It’s work, but not as we know it

Every era has historically had a main area of work or value-creating activity. Most of us think about employment and occupations as something that emerged with industrial society. During the era of “hunting and gathering,” the family, group and community were engaged in all things required in order to survive and have a decent life. These activities involved hunting, gathering food, making fire, creating clothing and so on.

As we started to cultivate the soil and grow crops, the first settlements emerged. For thousands of years, work for most of the Earth’s population involved farming-related activities associated with the season, the sun and the weather. It was hard to differentiate between what was work and what wasn’t because working hours did not exist. During the feudalist era, farmers worked about 120-150 days a year, even if some of the days could be long during harvest time.

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