How did humans work and rest in the Palaeolithic? Ever since anthropologist Marshall Sahlins published The Original Affluent Society, it has been widely assumed that ancient people lived lives of leisure, working no more than 15 hours per week. New research in anthropology shows the story is more complex. In this talk I offer a critical re-assessment of original affluence and explore what the lives of hunter-gatherers today can tell us about what has gone wrong with modern work.

Register here.

Vivek Venkataraman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary and founder of the Venkataraman Lab in Human Evolutionary Energetics.