Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 09:51:08 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Forms of Surplus in gathering cultures (and some others)


In addition to Lafargue, one might look, from a similar historical and 
geographical context, at the poetry of Rimbaud.  See also Kristin Ross' 
study of Rimbaud and the Paris Commune called _The emergence of social 
space_.

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Santiago Colas					e-mail:	scolas-AT-umich.edu
Asst. Professor					phone:	(313) 763-4352
Latin American and Comparative Literature	fax:	(313) 764-8163
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1275
USA

On Wed, 15 May 1996 Janc72347-AT-aol.com wrote:

>      What if humans *are* biologically programmed to be lazy? The ancient
> Greek
> intellectuals thought so--that was their rationale for despising those who
> worked
> with their hands. Jane Austen thought so: the main occupation of her more
> positive
> characters is the search for humanly valuable ways of filling up "free time."
> Marx
> thought so: he looked forward to an age in which work for its own sake would
> be
> a necessity of life--and that requires a good deal of leisure, because as
> soon as
> work is imposed by nature or society it loses its "fully human" quality. And
> above
> all, according to everything I've ever read, hunter-gatherer cultures in
> which a
> surplus was available chose (for the most part) to "consume" that surplus in
> the form
> of leisure.
>      Of course they wouldn't pile up more food to eat as someone on this list
> toys
> with, but after the average of 15 to 20 hours a week necessary in some such
> cultures (e.g., pre-European Hawaii) they chose to spend their time loafing, 
> gossiping, playing games, etc. rather than, say, construct more elaborate
> homes
> or work out more "productive" forms of "technology." (I define technology, as
> I think
> Marx did, as the interface between humans and the [rest of] nature.) The
> anachronistic
> term "interface" may be replaced with "metabolism between."
> 
>      I recommend the beautiful book, The Right to Be Lazy, by Paul Lafargue,
> Marx's
> son-in-law.
> 
>           Jan C
> 
> 
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> 


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