Difficult question, as one can not measure happiness in monetary terms; but three things were against them:

--Life expectancy was very short then; and, to see your loved one dieing at early age must have been very painful; also the pain of high infant mortality

--They had to face more suffering due to absence of medical treatment for sickness

--They were always busy gathering food; so must be worried in adverse weather

--They could not realize the need for self actualization (Maslow) or doing a challenging job, as people can do now

But they must be less worried about the corruption, bureaucracy, loss of property, fear of technology failure and accidents, etc.

Overall, it will be an exaggeration to say that they were happier.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort ( Franklin D. Roosevelt). Achievement leads to satisfaction, which in turn, lead to happiness.

Difficult question, as one can not measure happiness in monetary terms; but three things were against them:

--Life expectancy was very short then; and, to see your loved one dieing at early age must have been very painful; also the pain of high infant mortality

--They had to face more suffering due to absence of medical treatment for sickness

--They were always busy gathering food; so must be worried in adverse weather

--They could not realize the need for self actualization (Maslow) or doing a challenging job, as people can do now

But they must be less worried about the corruption, bureaucracy, loss of property, fear of technology failure and accidents, etc.

Overall, it will be an exaggeration to say that they were happier.

I think this is s question that can only be answered by speculation. If we measure happiness to be contentment, stone age men could be happier because targets then were only very local, never global. Hence very local achievements would already bring happiness.

The explanation to this issue is partly presented in the movie "The Gods must be crazy" where nomads in a desert in Africa living very simple, but peaceful and contented lives were suddenly disturbed, troubled, and made discontented by an empty bottle of softdrink irresponsibly dropped by an airplane passenger. The empty bottle brought a lot of convenience to the nomads- a root pressing device, a weapon, a receptacle for water, so that everyone wanted to own it causing selfishness, animosity, and hostility to the formerly happy tribe. The chief in the end decided to get rid of the "evil" device which led him to four more sequels of the blockbuster movie.

Dear Eddie, Superb. thanks for your thread!

Dear Kamal; May be your inference is not correct?

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. Helen Keller

Thank you also Debi. Ed

Dear Professor,

"The happiness" is a relative assumption, for example, when a Soldier of country "A" kills another Soldier of country "B" and wins a Protracted war. Then obviously the People of side "A" feels happiness, but what about the People of side "B"? The question is that: from where this feeling comes? and what can make you really happy?

When you did not have publication in good journals (stone age); you always think about that; and I am sure now you have several publications in several journals (21st century). Differentiate the situations (1) when you got your first acceptance of paper (2) now you get acceptance everyday. Is some difference? Why? How can we find a happiness forever? In does not belong to physical objects, but from your Conscience.

Trust me you may be happy forever without any special achievement and may be in sorrow with several great achievements (you can see yourself). Now try to find the answer "Were Stone Age men happier than 21st century men?"

Let us define "happiness" as an equilibrium with nature. It seems that there is an entropy law here: What you "gain" from something you loose from something else. There is a film which warmly I suggest to you.Koyaanisqatsi with music by Philip Glass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFBijDU8PpE

In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means "unbalanced life"

see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi.

I think that really our life is out of balance, and so we cannot be happy! Finally the illness of nature is reflected to humans. Only due to alienation we cannot see the unhappiness, driving a Porsche! The bottom line is that according to my definition we are less happy than stone age men!

And the poster:

Costas Drossos@ This is an excellent definition of happiness. Any further suggestion to formulate this entropy law . Also thanking you for pointing out this wonderful film by Philip Glass.

Nice. Search more and see; finally what you got !

Dear Ismat,

Thank you for your nice words. You pose an important question about "entropy".

First there is an introduction in Wiki:Introduction to entropy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_entropy

Second there are some nicer books which deal with that:

* J. Rifkin & T. Howard: ENTROPY: A New world View, Vantam,1980.

* [Jeremy_Rifkin]_ENTROPY_INTO_THE_GREENHOUSE_WORLD

* [Guy_Deutscher]_The_Entropy_Crisis. 2011.

"Let me take an example from the last one:

Let us go back to our well ordered household, where the parent in

charge does get up every morning, does the needful, everybody is

fed, and the house is kept clean. Water, electricity and gas flow

freely since we pay our bills, all appliances such as dishwasher,

washing-machine and drier are operating, floors are vacuumcleaned,

life is beautiful. But where did all the disorder go?

Well in fact we know that too. Garbage was collected, used

waters containing the dirt that came out from dirty dishes and

laundry and chemical used for those purpose were evacuated. In

short, disorder was transferred from our home to the outside world.

And the outside world — society — will have to deal with it in

some way. Garbage and used water will increase what we call

pollution of the environment, unless more energy resources are

spent to recycle or treat them. But in many locations on earth,

garbage is not collected, and used water not treated because the

necessary resources (in the end energy) are insufficient. Streams

get contaminated, water is below drinking quality, dangerous

diseases are rampant."

In other words, “happiness inside the home implies unhappiness outside”

See also:

Entropy (order and disorder):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wikiEntropy_(order_and_disorder)

A grateful heart is a happy heart.

Happiness will probably continue to be an elusive concept and it will be up to individuals to practice it on their own terms. How it is measured is certainly up for debate and best practices will most likely remain flexible. But everything seems to indicate that modern economics will not rely exclusively on the bottom-line and the pursuit of happiness will take center stage in our civilization as a movement that embraces and promotes holistic and inclusive success.

I agree with most of the contributors. Happiness is a concept and a relative term. I like and endorse answer respected @Prof. Kamal, “we and the generations of the stone age are not happy”

at times reminiscence also creates happiness derived in the past events....

I am not aware of stone age people but would be happy to see scenes which doesn't involve stone throwing and disturbances in the NEWS channel...

Happiness is derived from Peace and it is an emotional expression of sensual satisfaction....

Happiness is a mental state. In the same environment, some individuals may be more happy than others. Possible underlying causes are memorized past experiences, inter-individual variation in perception and sensibility towards environmental/social details. I think this applies to human and non-human vertebrates. I think this applies to 'stone-age' communities and 'modern' communities. 

Of course, Stone Age people would have been happier than 21st century ones, as they were fending themselves from Nature and finding avenues to get their food, which are basics.....NEED for PHYSIOLOGICAL GRATIFICATION makes them tired and contented for that day of living....which took most of their time and resources than to think of any other.

one can not measure happiness in monetary terms.

I thinking that Stone Age people did not have Banks and Wall street that make the whole world up to head in dept, and did not have pharmaceutical companies that make almost all of us mad!

Dear Kamal,

Do water pipes, electricity, cars and planes make humans happy? Most of them are responsible for nature pollution, stress, etc. I agree that the question is difficult, and the common opinion that the societies progress forward, is difficult to abandon. There could be a possibility our society to be better, but "consuption" "the last for profit" etc. does not allow to reach such a society. Nevertheless we are free to dream!     

Dear Kaamal,

I am sure you cannot convinced! Easiness of life implies happiness? There are a lot of examples that easiness of life leads to subside!  Have ever hear that our grandmothers make suicide because of the difficulty of life? 

 If 'art' is a good measure of 'happiness', I will say that 'stone-age' man / woman was perhaps happier than the 21st century man!! 

A Daily Mail (UK) article by Damien Gayle says -

Stone Age man was BETTER at drawing moving animals than artists today: Cave art 'has fewer errors than modern works'.

This is an amazing study!

Some highlights from this article:

• Prehistoric paintings had error rate of just 46.2 per cent, while modern era artworks until the late 19th Century were wrong 83.5 per cent of the time
• Even after detailed photographic studies of animal movement, modern artworks are still wrong 57.9 per cent of the time, study claims
• Even Leonardo da Vinci, famous for his anatomical drawings, got it wrong when he tried to portray animal movement.
• After the pioneering work of Eadweard Muybridge, who made the first detailed studies of animal gait in the 1880s, the error rate decreased to 57.9 per cent.
• But even then, pictures of moving animals could not match those of the cavemen for accuracy.

 Have a great day, friends!

With best wishes,

Sundar

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2243904/Stone-Age-man-BETTER-drawing-moving-animals-artists-today-Cave-art-fewer-errors-modern-works.html#ixzz3B01FMEwp

I can say yes and no. The stone Age men lived in ease and peace. The 21st century men live more sophesticated life and less ease and peace.

Why not to ask them?

In this document

http://www.gospelofthomas.org/thepapalagi1.html

Tuiavii of Tiavea, a south sea chief,  exposes his opinions about the modern men.

A modern-day Stone Age subculture is developing nowadays. Their experience is a good example for your question dear @Ismat. " They eat lots of meat, bathe in icy water and run around barefoot. Some researchers say people led healthier lives in pre-historic times." I would say, the happier one!

http://ml.spiegel.de/article.do?id=677121

Stone man age may be more happy since they were having much free time compared too us, may be having limited resources but were creative and happy. The modern world has become more busy, need more and more achievements and is more materialistic, and yes celebrating achievements with happiness is a key to become happy.  If we make others happy then happiness come back on your faces. In those days family groups were there and now nuclear families are there. 

An paradigmatic example is when developed countries try to modernise some tribes, who were almost in stone age. Then although these tribes were in equilibrium with nature, after the interference were just unhappy!   

Technological dependence of modern man does not make him happy, quite the contrary. The man is increasingly returning to nature, get away from the devastated cities, and that makes him happier!

Hunter Gatherers And The Golden Age Of Man

Complexity is always interesting, but not always important, and we should think carefully before putting ourselves at the top of any sort of evolutionary tree. Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than other animals because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, wars and so on. But conversely, the other animals had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.

After all, our civilization provides us with modern health care and plenty of food. We've landed men on the moon and harvested the power of the atom. We communicate across the globe in the blink of an eye and our buildings stretch up impossibly high into the sky. These are impressive feats indeed.

There are many things hunter gatherers have never done that we have, but in some ways their privileged lives put us to shame.

Besides rarely going hungry and easily meeting their limited wants, they outclass us in a number of ways.

http://www.raw-food-health.net/HunterGatherers.html

I agree with Mahfoz  Achievement leads to satisfaction, which in turn, lead to happiness. 

I believe that happiness has co-existed with human beings for as long as they have lived. There is no generation who must not have experienced happiness. Things that really matter have been constant throughout history. For instance, joy of falling in love, finding a true friend, helping others in need, holding your child for the first time etc. still existed in stone age 

Fine book about the issue! Were we happier in the stone age?

Does modern life make us happy? We have gained much but we have lost a great deal too. Are humans better suited to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle?...

We are far more powerful than our ancestors, but are we much happier? Historians seldom stop to ponder this question, yet ultimately, isn't it what history is all about? Our understanding and our judgment of, say, the worldwide spread of monotheistic religion surely depends on whether we conclude that it raised or lowered global happiness levels. And if the spread of monotheism had no noticeable impact on global happiness, what difference did it make?...

Humans are not adapted by evolution to experience constant pleasure, so ice‑cream and smartphone games will not do. If that is what humankind nevertheless wants, it will be necessary to re-engineer our bodies and minds. We are working on it."

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/05/were-we-happier-in-the-stone-age

Dear Ljubomir et all, 

Then meditation, having time to think about the best way to live, to have emotional intelligence is a way of hapiness. 

We do not change others but we can do a lot about ourseves to continue taking the best part of all environment.

Have a nice time

Helena

I dont know about happiness...but content yes. they must be seeing the loved ones die, but from not the ways we, modern age humans, have seen. the mass murders or extinctions we have seen were not there. I think the act of exploring at that time was far more joyful then in present conditions.