h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good Evening Trekkers.

People have different levels of modesty depending on cultural or religous bacgrounds. Now many on here believe humans have evolved from some type of simian race. I have a couple of questions for you.

1. Why have humans evolved from wearing nothing to wearing clothing especially which cover the private areas?

2. Shows such as Star Trek and other future based programmes show a varied range of modesty for the characters. How can the writers be sure this type of modesty will be the norm? What makes me tickle is the barbarian aliens always seem to be more clothed than the star trek crew, is there any reason for this?

In the absence of misogyny, modesty is less important than climate. People cover up to keep warm or to not burn or overheat. Pretty simple really.

We could have a whole thread analysing the various sexisms in the Star Trek 'verse though , including why some characters wear less than others

Didn't the STNG pilot episode have men dressed in miniskirts?

"""""""People cover up to keep warm or to not burn or overheat. Pretty simple really.""""""""

Obviously people dress for practical reasons but you fail to get the point. Have you not been to the beach? People cover up according to their modesty levels. Some wear 3/4 length pants others wear next to nothing.

Can evolutionists tell me when man decided to cover his/her private parts and why?

I get the point. There are several different things here - why cultures have taboos on nakedness is different than why someone might wear 3/4 length pants on beach.

As an individual who has sunbathed topless on beaches in conservative communities I can tell you that the reason I usually cover my genitals and breasts in hot weather is because (a) I burn easily and (b) I live in a place that has men who are idiots and it's just easier to cover up than have to deal with them.

Also, people now wear clothing for lots of different reasons, so someone on a beach might be wearing long pants because they feel self conscious.

Like I said, covering up is determined by comfort and climate except where you have misogynist cultures. Look at the cultures that do and don't cover up and you'll see the pattern.

'Man' decided that people should cover up for modesty reasons in Western cultures fairly recently. Certainly the Christians made a big deal out of it. Not sure about the Romans and the Greeks before that. The Celts made less of a deal about it - we know that women fought bare breasted in battle for instance. I'd guess they usually wore clothes alot because it was cold.

Obviously many cultures don't care about it at all, and don't bother covering up for modesty reasons.

Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, I'm saying the reason the Christians wanted modesty was because it was a way of controlling women.

I don't claim to be an expert but logical thought process would suggest ...

Clothing would have originally be used to keep warm and for protection during hunting or combat.

As humanity evolved then clothing of different quality and styles would show standing in the community.

The modesty aspect of clothing seems to have come in with religious doctrine.

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I think it's only recently that some societies become so uptight about breasts. In the US, you can't use them for nursing a baby if anyone might see! That's what they're *for*, people. Get over it.

Yeah, that is seriously weird. A boss of mine once stated that the woman nursing her baby in his shop was showing off

And yet I recently saw a woman, dressed VERY modestly with a long, long sleeved garment and a hair-covering scarf, breast feeding in public in North Africa....

The Barbarian aliens probably wear more clothes so the actors don't have to wear as many prosthetics or as much make up.

P.S. i think I was the only one to give her a second glance

It´s a question it might be difficult to find a good answer to. Though still better answers than "Because they ate a magic apple".

From what I can gather of different tribes, they tend to cover up what is seen in a sexual way. In tribes where breasts are not seen as a sexual thing, they see no reason to cover them. If thighs are seen as sexual, those will be covered up.

rather like geishas flashing the back of their necks.....oooooooo

Stanley



Probably just after the first time they caught something dangly on a gooseberry bush.

Not-so-bald-eagle


I was fascinated when I found Japanese hairdressers are trained to cut womens hair and not touch the backs of their necks.

Stanley : Post 4
"Can evolutionists tell me when man decided to cover his/her private parts and why?"

No, but I do recall something along the lines of there's evidence man started to wear clothes about 10,000 years ago, based on the genetic divergence of clothing lice from the other species of human lice.

That could be wrong though, so you're probably safer looking it up on a somewhat more reliable source than my shonky memory.

right. I'll try again.


I seriously cannot express how absolutely juvenile I find the initial post of this thread to be. I mean, truly, was this thread started by a ten year old who once read 'Starship Troopers', watched a few episodes of Star Trek . . .

'1' Why have humans evolved from wearing nothing to wearing clothing especially which cover the private areas?'

we haven't. Lots of people wear nothing at all. Lots of people wear parkas. Neither is most 'evolved'.

'2'

Is Star Trek some sort of arbiter of evolutionary biological truth?



In Renaissance Europe (and a number of current hunter-gatherer societies), covering up the private bits meant (means) augmenting the private bits. The emphasis is not about covering up one's natural endowments, it's about projecting an unnatural abundance (sort of like padded, cleavage enhancing bras carrying implanted breasts).




Yes, stanley, we have a god-given impulse to cover our shame since that woman Eve screwed up and ate the apple.

Jared Diamond was in Papua New Guinea with his wife, and they were with a local tribe who had adorned their bits with foot-long horns and other stuff. One theory was that they were covering up due to modesty.

His wife said, 'That's the most immodest display of modesty I've ever seen.'