How Has Life Changed Since 1800
How has life changed since 1800?
Life as we know it today in the modern world, is significantly different to the lives that our predecessors lived during the period 1500-1800. The changes across the centuries are the result of a process of advancements over time. This essay will examine life in the period 1500-1800 as highlighted in the work of George Blainey (2000) and will compare key differences of life in this early period, against life in the modern world today. Throughout this essay, the main focus will be based on three areas which have seen significant change over this period of time: the production of food, work practices and the standard of living. The advancements in these three areas, has led to societies living very different lifestyles in the current modern times.
Day to day life in the period 1500-1800 revolved around hunting, collecting and cultivating food in order to survive. Grain made up 80% of most people’s diet and was used to make bread, beer, damper or gruel and in particularly lean times, was mixed with water to relieve hunger (Blainey 2000, p. 410). Bread and beer were the basis of most people’s diet. Bread was so important to everyday survival that a baker could be hanged for selling an underweight loaf of bread. Blainey (2000) describes a life where most families owned no land, or if they did, it tended to be too small to sustain their food needs. The main priority was to provide enough food to feed their small communities and everyone, including women and children had to assist in this.
As highlighted by Blainey (2000), most people worked on the land and the majority of work revolved around the production of food. Successful grain harvests were imperative to survival and everybody had to work together to reap, bind, carry and store the harvest. Woman and children did much of the rural work, such as weeding, carting water, spinning fibres, brewing beer, gathering firewood and making clothes. Many men as well as unmarried
Life as we know it today in the modern world, is significantly different to the lives that our predecessors lived during the period 1500-1800. The changes across the centuries are the result of a process of advancements over time. This essay will examine life in the period 1500-1800 as highlighted in the work of George Blainey (2000) and will compare key differences of life in this early period, against life in the modern world today. Throughout this essay, the main focus will be based on three areas which have seen significant change over this period of time: the production of food, work practices and the standard of living. The advancements in these three areas, has led to societies living very different lifestyles in the current modern times.
Day to day life in the period 1500-1800 revolved around hunting, collecting and cultivating food in order to survive. Grain made up 80% of most people’s diet and was used to make bread, beer, damper or gruel and in particularly lean times, was mixed with water to relieve hunger (Blainey 2000, p. 410). Bread and beer were the basis of most people’s diet. Bread was so important to everyday survival that a baker could be hanged for selling an underweight loaf of bread. Blainey (2000) describes a life where most families owned no land, or if they did, it tended to be too small to sustain their food needs. The main priority was to provide enough food to feed their small communities and everyone, including women and children had to assist in this.
As highlighted by Blainey (2000), most people worked on the land and the majority of work revolved around the production of food. Successful grain harvests were imperative to survival and everybody had to work together to reap, bind, carry and store the harvest. Woman and children did much of the rural work, such as weeding, carting water, spinning fibres, brewing beer, gathering firewood and making clothes. Many men as well as unmarried
References: Blainey, G 2000, A Short History of the World, Viking, Ringwood. Henslin, J, Possamai, A & Possamai-Inesedy, A 2011, Sociology: A down-to-earth approach, Pearson, Frenchs Forest NSW. Macionis J & Plummer, K 2012, Sociology: a global introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Harlow. Povos Indigenas no Brasil n.d., Yanomami family, digital image, viewed 22 November 2014, <http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/yanomami/580>.