While American Indians were certainly laudable in terms of tribal and family loyalty, they were not good at getting out of work. While Laplanders were training reindeer to pull sleds, Indians let the local deer, elk, and moose get away with just browsing. They hunted, killed, skinned, and ate them, but that was about it.
No Indian is on record having tried to domesticate any of these animals to get more work done while working less.
In the Indian Subcontinent (I know, we aren’t supposed to call it a “sub” continent because it makes a few of the easily insulted among them feel like “sub” people. But, that’s what it is, a sub-continent!), people were able to domesticate elephants, which got them out of a lot of work pulling and pushing things. The Africans had even bigger elephants, and did not use them to save labor. They missed a great opportunity to get out of work.
In all those countries, there were certainly people who were smart enough to see the advantages of making animals do the work, but such innovations were routinely discouraged. Inventors were usually killed so as not to “disturb” the existing order.
Sloth, and the desire to just sit around and watch TV while drinking beer, hadn’t been invented. The most primitive peoples were busy, busy, busy. Even today, the more primitive among us spend a lot of time trying to blow up things that save time and money. Airplanes, trains, cabs, all have been the target of bombers anxious for people to get back to “useful” work.
Too bad we can’t buy them all a hammock and a six-pack.
