How Did the Passion for Decoration Enslave Man?

It is extremely curious to observe how primitive man, in a cheerful self-satisfaction, kept on decorating himself ... He did not think about the fact that there is such a thing as work; after all, in many cases, the generous nature surrounding him gave him everything readily available—both food and drink; why should he think about such things as work, the compulsion to activity? But as he became more and more preoccupied with his adornment, he suddenly found himself at work. It was not at all necessary for his livelihood; no, he found himself at work simply because he did not have enough of his ornaments.

Leo Viktor Frobenius (1873–1938) was a German archeologist, an explorer of Inner Africa, and a proponent of the diffusionist model, who believed that social development is based on the borrowing and spreading of culture from some places to others.