> The childrens' contributions were welcome, and the children
> practiced their hunting skills bring in this small game.  The
> older people.....particularly the men.....did the hunting of
> big game animals..................

Yes. There can be little doubt that in paleolithic times it was customary
for people to work almost their entire lives.

Children and teenagers did not attend school during the day -- instead they
helped in the effort to obtain and prepare food and shelter. Likewise with
the elderly. There was no retirement with social security checks. There may
have been a little time for play and song, but for the most part there was
only work around the home or in the fields or on the hunt, followed by
illness and death.

Compare that scenario to modern civilization in first world countries. The
modern american typically attends school until about age 18 to 21,  and then
retires at about 65 and then dies at about 78. During the working years
there are vacations and one or two days every week of no work. And workdays
themselves are limited to only about eight hours, leaving a lot of waking
hours for other activities. This means the typical 21st century american is
technically "unemployed" for about one half of his or her lifetime, if not
more.

In other words there has been a huge increase in "free time".

Furthermore I think it is wrong that people here are trying to paint a
picture of some kind of egalitarian paleolithic utopia. I think it is also
wrong that people here write of modern agriculture and modern food
distribution methods as if these things were some kind of evil conspiracy of
an oppressive upper class.

Methinks the truth of the matter is that life for our primitive ancestors
was damned hard in almost every respect in comparison to modern life. I
think our paleo ancestors lived in what we would consider a constant
struggle for the most basic of necessities, with relatively little free time
to pursue advances in creative disciplines like music and art and language
and philosophy and science.

The paleolithic diet is sound for reasons of evolutionary biology and it is
certainly interesting and enlightening to immerse onself in some of the
habits and trappings of paleo life. That is however as far as it goes, at
least for me. I think anyone who would actually prefer a real paleolithic
lifestyle over this one needs to have his head examined.  :)

-gts