Prior to the rise of the state, for the first 98% of their history, most humans lived as hunter–gatherers. Extensive evidence provided by anthropologists reveals that hunter–gatherers have worked 12–20 hours a week and reported their work as pleasurable, experiencing it as a form of play, for which play as children prepared them. Work provided them with meaning, status, and community. These anthropological findings are what would be predicted from Charles Darwin’s principles of natural and sexual selection. Humans would be selected during evolution to experience work as pleasurable to better ensure its performance and thus their survival. In terms of sexual selection theory, good workers would gain high status and be more attractive to mates for parenting, better ensuring the survival of their unique genes into future generations. The new interdisciplinary social science of happiness research finds that where workers have control over the work process, either individually or democratically determined with others, work is found to be fulfilling and a source of meaning and creativity.