Re: USAGE: Words for "boredom"

Quoting Clint Jackson Baker <litrex1@...>:

> Siyo!
> I read that no pre-industrial culture has a word for
> boredom.  (I even used that as a point in my paper on
> Kierkegaard.  There is a scene in "The Seducer's
> Diary" in which I believe Kierkegaard is alluding to
> the idea that the concept of boredom is something that
> could only be born in an industrial culture.)
As Andreas has already mentioned, Hunter and Gatherer cultures
actually had a lot of free time, relative to most all subsequent
cultures.  But as a general rule, it's a good idea to be skeptical
about claims that some cultures do not have certain words that
are not transparently technologically related. (I mean, it's
clear that modern tribes in the forests of New Guinea had until
recently no reason to have a word for "gun" or "penicillin",
but all societies have at least some segment of the population
that is unoccupied at least part of the time.)

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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