On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:46:26 -0800, ginny wilken <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

 >Ever get to go naked for a long time? After a while, you don't smell
 >or feel tacky. It's the clothes that make bathing really a daily
 >necessity, I think.

I partly agree. Clothes are a contributing factor to the need to clean
ourselves. This is not my conclusion. I got it from Desmond Morris. I don't
remember the exact formulation but in one his books I once read, The Pocket
Guide To Manwatching, published 1982, he says something like this:

The primitive human developed in a warm climate. Her naked skin was in
balance with the surrounding environment. Microbes on its surface didn't
constitue a health problem in
spite of perspiration and exposure for dirt.
When she started to explore the surrounding world and adapt to new
environments by inventing clothes, malodorousness and new kinds of diseases
developed because the clothes obstructed the tegument from breathing and
perspireing. By and by she developed different ways of handling this
problem by inventning perfumes, soaps etc. Through general and personal
hygiene she managed to achieve relatively healthy skincondition without
having to go naked.

/Fredrik