For most of human existence, the average man could look forward to a relatively short life of chasing game or extracting enough sustenance from the ground that his family could avoid starvation — at least, anyone in his family who had survived birth, precarious weather, natural disasters, infections, pestilence, accidents, wildlife, and all the other troubles of the world.
Even if he was brilliantly successful in this endeavor, it was not improbable that one day he would gaze at the horizon and glimpse a horde of antagonistic fellow humans approaching his hut. These strangers might have emerged from the sea, or they might have trekked from a foreign land, or maybe they just hiked over from the next village; but they probably intended to slaughter him in some highly disagreeable manner, rape his wife, and throw his children into a short but brutal life of slavery.
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