35053YHD A Document dated c.1850 BC from the reign
Q&@
OF AMENEMHAT III -
the pharaoh who created Lake Fayum -
tells of a well-to-do man called Dua-Khety who took his son Pepy to school,
so that he could learn to be a scribe. While on their way, Dua-Khety portrayed the miserable life of peasants,
labourers, soldiers & artisans, so as to encourage Pepy to devote all his energy to studying & thereby escape
the unhappy destiny of most humans. According to Dua-Khety, the life of a landless field labourer is full of
Hardship & Misery! Dressed in mere tatters, he works all day
till his fingers are covered with blisters.
Then pharaoh's own officials come
and take him away to do forced labour?!! In return for all his hard work he
receives only sickness as a payment! Even if he makes it home alive, he will be completely worn out and
ruined. The fate of the landholding peasant is hardly better. He spends his days carrying water in buckets
from the river to the field. The heavy load bends his shoulders
& covers his neck with festering swellings...
In the morning he has to water his plot of leeks,
in the afternoon his date palms & in the evening his coriander field.
Eventually he drops down & dies. The text may be
exaggerating things on purpose, but not by
mùch!
Pharaonic AeGYPT
was the most powerful kingdom of its day,
but for the simple peasant all that power meant TAXES & FORCED LABOUR
rather than clinics & social security services. This was not
a uniquely Egyptian
defect.
Despite
all the immense achievements
of the Chinese dynasties, the Muslim empire's and the European
kingdoms, even in AD 1850 the lifeof the average person was nòt bètter - & might actually have been worse -
than the lives of archaic
hunter-gatherers!
In 1850 a Chinese peasant
or a Manchester factory hand worked longer hours than their
hunter-gatherer ancestors; their jobs were physically
harder and mentally less fulfilling; their diet
was less balanced; hygiene conditions
were incomparably worse; &
infectious diseases were
far more
common.
OF AMENEMHAT III -
the pharaoh who created Lake Fayum -
tells of a well-to-do man called Dua-Khety who took his son Pepy to school,
so that he could learn to be a scribe. While on their way, Dua-Khety portrayed the miserable life of peasants,
labourers, soldiers & artisans, so as to encourage Pepy to devote all his energy to studying & thereby escape
the unhappy destiny of most humans. According to Dua-Khety, the life of a landless field labourer is full of
Hardship & Misery! Dressed in mere tatters, he works all day
till his fingers are covered with blisters.
Then pharaoh's own officials come
and take him away to do forced labour?!! In return for all his hard work he
receives only sickness as a payment! Even if he makes it home alive, he will be completely worn out and
ruined. The fate of the landholding peasant is hardly better. He spends his days carrying water in buckets
from the river to the field. The heavy load bends his shoulders
& covers his neck with festering swellings...
In the morning he has to water his plot of leeks,
in the afternoon his date palms & in the evening his coriander field.
Eventually he drops down & dies. The text may be
exaggerating things on purpose, but not by
mùch!
Pharaonic AeGYPT
was the most powerful kingdom of its day,
but for the simple peasant all that power meant TAXES & FORCED LABOUR
rather than clinics & social security services. This was not
a uniquely Egyptian
defect.
Despite
all the immense achievements
of the Chinese dynasties, the Muslim empire's and the European
kingdoms, even in AD 1850 the lifeof the average person was nòt bètter - & might actually have been worse -
than the lives of archaic
hunter-gatherers!
In 1850 a Chinese peasant
or a Manchester factory hand worked longer hours than their
hunter-gatherer ancestors; their jobs were physically
harder and mentally less fulfilling; their diet
was less balanced; hygiene conditions
were incomparably worse; &
infectious diseases were
far more
common.
06 jul 2019 - bewerkt op 08 jul 2019
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