What was most remarkable was that the Ju/’hoansi were able to acquire all the food they needed on the basis of “a modest effort”—so modest, in fact, that they had far more “free time” than people in full-time employment in the industrialized world. Noting that children and the elderly were supported by others, he calculated that economically active adults spent an average of just over seventeen hours per week on the food quest, in addition to roughly an additional twenty hours per week on other chores like preparing food, gathering firewood, erecting shelters, and making or fixing tools. This
...more

