807



▶ occupations

introduction
Th e earliest modern humans probably had only one occu-
pation: survival. In most of the world they would have trav-
eled and lived in groups of a dozen or so people. Even when
they settled in villages, there would be only a small num-
ber of villagers. Each member of a group of people would
have had to learn everything about survival: how to tell
dangerous animals from safe ones; how to track animals
to hunt them; how to identify edible plants; how to pre-
pare food; how to make pottery, baskets, tools, and so on.
Many anthropologists believe that early modern humans
divided some occupations by gender. Th ey base this idea
mostly on observations of hunter-gathering peoples who
have survived into modern times as well as on archaeo-
logical evidence that tells something about the creatures
ancient people had to deal with and about the physical
makeup of ancient humans. Th ese anthropologists believe
that men were probably the hunters of game, especially in
areas where the game was large and dangerous. Bison, el-
ephants, and rhinoceroses would be the kinds of animals
that might require men, presumed to be physically stronger
than women, to hunt.
According to many archaeologists and historians, a di-
vision of labor into occupations would not have occurred
until agriculture was invented. Th e reasoning is that an-
cient hunter-gathers had to be mobile; even when they lived
in small villages they had to range far over the countryside
and be able to move quickly out of the way of such dangers

as fl oods and wildfi res. Th eir need for mobility would have

made it diffi cult for them to develop any settled occupations;

given the dangers of their lives, everyone had to be a general-

ist, not a specialist in a particular craft.

With the coming of agriculture people settled in areas

where crops could be planted. Th e work required to nurture

crops would have necessitated larger groups of people than

were needed for hunting and gathering. Further, a steady sup-

ply of food probably began a population boom. Th ese may

have been the two requirements for the development of occu-

pation: cooperative work to raise crops and enough food on a

steady basis to allow people to stay in one place. As people be-

came more skilled in raising food and developed better, more

nourishing varieties of crops, food surpluses would have al-

lowed some people to spend their time on projects other than

raising food. Where archaeologists fi nd evidence of artisans,

especially in the making of luxury items, they tend to assume

that they have found evidence of a culture that produced sur-

pluses of food.

It is tempting to assume that the fi rst occupations were

those that focused on products needed for survival, but an-

cient people were still people, and like people throughout the

modern world, they seem to have wanted beauty in their lives

and spiritual fulfi llment. Th us, early occupations included

making pottery and baskets and also making decorative

ornaments for the body and artistic expressions of spiritual

beliefs, such items as totems and charms. Th us, when one

studies the occupations of ancient peoples, one may learn not

only what they required for survival but also what they val-

ued in their lives beyond just surviving.

O