On Wed, 4 Apr 2001 13:31:06 -0500 Philip Thrift <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> >Paleo people rarely wore much "clothing,"

Someone commented that the climate was too cool for
much bare skin......but that's not correct.   The climate
where we did most of our evolving is indeed suitable
for nudity.....but we lack fur on our bottoms to cushion
us when sitting, and our poor males have tender parts
that need protection when they are bounding through
the brush after a rabbit.......so some sort of skirt
or genital protection was probably the first clothing
ever designed......even in warm climates.   The
further north we wandered, the more we needed
the fur of other animals to keep us warm.  Plant
derived clothing....such as grass or leaf skirts...would
not have been fossilized like bones were....but about
the same time as we found uses for long stringy vines
to tie things together, we probably realized those stringy
vines could hold grass and/or big leaves around us to
protect our tender parts......

In my opinion, we aren't designed for clothing.....ask any
woman who has problems keeping her pantyhose pulled up.....
our legs taper....hose just sliiiiiiiide right down.....we have
to use garters and such to keep them in place....we can hang
a skirt off our hips.....things hung around our shoulders just
slide off if we move our arms around much.......

I suspect clothing originally denoted a more leisured
rank in the clan perhaps, or a ceremonial position....
many H/G's reported on in the last 200 years wore
little clothing and had no "modesty" taboos to prevent
them shedding in when it got in the way during work
or play......according to the anthropologists, the
Inuit shed their clothing when inside their homes....
nudity was not a taboo there..........I doubt it was
forbidden to my NW European ancestors either....
The nudists I know today claim they feel much
more in harmony with the world than others who
keep their bodies bundled up and hidden from the
Sun.........

[log in to unmask]
Walk The Path With Practical Feet!

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