ABSTRACT
The position occupied by work in the lives of primitive peoples is different from that which it occupies in our own. It is not something that can be sold in the open market, but activity undertaken by the individual for himself or for others in order to bring about some direct result; but not, as a rule, with the object of gaining a livelihood. For this reason, the individual attacks his work from a point of view entirely different from ours. He performs it, as a rule, not under the pressure of any direct compulsion, such as the obligation of a contract or the control of a master, but of his own accord and according to his own inclination. But, even in this case, there is by no means an entire absence of compulsion, for, in all undertakings, connected with the direct search for food, the connexion between work and the desired result is clearly visible.
