Development of Leisure

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Development of Leisure
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Prehistoric Societies

• People in prehistoric societies were primarily
  concerned with survival, hunting and gatherings
  were the primarily activities and provided
  resources to maintain life.
• There was little free time
• Work, survival, and rest melded to become one
  life-sustaining activity.

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• Once prehistoric people could create tools and
  were able to store information in a larger brain,
  more time became available.
• This free time was used for ritualization, or
  ceremonial acts.
• These acts often focused on celebrations of
  successful hunts, offerings for bountiful
  harvests, and beseeching the gods for their favor.

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• It is believed that playlike activities were also
  critical to the needs of emerging tribes. These
  activities depicted historical events,
  transportation practices, war games, and the use
  of farm tools.
• Play prepared children for their responsibilities
  as youth and adults and became a way of achieving
  solidarity and morality.
• It also became a healing experience and a means
  of communication and provided pleasure and
  entertainment.

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• As societies emerged, playlike activities were
  also a means to relax, recover, and replenish
  strength after working.
• These emerging societies also developed
  structures that allowed people an opportunity to
  focus on specific work roles.
• One could focus on being a hunter, while another
  could be a builder.

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• With these roles established, greater cooperation
  provided people with the resources for activities
  that did not relate to sustaining life.
• Thus, for the first time, greater opportunities
  for leisure were experienced.
• This is no different from today when people
  specialize in a particular vocation needed by
  the society, while relying on the specialties of
  others for their own well-being.

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Ancient Greece

• Ancient Greece (1200-500 B.C.) is an excellent
  example of how societal structure influenced the
  development of leisure.
• Greek citizens, who could not vote and
  participate in state affairs, sought to become
  the well-rounded ideal of that era.

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• They embraced what was known as the Athenian
  ideal which was a combination of soldier,
  athlete, artist, statesman, and philosopher.
• Rather than focusing on one area of expertise as
  is valued today, developing all areas was valued.
  This was only possible because of the tasks of
  everyday living were provided by laborers or
  slaves who ounumbered the citizens approximately
  three to one.
• Those who were freed from everyday activities had
  the opportunity to pursue the range of activities
  necessary to become the Athenian ideal.

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• Leisure was very important in Greek society.
• The Greek philosopher Plato and his student,
  Aristotle, supported this in their belief that
  virtuous and constructive leisure activities were
  the route to happiness and fulfillment.
• Contemplation, which involved the pursuit of
  truth and understanding, was though to be the
  highest form of leisure.
• Athenian philosophers strongly believe in the
  unity of mind and body and valued each.

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• Play was perceived to be essential to the healthy
  growth of children from both a physical and
  social perspective.
• Citizens regarded leisure as an opportunity for
  intellectual cultivation, music , theater and
  poetry as well as political and philosophical
  discussions.
• The concept schole meant to cease and have
  quiet and peace. It meant having time for oneself
  and being occupied in something for its own sake,
  such as music, poetry, the company of friends or
  the exercise of speculative faculties.
• Schole embraced the experience and not the
  outcome. How different this is from today where
  the pursuit of an activity is often valued only
  if something tangible like a victory, mastery of
  a skill, or a specific expectation is gained.

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• An important part of ancient Greek culture, and
  perhaps at odds with the notion of schole was its
  passion for games.
• Athletic games were held to celebrate religious
  rites and heroes for entertainment and for
  pleasure.
• Only men played sport and women were often
  excluded from public life.
• Four Panhellenic games were very popular among
  the spectators and athletes. These included the
  Olympic Games, the Pythian Games, the Nemian
  Games, and the Isthmian Games and are thought to
  be held in honor of the gods, although others
  suggest that they commemorated the death of
  mythical mortals and monsters.

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• When athletic games were held, wars often ceased
  so that participants could compete.
• The early Olympic Games, honoring Zeus included
  chariot races, combat events, boxing, wrestling,
  footraces, and the pentathlon a five sport
  event embracing the Athenian ideal.
• Athletes also competed individually, not on teams
  and represented their home villages. This is
  similar to the modern Olympic Games in which
  participants represent their countries.

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• The early Olympics were an extremely serious even
  as well. It was not uncommon for participants in
  aggressive sports such as pankration (a
  combination of boxing and wrestling) to be
  encouraged to fight to the death.
• This fate was seen as especially noble because it
  would immortalize the competitor in story for
  generations to come as having sacrificed his life
  in the pursuit of victory.
• So important were the Olympics that Athenians
  would place an olive wreath on their door when a
  boy was born, thus signaling the hope that he
  would become an Olympian .

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• This seriousness of purpose and the use of
  leisure time to develop sport-specific skills are
  still found today. We work at getting better
  so we can play a sport well.
• Like the ancient Greeks, we claim to value
  well-rounded people, yet parents increasingly
  encourage their children to specialize in one
  particular sport, often played year-round, so
  that they have the greatest opportunity to become
  better than their peers.
• It should be of no surprise then that at the time
  when success in sports rivals that of the
  adulation shown to the earliest Olympic victors,
  the world finds itself facing an epidemic of
  cases in which competitors turn to illegal
  performance-enhancing drugs to assure victory.

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Ancient Rome

• The emergence of Rome as a dominant society
  influenced how leisure was perceived at that
  time.
• Rome conquered the majority of Europe and Asia
  after about 265 B.C. and emerged as a dominant
  power in the Mediterranean.
• The Roman Empire influenced the judicial systems
  and societies it conquered by attempting to
  overwrite with its own culture what had become
  before.

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• The Roman government was based on distinct
  classifications of citizens. These included
• Senators, who were the richest and owned most of
  the land and power
• Curiales, who owned 25 or more acres (10
  hectares) of land and were office holders or tax
  collectors
• Plebes, or free common-men, who owned small
  properties or were tradesmen or artisans
• Coloni, who were lower-class tenants on lands,
  and finally
• Indentured slaves.
• Early Roman slaves were captured in war and
  served as agricultural laborers. Much later,
  large numbers of captives from Asia, Greece and
  central Europe became slaves and were exploited
  by their owners

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• Like in societies that came before it, the
  opportunity to participate in leisure during the
  Roman era was limited to those who had the
  appropriate resources.
• The greater ones standing at this time, the
  greater the opportunity for freedom from the
  daily requirements necessary to live a
  comfortable life.
• Senators enjoyed almost unlimited leisure, while
  coloni struggled to make a comfortable life. This
  is not unlike the present day where distinct
  economic classes enjoy varying degrees and types
  of leisure.

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• Unlike the ancient Greeks, who saw leisure as an
  opportunity for well-rounded development, Romans
  perceived leisure to be primarily rest from work.
  
• Considering that the Romans were on an almost
  constant crusade to dominate foreign cultures,
  this viewpoint was necessary and allowed
  recuperation before the next crusade.
• Play then served utilitarian rather than
  aesthetic or spiritual purposes.

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• As the Roman Empire grew and the increasing
  availability of slaves decreased the amount of
  daily work people were required to do, leisure
  time increased and was increasingly used as a way
  to control the masses.
• During Emperor Claudius reign (41-54 A.D.) Rome
  had 59 public holidays and 95 game days, and by
  354 A.D., there were more than 200 public
  holidays and 175 game days.
• The reason for this was simple. As Romans became
  less occupied with work, they became increasingly
  bored and critical of the government. The
  government then attempted to pacify unrest by
  providing pleasurable experiences through
  spectacle and celebrations of holidays.
• Bread and circuses, free food and
  entertainment, provided the framework for Roman
  society.

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• To hold peoples attention, leisure activities
  became increasingly hedonistic and shocking.
• When battles between gladiators became less
  interesting, animals from foreign lands were
  brought in to become part of the savagery seen in
  the great coliseums.
• When the scales of those battles became ordinary,
  artificial lakes were created by slaves who where
  then used to re-create bloody sea battles
  depicting a successful conquest.

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• This focus on the entertainment of the masses,
  instead of their participation, has lead some
  historians to argue that one of the reasons for
  the fall of the Roman Empire was its inability to
  deal with mass leisure.
• This concern is often heard today in reference to
  current leisure habits. Increasingly, it appears
  that people are more content to be spectators
  than participants.
• Some sporting events such as football and boxing
  also take on the appearance of a spectacle
  similar to that seen in ancient Rome. In fact, it
  isnt uncommon to hear the participants in these
  events referred to as gladiators

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Middle Ages

• When the Roman Empire eventually collapsed, the
  Catholic Church became the dominant structure in
  Europe.
• The Catholic Church rejected the activities that
  the Roman Empire had accepted, including its
  hedonistic ways.
• One example of this was the fact that people
  involved in theater could not be baptized.

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• The concept that idleness is the great enemy of
  the soul emerged, and doing nothing was thought
  to be evil.
• The church wielded great influence during this
  time over the social order, consisting of
  nobility and peasants.
• The clergy dictated societal values, whose
  adoption would lead to saving souls, the highest
  goal at the time.
• Although the Catholic Church influenced what were
  acceptable and unacceptable leisure activities,
  so strict were many rules during the end of this
  period the church went through a period of
  renaissance where individuals within the church
  developed different perspectives.
• This renaissance saw a renewed appreciation for a
  variety of leisure activities.

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Renaissance

• Spreading fro the 14th century in Italy to the
  16th century in northern Europe, this era saw
  power shift from the church to the nobility.
• Previously ostracized by the church,. Artists
  were now supported and encouraged by the nobility
  to express their art.
• Play was perceived to be an important part of
  education.

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• During the 16th century, Francois Rabelais
  (1490-1553) emphasized the need for physical
  exercise and games.
• Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-159) supported
  the concept of unity of mind, body and spirit,
  opposing the medieval ideal of separation or
  dualism of the mind and body.
• John Locke (1632-1704) was so concerned with play
  as a medium of learning that he made the
  distinction between play and recreation.

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• Recreation was not being idle, it provided a
  specific benefit by easing and helping to recover
  the people wearied by their work.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) advocated for
  the full freedom of physical activity rather than
  constraint.
• It was during the renaissance that an increased
  interest in play, both as a form of popular
  entertainment and as a medium of education,
  developed.

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• Three types of parks emerged during the late
  Renaissance under the nobility
• Royal hunting preserves providing wild-game
  hunting.
• Formal garden parks where participants viewed
  their surroundings much as you would experience a
  museum, and
• English garden parks with greater emphasis on
  interacting with the environment through
  activities such as picnics and other restful
  pursuits.
• These parks, developed by the nobility for their
  own use, were often seen as symbol of status.