It is usually said that man began to cover his body for two reasons:
first, to protect himself from frost and damp; secondly, on account of
a feeling of shame.
There can be no doubt that, when man emigrated from his warm native
home and settled down in less hospitable zones, it became necessary for
him to screen himself from the influences of a raw climate. The Eskimo
wrap themselves up in furs, and the wretched natives of Tierra del
Fuego throw a piece of sealskin over one of their shoulders, “on the
side from which the wind blows.”[1111]
The second motive, too, seems acceptable at first sight. The savage men
of the tropics, though otherwise entirely naked, commonly wear a scanty
dress which Europeans might readily suppose to be used for the sake
of decency. Nothing of the sort is found in any other animal species;
hence Professor Wundt concludes that shame is “a feeling specifically
peculiar to man.”[1112]
But why should man blush to expose one part of the body more than
another? This is no matter of course, but a problem to be solved.
The feeling in question cannot be regarded as originally innate in
mankind. There are many peoples, who, though devoid of any kind of
dress, show no trace of shame, and others who, when they dress
themselves, pay not the least regard to what we consider the first
requirements of decency.
Thus, in the northern parts of the Californian Peninsula, both men and
women have been found in a state of nudity.[1113] Among the Miwok,
according to their own confession, persons of both sexes and of all
ages were formerly absolutely naked.[1114] Lyman found the same to be
the case with the Paiuches in northern Colorado, Columbus with the
aborigines of Hispaniola, Pizarro with the Indians of Coca, v. Humboldt
with the Chaymas, Wallace with the Purupurús, v. Schütz-Holzhausen with
the Catamixis, Prince Maximilian with the Puris at St. Fidelis, Azara
with certain Indians in the neighbourhood of the river Paraguay.[1115]
In some Indian tribes the men alone go naked,[1116] in others the
women.[1117] Again, in North America, Mackenzie met a troop of
natives, of whom the men wore many ornaments and much clothing, but
had, apparently, not the slightest notion of bashfulness. And of the
Fuegians we are told that, although they have the shoulder or the back
protected by a sealskin, the rest of the body is perfectly naked.[1118]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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