The Original Affluent Society

The original affluent society is a term given to the first people living in the Paleolithic Era. As I was reading the phrase above struck a cord in me. In today's society affluence is determined by the amount of wealth you have over others. But affluence is different in this context. Here affluence is represented through leisure and responsibility free lifestyle of the gatherer-hunter. I really like how Strayer uses the term gatherer- hunter. One of my issues with history in general is that it always seemed very biased. History would always have a certain bias but a lot of it is Eurocentric and male based. Many men in the past have had the opportunity of an education and have been able to write history in their own perspectives. What I like about Strayer is that he tries to make the viewer see somewhat of the whole picture. By placing gatherer in front of hunter in the text represents the importance of women at that time. The diets of Homo sapiens were 70% plant based and 30% animal based. Throughout society men have always been put before women as the providers of the household. What I find ironic is the idea of the gatherer-hunter. In this society women were the bread winners by bringing the majority of food for the household. The hunters wouldn't really hunt but scavenge for dead animals. In this system, there were no specific roles for people. Everyone did the same work and as a result created an egalitarian society. I find it fascinating how this group of people lived for about 96% of this duration of human kind. These people lived in a very civil way for so long but it doesn't seem that the eras that came after them learned much from their system of living. One thing that I also found interesting is the fact that humans were the first of its kind to migrate and live in all different continents.