本文选自《经济学人》9月5日刊文章。这篇文章是James Suzman写的一本新书《Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time》的总结。本书认为，人类复杂的大脑需要不断寻求刺激和工作，否则会感到很无聊，所以人类从原始时代每天只需要打猎2小时、其余时间聊天谈恋爱自由支配，一步步把自己逼到现在的“996”。很多人认为原始时代人类过着食不果腹的艰苦生活，其实不然，他们依靠打猎和采摘过上丰衣足食的日子，更保持了营养良好和精神满足的生活状态。之后人类进入农业社会，开始朝耕暮作、起早贪黑，人类社会也随之出现了社会等级、不平等、劳作更辛苦，食物也更差。工业革命后，人类被迫进入工厂，工作时间更长、更辛苦，随着自动化的发展，人类的工作还随时可能被机器取代。直到现在，人类把自己逼进了“996”的工作模式。尤瓦尔·赫拉利在《人类简史》中就抛出了一个问题，相比于远古时代的狩猎生活，现在的人类生活是更好呢，还是更差呢？欢迎留言说出你的想法。
选文精讲
How has humans’ relationship with work changed over millennia?An anthropologist examines the world of workTHE STUDY of working life tends to be dominated by economists, management consultants and business-school professors. So it is nice to get a new perspective. James Suzman, an anthropologist, provides that fresh appraisal in an ambitious new book called “Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time”.对工作生活的研究往往由经济学家、管理咨询师和商学院教授主导，所以有一个新的视角也是很不错的，人类学家詹姆斯·苏兹曼在他呕心沥血的新书《工作：人类打发时间的历史》就给了一个新的视角。Mr Suzman’s interpretation has a quasi-Biblical feel in which hunter-gatherers, like the Ju/’hoansi tribesmen of southern Africa whom he has studied, lived in the garden of Eden. They worked only 15 hours a week and shared their provisions equally. Then came “the fall” and the arrival of agriculture, which brought with it hierarchical societies, inequality, harder work and poorer diets. Farming’s only, but crucial, advantage was that the pastoralists were able to outbreed the hunter-gatherers and eventually displace them from the land.
苏兹曼先生的解释有一种类似圣经的感觉，即狩猎采集者（比如他所研究的南部非洲的Ju/ ' hoansi部落）生活在伊甸园中。他们每周只工作15个小时，平均分配食物，然后“大衰落”和农业时代到来了，随之而来的是社会等级制度、不平等、更艰苦的工作和更差的饮食。农业唯一但至关重要的优势是，牧民的繁殖能力超过了狩猎采集者，并最终将他们赶出了这片土地。Farming also brought a change of mentality. Hunter-gatherers may occasionally go short of food but they are rarely short of time. Agriculture is more driven by the calendar: a time to plant and a time to harvest. It also requires regular maintenance: weeding of plants, milking of cows and mending of fences. Human life became more regimented.
农业也带来了观念的改变。狩猎采集者可能偶尔会出现食物短缺，但他们很少会出现时间短缺。农业更受日历的驱使：（要把握）播种和收获的时间，它还需要定期维护：除草、挤牛奶和修补篱笆。人类的生活变得更加管制化。The seasonal nature of agriculture also had implications. Grain needed to be stored and those who controlled the stores became the elite. This led to the development of writing, as the surplus was traded and rations allocated. As well as grain silos, some agricultural societies built monumental edifices like the pyramids. That, too, required new professions like stonemasons and carpenters. In time, humans gathered in towns and cities, which also created specialist occupations like shopkeepers.农业的季节性也有影响。粮食需要储存，控制储存的人就成了精英。粮食的盈余和配给促进了书写的发展。除了谷仓，一些农业社会还建造了巨大建筑物，例如金字塔，这又需要一些新的职业，比如石匠和木匠。随着时间的推移，人们聚集在小镇和城市，这又创造了像店主这样的专业职业。
