Primitive Labour by L.H. Dudley Buxton

Author:L.H. Dudley Buxton [Buxton, L.H. Dudley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Cultural & Social, Human Geography, Sociology
ISBN: 9781317295563
Google: MHp0DwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 26270622
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1 Readers of Ekkehard, written by von Scheffel, and the German equivalent of Charles Reade’s “Cloister and the Hearth,” will remember that the writing of one of the early German epics is placed by the author, quite unhistorically, in this cave in the high Alps, near the source of the Rhine and Rhone.

CHAPTER IX

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LABOUR IN WESTERN EUROPE

Neolithic Man

IN describing the conditions of labour among the palaeolithic peoples we are dealing for the most part with a stage of culture which is not generally very familiar and whose traces, though they are widely spread, need considerable skill to identify and to classify. With neolithic man it is otherwise. In many parts of England the ploughman continually turns up implements, especially arrow-heads, and certainly in some parts of Oxfordshire many of the National schools have a small typical collection of these implements. The presence of so many neolithic implements suggests that neolithic man was widely scattered over Western Europe, and that no great change has taken place to cover up the remains of his industry. A careful study of the remains, however, suggests that the whole country was not inhabited but only those parts which from their upland situation or exposed position were not covered with thicket or forest.

We are fortunate in our knowledge of the neolithic arts of life. In Northern Europe he has left behind him great shell heaps, the remains of his kitchen refuse, which give us a clear idea of the animals with which he was familiar. In the Alps, possibly, it is true, at a somewhat later period, he lived in pile dwellings or palafittes on the lakes. This circumstance, owing to the preservative character of lake water and bog moss, has preserved for our use not only stone implements but even the very garments that he wore and the corn that he grew. The picture therefore is much more complete than could be expected or hoped for.

The palafitte-dwelling man had advanced to a stage of culture that was very high in comparison with that of palæolithic man. At present we have no clear evidence of the transition. We know, however, that neolithic man was both a keeper of domestic animals and an agriculturalist.

Dechelette has laid down clearly the method whereby the archaeologist may recognize whether animals were domesticated or wild from the remains which are found. He suggests four criteria. First, the presence of complete skeletons implies that animals were kept in captivity. If animals are merely hunted the hunter brings back the skins and the joints, but avoids carrying such parts of the carcass as are of no value to him. Secondly, domestic animals are not kept till they reach an extreme age, and therefore no skeletons of aged individuals are found, whereas the hunter takes any game that he can find, and often aged individuals predominate because they are more easily obtained. Thirdly, the hunters, generally speaking, obtain an equal number of each sex, whereas we know that in our herds

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