l energy by assigning to men
the tasks requiring violent exertion, and to women those requiring
constant attention.

But was not primitive man very lazy, and did he not do fewer things
than he reasonably could have done? If we mean by lazy an aversion to
certain types of action, primitive man was doubtless lazy; but if we
mean an aversion to all kinds of exertion, he certainly was not lazy.
He was so thoroughly aroused by certain stimulations and so exhausted
by the expenditure of energy in reacting to these stimulations
that periods of recuperation, or "sitting about," were necessary.
Heckenwelder's remarks on the labor of men and women among the Indians
of Pennsylvania are very instructive, although they relate to tribes
which had come under white influences to some extent:

The work of the women is not hard or difficult. They are
both able and willing to do it, and always perform it with
cheerfulness. Mothers teach their daughters those duties which
common sense would otherwise point out to them when grown up.
Within doors their labor is very trifling; there is seldom
more than one pot or kettle to attend to. There is no
scrubbing of the house, and but little to wash, and that not
often. Their principal occupations are to cut and fetch in the
firewood, till the ground, sow and reap the grain, and pound
the corn in mortars for their pottage, and to make bread which
they bake in the ashes. When going on a journey or to hunting
camps with their husbands, if they have no horses, they carry
a pack on their backs which often appears heavier than it
really is; it generally consists of a blanket, a dressed deer
skin for moccasins, a few articles of kitchen furniture, as
a kettle, bowl, or dish, with spoons, and some bread, corn,
salt, etc., for their nourishment. I have never known an
Indian woman complain of the hardship of carrying this burden,
which serves for their own comfort and support as well as of
their husbands. The tilling of the ground at home, getting of
firewood, and pounding of corn in mortars, is frequently
done by female parties, much in the manner of those husking,
quilting, and other _frolics_ (as they are called) in some
parts of the United States.... [When accompanying her husband
on the hunt the woman] takes pains to dry as much meat as she
can, that none may be lost; she carefully puts the tallow