Webster's New World College Dictionary (Fourth Ed.) defines time as:
II. a period or interval. 1: the period between two events or during which something exists, happens or acts; measured or measurable interval
At its core, time is fairly elusive. We can't see it or sense it -- it just happens. Human beings have therefore come up with ways to measure time that are totally arbitrary and also fairly interesting from a historical perspective.
The day is an obvious starting point for time. A day consists of a period of sunlight followed by night. Our bodies are tuned in to this cycle through sleep, so each morning we wake up to a new day. No matter how primitive the culture, the concept of a day arises as an obvious and natural increment.
We use clocks to divide the day into smaller increments. We use calendars to group days together into larger increments. Both of these systems have very interesting origins that we'll find out about in the course of this article.
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