplus theory" which sees adequate leisure for reflection and invention as a necessary precondition for the elaboration of culture. The leisure afforded hunter-gatherers or simple agriculturalists cannot be regarded as an accurate index of "affluence" when that leisure is the product of marginal utility. Leisure time acquires psychological, economic, and social value only when it has become sufficiently scarce to require economizing allocation. In this context leisure--or the lack of it--may still be viewed as an important dynamic force in cultural evolution, but in a manner contrary to that conceived by traditional s

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