I found the following excerpt in "The Nature of Paleolithic Art" by R. Dale Guthrie.  It follows a discussion of paleo life expectancy, that only 4% of people lived past age 40.

"While our demographic information points to a short Paleolithic life, I do not want to suggest it was nasty or brutish. Good times may have been frequent, and one's efforts often successful. There is every reason to imagine they enjoyed some leisure, not mere rest but true leisure, no fences to mend, no rows to hoe -- leisure to weave events into stories, to sing and dance, to draw and carve, to make life more elegant, comfortable, and entertaining."

Lovely.

Jim