POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH AND SHORT

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) is credited with the description of life as “poor, nasty, brutish and short”. It was a pithy description employed to highlight a life lived outside of society and part of his argument for a social contract to ensure social peace. In contrast to the lauding of the state of nature by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), who argued we are born free but everywhere in chains, Hobbes posited the need for a social contract because, in a state of nature, there would be “[n]o arts, no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. His last four adjectives could well be used to describe the lot of most people before the DT. It was a time of high infant mortality, low life expectancy, poor nutrition and inadequate medical care. When Hobbes published his book Leviathan in 1651, from which the quotes are taken, the average life expectancy in England was 43 years, and six out of ten children died before they reached adulthood. Women gave birth to between five and eight children and in most cases only reared four to early adulthood. One in eight women died giving birth.

Population growth was slow and subject to fluctuations as failed harvests, social chaos, war and disruption could increase mortality. The Black Death and the Little Ice Age led to population decreases across the globe with instances of very marked population decline at the more regional level.

There were cultural consequences of this demographic situation. Death was a common presence; many children died in childbirth and people did not live very long. Our ancestors were surrounded by death in their everyday lives. The presence of death did not make the loss any less wrenching. Traditional societies had complex mourning rituals to cope with the loss of loved ones. Australian Aborigines, for example, had weeks, sometimes months, of ceremonies and rituals, called “sorry business”. But the constant presence of death meant that it could never be ignored and had to be accommodated into cultural practices and belief systems.