That there is now evidence for the earliest bone-tool use from a cave not too far from Casablanca makes me wonder how long fashion has been fashionable. Those bone tools from more than 100 millennia ago appear to have been dedicated to making clothing from animal skins.
So, if you have a leather belt, shoes, or jacket, you fall into a fashion tradition that goes back possibly 120,000 years ago, give or take 10,000 years. Before that? Well, let’s just say that there was a naturist tradition, one that is still prevalent in isolated societies ranging from the Namibia to Brazil, from desert to rainforest. Throughout the rest of the world fashion prevails.
More to the point here: We’ve been using tools for a long time, sometimes without much innovation for millennia, as in the artifacts uncovered in the Contrabandiers Cave in Morocco. Of course, nowadays there’s a patent for a new tool issued daily, or at least it seems to be that way if my walk down the “As Seen on TV” aisle at Walmart isn’t misleading me. Tools: They defined us as different from other life-forms. Sure, a crow can use a tool as can one of our sister primates, but not to the level of complexity of purpose and innovation we humans show. Heck, in the absence of a screwdriver, I’ve used a coin to turn a screw—Look at me! Inventor.
What was it like when that human ancestor first used a tool to make clothing? The people who inhabited the Contrabandiers Cave lived during the Eemian Interglacial, a warm period that ranged from 130,000 to about 115,000 years ago. Generally, climates were warmer during the Middle Paleolithic—as archaeologists name it. So, it’s interesting that a warmer climate coincided with the rise of fashion. Because most people don more clothing in cold weather and less in warm weather, I wonder whether the rise in “fashion” all those millennia ago had something to do less with the need for warmth than with a burgeoning juxtaposition of morality and vanity. Was it a matter of covering up for modesty’s sake or for vanity’s? Did humans ask that question from Genesis? You know, that question Yahweh asks Adam and Eve after they have eaten from the Tree: “Who told you that you were naked?” Or did humans look in a placid pond, see a reflection, and ask, “Am I getting fat?” What was the reason for all the sewing in a Moroccan cave? Of course, it could have been a simple matter of seeking protection from UV, insects, and scrapes.
That people donned clothes for modesty, vanity, and practicality begs questions about self esteem, self awareness, and religion. There is a reciprocal relationship between fashion and vanity. One begets the other on a two-way street of self esteem. “Does this loincloth make my hips look big?” “Does this fur match my brown eyes?” *
The abundance of clothing in the modern world boggles the mind. Most people have some choice in what they choose to wear on a given day. True, there are some whose level of poverty prevents them from the luxury of vanity and the external trappings of self esteem. But look in your closet, your dresser drawers, and the laundry basket: You are a manifestation of that vanity that arose with those sewing needles 130 millennia ago. You are a manifestation of that self awareness. And if your fashion implies an unstated modesty, you are a manifestation of the ethical system that led to nuns’ habits and burqas derived from religious practices. And if your fashion “enhances” in your mind the appearance of your body either by covering a flaw or revealing a beauty, you are a manifestation of vanity.
I cannot, however, dismiss the practicality of clothing. It does protect, so it has a utilitarian value. Kaftans in sunny locales shield one from both UV and Infrared. Jeans and canvas are light body armor around rough and sharp objects. Those animal skins that the Moroccans used so many millennia ago have morphed into protective suits for scuba divers and astronauts.
It is a simplification on my part to link those Moroccan needles to my own times, but it is not a farfetched hypothesis. The pattern of our lives today is related to the pattern of lives long past. Much of what we do is merely a difference in degree and not kind when we see ourselves in the context of “deep history.” We use tools as our ancient ancestors used tools, but ours are better: Sewing machines with numerical control now replace the single needle and time-consuming stitching that burdened those Moroccans of the Middle Paleolithic working with what might be some of the earliest bone needles.
Unless you live in a naturist society as some tribes live in warm climates, you are probably wearing clothes as you read this, even if you are inside a warm room. What governed the choice you made to dress? Was it convenience and utility, modesty, or vanity? All of the above? Merely habit and conditioning?
Those might seem to be silly questions, but they imply something—whatever; you decide—about the nature of your life and, by extension, the nature of human life.
*Blue eyes don’t go back to the Eemian Interglacial. See University of Copenhagen. "Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 January 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm>.
So, if you have a leather belt, shoes, or jacket, you fall into a fashion tradition that goes back possibly 120,000 years ago, give or take 10,000 years. Before that? Well, let’s just say that there was a naturist tradition, one that is still prevalent in isolated societies ranging from the Namibia to Brazil, from desert to rainforest. Throughout the rest of the world fashion prevails.
More to the point here: We’ve been using tools for a long time, sometimes without much innovation for millennia, as in the artifacts uncovered in the Contrabandiers Cave in Morocco. Of course, nowadays there’s a patent for a new tool issued daily, or at least it seems to be that way if my walk down the “As Seen on TV” aisle at Walmart isn’t misleading me. Tools: They defined us as different from other life-forms. Sure, a crow can use a tool as can one of our sister primates, but not to the level of complexity of purpose and innovation we humans show. Heck, in the absence of a screwdriver, I’ve used a coin to turn a screw—Look at me! Inventor.
What was it like when that human ancestor first used a tool to make clothing? The people who inhabited the Contrabandiers Cave lived during the Eemian Interglacial, a warm period that ranged from 130,000 to about 115,000 years ago. Generally, climates were warmer during the Middle Paleolithic—as archaeologists name it. So, it’s interesting that a warmer climate coincided with the rise of fashion. Because most people don more clothing in cold weather and less in warm weather, I wonder whether the rise in “fashion” all those millennia ago had something to do less with the need for warmth than with a burgeoning juxtaposition of morality and vanity. Was it a matter of covering up for modesty’s sake or for vanity’s? Did humans ask that question from Genesis? You know, that question Yahweh asks Adam and Eve after they have eaten from the Tree: “Who told you that you were naked?” Or did humans look in a placid pond, see a reflection, and ask, “Am I getting fat?” What was the reason for all the sewing in a Moroccan cave? Of course, it could have been a simple matter of seeking protection from UV, insects, and scrapes.
That people donned clothes for modesty, vanity, and practicality begs questions about self esteem, self awareness, and religion. There is a reciprocal relationship between fashion and vanity. One begets the other on a two-way street of self esteem. “Does this loincloth make my hips look big?” “Does this fur match my brown eyes?” *
The abundance of clothing in the modern world boggles the mind. Most people have some choice in what they choose to wear on a given day. True, there are some whose level of poverty prevents them from the luxury of vanity and the external trappings of self esteem. But look in your closet, your dresser drawers, and the laundry basket: You are a manifestation of that vanity that arose with those sewing needles 130 millennia ago. You are a manifestation of that self awareness. And if your fashion implies an unstated modesty, you are a manifestation of the ethical system that led to nuns’ habits and burqas derived from religious practices. And if your fashion “enhances” in your mind the appearance of your body either by covering a flaw or revealing a beauty, you are a manifestation of vanity.
I cannot, however, dismiss the practicality of clothing. It does protect, so it has a utilitarian value. Kaftans in sunny locales shield one from both UV and Infrared. Jeans and canvas are light body armor around rough and sharp objects. Those animal skins that the Moroccans used so many millennia ago have morphed into protective suits for scuba divers and astronauts.
It is a simplification on my part to link those Moroccan needles to my own times, but it is not a farfetched hypothesis. The pattern of our lives today is related to the pattern of lives long past. Much of what we do is merely a difference in degree and not kind when we see ourselves in the context of “deep history.” We use tools as our ancient ancestors used tools, but ours are better: Sewing machines with numerical control now replace the single needle and time-consuming stitching that burdened those Moroccans of the Middle Paleolithic working with what might be some of the earliest bone needles.
Unless you live in a naturist society as some tribes live in warm climates, you are probably wearing clothes as you read this, even if you are inside a warm room. What governed the choice you made to dress? Was it convenience and utility, modesty, or vanity? All of the above? Merely habit and conditioning?
Those might seem to be silly questions, but they imply something—whatever; you decide—about the nature of your life and, by extension, the nature of human life.
*Blue eyes don’t go back to the Eemian Interglacial. See University of Copenhagen. "Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 31 January 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm>.
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