Prehistory of nakedness and clothing

Humans are the only primate species that have undergone significant hair loss and of the approximately 5000 extant species of mammal, only a handful are effectively hairless. This list includes elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, walruses, some species of pigs, whales and other cetaceans, and naked mole rats. Most mammals have light skin that is covered by fur, and biologists believe that early human ancestors started out this way also. Dark skin probably evolved after humans lost their body fur, because the naked skin was vulnerable to the strong UV radiation as explained in the Out of Africa hypothesis. Therefore, evidence of the time when human skin darkened has been used to date the loss of human body hair, assuming that the dark skin was needed after the fur was gone.

With the loss of fur, darker, high-melanin skin evolved as a protection from ultraviolet radiation damage.{{sfn|Zukerman|2011}} As humans migrated outside of the tropics, varying degrees of depigmentation evolved in order to permit UVB-induced synthesis of previtamin D₃.{{sfn|Jablonski|Chaplin|2000|pp=57–106}}{{sfn|Jablonski|Chaplin|2017}} The relative lightness of female compared to male skin in a given population may be due to the greater need for women to produce more vitamin D during lactation.{{sfn|Jarrett|Scragg|2020|p=7}}

The sweat glands in humans could have evolved to spread from the hands and feet as the body hair changed, or the hair change could have occurred to facilitate sweating. Horses and humans are two of the few animals capable of sweating on most of their body, yet horses are larger and still have fully developed fur. In humans, the skin hairs lie flat in hot conditions, as the arrector pili muscles relax, preventing heat from being trapped by a layer of still air between the hairs, and increasing heat loss by convection.

Another hypothesis for the thick body hair on humans proposes that Fisherian runaway sexual selection played a role (as well as in the selection of long head hair), (see terminal and vellus hair), as well as a much larger role of testosterone in men. Sexual selection is the only theory thus far that explains the sexual dimorphism seen in the hair patterns of men and women. On average, men have more body hair than women. Males have more terminal hair, especially on the face, chest, abdomen, and back, and females have more vellus hair, which is less visible. The halting of hair development at a juvenile stage, vellus hair, would also be consistent with the neoteny evident in humans, especially in females, and thus they could have occurred at the same time.{{cite book|last=Dixson|first=A.F.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRTniKE2liYC|title=Sexual selection and the origins of human mating systems|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-955942-8|edition=1}} This theory, however, has significant holdings in today's cultural norms. There is no evidence that sexual selection would proceed to such a drastic extent over a million years ago when a full, lush coat of hair would most likely indicate health and would therefore be more likely to be selected for, not against.

The aquatic ape hypothesis (AAH) includes hair loss as one of several characteristics of modern humans that could indicate adaptations to an aquatic environment. Serious consideration may be given by contemporary anthropologists to some hypotheses related to AAH, but hair loss is not one of them.{{sfn|Rae|Koppe|2014}}

A divergent explanation of humans' relative hairlessness holds that ectoparasites (such as ticks) residing in fur became problematic as humans became hunters living in larger groups with a "home base".

{{cite journal

| last1 = Pagel

| first1 = Mark

| last2 = Bodmer

| first2 = Walter

| year = 2003

| title = A naked ape would have fewer parasites

| journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

| pmid = 12952654

| volume = 270

| pages = S117–S119

| pmc = 1698033

| doi = 10.1098/rsbl.2003.0041

| issue = Suppl 1

}}

{{cite journal

| last1 = Rantala

| first1 = M.J.

| year = 1999

| pages = 1987–1989

| issue = 12

| volume = 29

| title = Human nakedness: Adaptation against ectoparasites?

| journal = International Journal for Parasitology

| url = http://users.utu.fi/mjranta/reprints/1.%20Rantala1999.pdf

| access-date = 14 December 2010

| url-status = dead

| doi = 10.1016/S0020-7519(99)00133-2

| pmid = 10961855

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110205011118/http://users.utu.fi/mjranta/reprints/1.%20Rantala1999.pdf

| archive-date = 5 February 2011

}} Nakedness would also make the lack of parasites apparent to prospective mates.{{sfn|Rantala|2007|pp=1–7}} However, this theory is inconsistent with the abundance of parasites that continue to exist in the remaining patches of human hair.{{sfn|Giles|2010}}

The "ectoparasite" explanation of modern human nakedness is based on the principle that a hairless primate would harbor fewer parasites. When our ancestors adopted group-dwelling social arrangements roughly 1.8 mya, ectoparasite loads increased dramatically. Early humans became the only one of the 193 primate species to have fleas, which can be attributed to the close living arrangements of large groups of individuals. While primate species have communal sleeping arrangements, these groups are always on the move and thus are less likely to harbor ectoparasites.

It was expected that dating the split of the ancestral human louse into two species, the head louse and the pubic louse, would date the loss of body hair in human ancestors. However, it turned out that the human pubic louse does not descend from the ancestral human louse, but from the gorilla louse, diverging 3.3 million years ago. This suggests that humans had lost body hair (but retained head hair) and developed thick pubic hair prior to this date, were living in or close to the forest where gorillas lived, and acquired pubic lice from butchering gorillas or sleeping in their nests.

{{cite web

|date=28 October 2010

|title=Gorillas gave pubic lice to humans, DNA study reveals

|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070316-gorilla-lice.html

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216214857/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070316-gorilla-lice.html

|archive-date=16 December 2014

|access-date=18 February 2015

|work=National Geographic

}}

{{cite journal

|journal=J Biol

|date=10 February 2009

|volume=8

|issue=2

|page=20

|title=Apes, lice and prehistory

|author=Weiss RA

|pmid=19232074

|pmc=2687769

|doi=10.1186/jbiol114

|doi-access=free

}} The evolution of the body louse from the head louse, on the other hand, places the date of clothing much later, some 100,000 years ago.

{{cite journal

|last1=Kittler

|first1=R.

|last2=Kayser

|first2=M.

|last3=Stoneking

|first3=M.

|year=2004

|title=Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing

|journal=Current Biology

|volume=14

|issue=24

|pages=1414–7

|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2004.12.024

|pmid=12932325

|doi-access=free

|bibcode=2004CBio...14.2309K

}}

{{cite journal

|last1=Toups

|first1=M.A.

|last2=Kitchen

|first2=A.

|last3=Light

|first3=J.E.

|last4=Reed

|first4=D.L.

|year=2011

|title=Origin of clothing lice indicates early clothing use by anatomically modern humans in Africa

|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution

|volume=28

|issue=1

|pages=29–32

|doi=10.1093/molbev/msq234

|pmc=3002236

|pmid=20823373

}}

Another hypothesis is that humans' use of fire caused or initiated the reduction in human hair.

{{cite journal

| last=Couch

| first=Alan

| date=3 February 2016

| title=Fur or fire: Was the use of fire the initial selection pressure for fur loss in ancestral hominins?

| url=https://peerj.com/preprints/1702/?td=wk

| journal=PeerJ Preprints

| volume=4

| page=e1702v1

| doi=10.7287/peerj.preprints.1702v1

| access-date=10 February 2016

| doi-access=free

}}

Another view is proposed by James Giles, who attempts to explain hairlessness as evolved from the relationship between mother and child, and as a consequence of bipedalism. Giles also connects romantic love to hairlessness.{{cite journal |author-link=James Giles (philosopher) |first=James |last=Giles |orig-year=2010 |date=20 March 2015 |title=Naked love: The evolution of human hairlessness |journal=Biological Theory |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=326–336 |doi=10.1162/BIOT_a_00062|s2cid=84164968 }}{{cite web|last=Shea|first=Christopher|date=12 July 2011|title=Human hairlessness: The naked love explanation|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/07/12/human-hairlessness-the-naked-love-explanation/|access-date=18 February 2015|publisher=The Wall Street Journal|department=Ideas Market blog}}

The last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was only partially bipedal, often using their front legs for locomotion and their rear legs for grasping branches when they climbed.

According to this view, the loss of grasping or prehensile feet--a loss that was necessary for the adaptation to walking--meant that infants could no longer grasp their mothers' fur effectively, something that all other primate infants must do to stay with the mother. But bipedal mothers could compensate for this by carrying their infants with their free hands.{{sfn|Brown|2021}} Bearing an infant for more than a short distance, however, is hard work. Even today few women choose to carry their infants for long, preferring to use a pram or baby sling. Hairless mothers who had hairless infants had the pleasure of skin-to-skin contact with their infants. This would have given them extra incentive to hold and carry their infants. This 'maternal selection' would have favored the survival of hairless infants.

This explains why women and children are more hairless than adult males--something other accounts have a difficulty doing. Since these hairless individuals had the pleasure of skin-to-skin contact as infants, they would have probably preferred more-or-less hairless sexual partners when they matured. Thus maternal selection for hairlessness would have been reinforced by this sexual selection

The combination of hairlessness and upright posture may also explain the enlargement of the female breasts as a sexual signal.{{sfn|Sutou|2012}} Giles also argues that this explains long head-hair, pubic hair, and distinctive underarm hair, hair that other primates do not have. Nakedness also affects sexual relationships as well, the duration of human intercourse being many times the duration of any other primates.{{sfn|Giles|2010}}

{{broader|History of clothing and textiles}}{{see also|Body modification}}

File:MAMUZ - Schneckenkette Hundssteig.jpg shells from Upper Palaeolithic Europe, dated between 39,000 and 25,000 BCE. The practice of body adornment is associated with the emergence of behavioral modernity.]]

A 2010 study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution indicates that the habitual wearing of clothing began at some point in time between 83,000 years ago and 170,000 years ago based upon a genetic analysis indicating when clothing lice diverged from their head louse ancestors. This information suggests that the use of clothing likely originated with anatomically modern humans in Africa prior to their migration to colder climates, allowing them to do so.{{sfn| Toups| Kitchen| Light| Reed| 2010| pp=29–32}}

Some of the technology for what is now called clothing may have originated to make other types of adornment, including jewelry, body paint, tattoos, and other body modifications, "dressing" the naked body without concealing it.{{sfn|Hollander|1978|p=83}}{{sfn|Hogenboom|2016}} According to Mark Leary and Nicole R. Buttermore, body adornment is one of the changes that occurred in the late Paleolithic (40,000 to 60,000 years ago) in which humans became not only anatomically modern, but also behaviorally modern and capable of self-reflection and symbolic interaction.{{sfn|Leary|Buttermore|2003}} More recent studies place the use of adornment at 77,000 years ago in South Africa, and 90,000—100,000 years ago in Israel and Algeria.{{sfn|Nowell|2010}} While modesty may be a factor, often overlooked purposes for body coverings are camouflage used by hunters, body armor, and costumes used to impersonate "spirit-beings".{{sfn|Buckner|2021}}

The origin of complex, fitted clothing required the invention of fine stone knives for cutting skins into pieces, and the eyed needle for sewing. This was done by Cro-Magnons, who migrated to Europe around 35,000 years ago.{{sfn|Gilligan|2010}} The Neanderthal occupied the same region, but became extinct in part because they could not make fitted garments, but draped themselves with crudely cut skins—based upon their simple stone tools—which did not provide the warmth needed to survive as the climate grew colder in the Last Glacial Period.{{sfn|Hermansen|2018|pp=103–104}} In addition to being less functional, the simple wrappings would not have been habitually worn by Neanderthal due to their being more cold-tolerant than Homo sapiens, and would not have acquired the secondary functions of decoration and promoting modesty.{{sfn|Gilligan|2007a|pp=500–502}}

The earliest archeological evidence of fabric clothing is inferred from representations in figurines in the southern Levant dated between 11,700 and 10,500 years ago.{{sfn|Levy|2020|loc=Ch. 7}} The surviving examples of woven cloth are linen from Egypt dated 5,000 BCE, although knotted or twisted flax fibers have been found as early as 7000 BCE.{{sfn|Barber|1991|pp=9-11}}

While adults are rarely completely naked in modern societies, covering at least their genitals, adornments and clothing often emphasize, enhance, or otherwise call attention to the sexuality of the body.{{sfn| Davies| 2020| p=168}}

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{{refend}}

{{nudity}}

category:history of clothing

category:human evolution

category:nudity