Time and Leisure in the Elaboration of Culture

“Wasting time” the Veratan way

“…(Gell [1992(Gell [ ] 1996 The example Gell uses to elaborate his point is Sahlins' (1972) interpretation of Charles Mountford's 1960 Arnhem Land data. Sahlins labels the time-rich Arnhem Landers "affluent, " whilst Peter Just (1980) would label them "unemployed. " In Gell's Justian interpretation, the Arnhem Landers "invest a lot of time in low-cost consumption, hanging about, conversation, football, etc.…”

Leisure and culture: Issues for an anthropology of leisure

“…However, leisure surfaced in another theoretical perspective that was advanced soon after the demise of the surplus theory in anthropology. I have termed this the time scarcity theory (Chick, 1986), and it was proposed by several anthropologists, including Harris (1975), but most succinctly by Just (1980). Just accepted the new data that indicated that foragers spend less time at work than members of modern industrial societies.…”

Leisure and Cultural Complexity

“…The surplus theory is seductive, especially for those involved in the study of leisure, because of the centrality it gives to leisure in the evolution of culture. The problem is that empirical evidence simply does not support it (e.g., Harris, 1975;Just, 1980). In the late 1950s and 1960s, research showed that, even in the harsh environment of the Kalahari Desert of southwest Africa, hunter-gatherers seemed to spend less time in the food quest than Westerners spend at work.…”

“…Hence, Harris (1975), for one, suggested that leisure time decreases, rather than increases, as cultures become more complex. 1 Just (1980) hypothesized that the increased value of scarce time requires people to use it wisely and creatively. Thus, aesthetic and technological development comes about because time is used ever more effectively, rather than because it is abundant.…”