world oldest profession

[the_maestro_sartori]

Prostitution I'm sure is the oldest. Or money lending of various degrees

 

[Kirke]

I am disappointed that no-one has said telephone sanitiser yet. Shame on you, escapists.

 

[Hawkeye21]

I think leadership is the oldest profession. The biggest, smartest, toughest hunter takes over a tribe. Now he has a job in leading that tribe.

Then the oldest profession would be hunter. Lawyered.

PS: it appears I have been rick rolled by capcha:

Spoiler

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Clearly the oldest profession is cloning:

POW! Right in the science.

 

[The Name's Bond]

Hunter Gatherer is the worlds oldest profession, it dates as far back as when humans were able to stand upright. It required no tools, (however it was easier with the development of tools) and humans existed in without bankers, bakers and candlestick makers, because the civilization required to facilitate such business' existing didn't exist until after the agricultural revolution, which established the building blocks of modern society, and created opportunities for prostitution (which isn't the oldest, but very close), mercenary work, bankers and tool masons.

 

[Hawkeye21]

More importantly what the hell is wrong with your spell checker?

oh, thats because my browser spellchecks in my native language instead of english for some reason or another

 

[blackrave]

Profession means something you are paid for, hence prostitution being the world's oldest. In that regard, I don't doubt it. It's been observed in the animal kingdom that primates will trade sexual favours for food, shelter or protection. It's obvious in our society that that still happens, so I'd say it's at least possible both we and our primate cousins learned it from our ancestors.

I can't agree that hunter-gatherer was the oldest profession, as they typically hunter-gathered for themselves or their tribe, they weren't being paid to go out and get food. Food was the payment.

And what was the payment of such pre-historian prostitute?
Food, mostly
So it is safe to assume that food could be considered as "money" (well one of, because barter)
So by same logic, if gathering money isn't considered job, then present day tax collectors and people responsible for emitting money aren't working either.
So I pretty much disagree on your opinion.
Job is something you do on regular basis that provides you with means to sustain your needs (not exact explanation, but I see job more along these lines)
So my vote goes for hunter or fisher.

P.S. OMG- so much "so"s. I really need to reread my posts more often

 

[Hagi]

I don't understand. Why wouldn't it be prostitution?
Male monkey has bananas. Female monkey gets bananas for sex. Prehistoric prostitution.

Woefully inadequate explanations of ancient history now on sale. Get them quick.

Yeah, but since the male monkey needs to have bananas to trade, then the oldest profession is banana gatherer.

For it to be a profession you have to be paid to do it though, gathering to eat isnt a profession, so the monkey prostitute is still the one with the profession.

Unless in fact it's not the prostitute who's getting paid but instead the gatherer, with monkey booty.

 

[New Troll]

Prostitution. In the beginning there was only Adam and Eve and.. well... yeah. Course you could argue that while Adam was "paying" Eve for sex by doing all the work, he was also getting "paid" with sex for his labors. So it'd be a tie.

My most serious answer though would be Bodyguard. The first slightly bigger man would decide he doesn't need to work as hard as the rest of his tribe since they need him more than he needs them. Lion-syndrome.

 

[Korolev]

Depends on what you define as a "profession". If you're talking about Hunting in prehistoric times, that wasn't really a "profession" - it was an activity necessary for life. Same goes for gatherers - the majority of any tribe would have participated in these activities, thus making it not so much of a profession but a basic life skill.

As some one else said, leadership is probably the oldest profession. You have a group of people, usually that group will have a leader - either official or unofficial. You need leaders to co-ordinate group actions. It is rare that groups of people will naturally all agree to all plans all the time and carry them out with no fuss. You almost always have to have a leader to designate roles, maintain peace, provide advice and accept feedback. After all, you can't take down a Woolly Mammoth without extensive co-ordiation (Okay, you guys throw your spears and make noise, drive it into the valley - then you guys jump out and block the front, and you guys spear it from behind, while you lot throw rocks from above").

 

[Ryan Minns]

Dragon slayers! They would have worked bloody hard also and a long time ago because nobody sees any dragons around do they?

 

[flarty]

Being a mother

Well you can put house wife as a profession.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I think it would have to be hunter/gather and prostitution at the same time, since technically they could only become professions once the exchange of goods and services had been established. Before then they would have only been hobbies or survival activities.

This guy alluded to it.

"Survivor" is the oldest profession, no matter what you're doing, you're surviving.

Dragon slayers! They would have worked bloody hard also and a long time ago because nobody sees any dragons around do they?

But I also don't see any ice giants, regular giants, elves, orcs, goblins, halflings, lizardmen, snake people, werepeople, sasquatch, skyfish, gremlins.....oh my god....we killed them all.

 

[MagunBFP]

3 possibilities comes to mind...

1. Banana gatherer he gets paid in sex... you can imagine that if he was good at his job he'd be getting alot of sex in exchange for his bananas

2. Anti-assassin... "you give me your stuff"/"do what I say" and in exchange I won't kill you

3. Politican... in the beginning God created order from Chaos, any decent politican (hell, even the really bad ones)can create chaos where there was nothing before, and in exchange for God purchasing this chaos pollies get to claim to be the oldest profession thus obviously the most important thus requiring of all the special benefits that are a drain on society but are good for the politians.

 

[Songblade]

Two simultaneously: Hunter/Gatherers AND Childcare. It's not like they'd just leave the little ones alone while they were out bashing creatures to death.

 

[Xanex]

It's got to be veggie picker. That or hunter for meat. Doubt it's fisherman.

 

[Edguy]

Obviously hunter/gatherer, but I don't think you'd look at it as a profession back then. Just a way of life. Professions didn't really exist until we got complex civilizations..

 

[Stasisesque]

Profession means something you are paid for, hence prostitution being the world's oldest. In that regard, I don't doubt it. It's been observed in the animal kingdom that primates will trade sexual favours for food, shelter or protection. It's obvious in our society that that still happens, so I'd say it's at least possible both we and our primate cousins learned it from our ancestors.

I can't agree that hunter-gatherer was the oldest profession, as they typically hunter-gathered for themselves or their tribe, they weren't being paid to go out and get food. Food was the payment.

And what was the payment of such pre-historian prostitute?
Food, mostly
So it is safe to assume that food could be considered as "money" (well one of, because barter)
So by same logic, if gathering money isn't considered job, then present day tax collectors and people responsible for emitting money aren't working either.
So I pretty much disagree on your opinion.
Job is something you do on regular basis that provides you with means to sustain your needs (not exact explanation, but I see job more along these lines)
So my vote goes for hunter or fisher.

P.S. OMG- so much "so"s. I really need to reread my posts more often

Tax collectors don't get to keep the taxes they chase up. They are paid by a third party to perform their task. Hunter-gatherers were not paid by anyone to hunter-gather, they had to perform that task in order for survival. Prostitution is not needed for survival (in the animal kingdom it is considered prostitution when it happens outside of procreation and there is a service exchanged for it, shelter/protection/food).

Everyone was a hunter-gatherer pre-history, hence prostitution being the world's oldest profession. The first time someone exchanged sexual favours for goods was the first time someone provided a service for which they were "paid".

Think of it this way: You go out, acquire food, cook the food and eat the food but that isn't your profession. It's survival. Your profession is some other task for which you are provided the means to acquire food.

 

[aba1]

Profession means something you are paid for, hence prostitution being the world's oldest. In that regard, I don't doubt it. It's been observed in the animal kingdom that primates will trade sexual favours for food, shelter or protection. It's obvious in our society that that still happens, so I'd say it's at least possible both we and our primate cousins learned it from our ancestors.

I can't agree that hunter-gatherer was the oldest profession, as they typically hunter-gathered for themselves or their tribe, they weren't being paid to go out and get food. Food was the payment.

Good points if it was first job it would be a different story but since it is profession that changes things. I think gatherer could still be the first however since it could be said that you are collecting food in exchange for expectance into the tribe which is a form of payment.

 

[Syntax Error]

Salesman. Cuz everyone has to sell something. It could be a product or a "service" or an actual service.