Work-play Conundrum

pt. 1-the way we were

May 23, 2025

If you have to work to survive then you need to play or your body breaks down. And every society that developed into any type of simplified culture that streamlined the culture into the orderers and then ordered a sabbath, or day off was seen as necessary. You hardly find the notion in complex cultures where the need to include everyone in the decision making process prevailed because there was never a division of such kind made between work and play.

In these communities, persons put forth whatever was needed in conjunction with the community for the community to fulfill its needs. From the earliest ages one began to learn that everyone had value to the community in whatever role the child played in the community. The child began to learn by playing at working to find their interest and their role they would play in the community. As they grew into adults they were assimilated and played the role or roles they had trained to become.

But there were serious discussions when need arose to discuss what might need to be done to fulfill the community’s needs. And everyone participated from newborn to great-grandma. The board of directors was the entire community.

I suppose during these director’s meeting there was worship involved, Because the reason of course is to determine how to find food in a drought or how to rebuild after a storm; or perhaps the great migration of the Oceti Sakowin (Sioux) from the Mississippi valley to the northwestern plains was the discussion that involved after the great earthquake caused by the New Madrid fault (actually some indications it may break again; but long the most rapturous fault in North America.)

Worship was not however about paying taxes (animal sacrifice or money tithe). They were about community song and dance and storytelling. Today we do try to look back and find their “origin” myth (mostly that is what seems to fascinate us) but those stories would be varied to the extent of what it needs to mean to the moment at hand. The rituals would change less than the stories but the stories led directly to the rituals that were performed.

Of course it was about propitiation. But primarily the sacrifice was the ritual and not a gift itself to a god. To call these people polytheists is stretching the conception of the god way beyond their own notions, although if they write today about their past worship they might use the term “god of the…”. What they saw was a world that’s components were interrelated and when they became unbalanced, “evil” consequences would follow–scarcities that made survival possible. So rather than sacrificing to a god, the fisherman might throw two out of the four fish he caught back into the sea.

There were obviously rituals around death because they were well aware or other human excretion could lead to disease. Ghettos, unclean streets etc., only came when societies became simplified by masters who dictated the rituals and sponsored religions that sponsored them. For the master to appear really powerful the gods had to be really powerful. For the master to successfully punish, it had to appear that it was the god who was doing the punishing.

And these gods needed meat and food because these gods were really the priests who manned the places of worship. Eventually as a money culture became more greatly widespread this religious tax deemed a sacrifice has become more commonly paid in what is now commonly called a monetary tithe.

The UnUtopian Optimist

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