Rooted in Rhythms

Charles-François Daubigny, “Harvest” (1851)

“In preindustrial societies, time was viewed cyclically; that is, time was rooted in the rhythms of the natural world. People’s lives revolved around sunrise and sunset, the change of seasons, and the planting and harvesting of crops. They were unlikely to separate work and leisure within their daily life, and the demands of work were often lightened by songs and storytelling. Traditional gatherings, like a barn-raising or a quilting bee, possessed both leisure and work-like components. As a result, notions of work and leisure blended together.

“The Industrial Revolution (1760—1830), however, changed everything. Unlike previous eras, the work of the industrial age was focused not on the farm but in the factory. People began to move to the cities to tend to the machines. Work was situated in space at the factory and structured in time as the worker had to be at the work place at a certain time to perform work duties. Facilitated by the development of clocks, work could be assigned to specific times, and work time could be measured precisely. Time began to be viewed mechanically, and this linear notion of time began to influence and change peoples’ understanding of leisure. Time away from work was free of the often unpleasant demands of the workspace, so it was called ‘free time.’” 

– Paul Heintzman, Leisure and Spirituality