Oddbean new post about login | logout Did clothing create shame, or did shame create clothing?
Probably the latter, considering that different cultures consider different parts of the body as “shameful” if left exposed.
Perhaps. I wonder though if modesty (linked to morality, virtue) - might socially condition one into believing that exposing certain parts of the body is shameful. In this case, clothing defines shame.. Or back during colonizer’s days and victorian fashion era, indigenous without clothes were considered primitive and labeled inappropriately - and although the indigenous did not feel inappropriate, those with clothes felt shameful when they saw someone else without them. On the contrary, Adam and Eve might define shame before clothing. Damn Apple
If I am not mistaken, clothing started as a way of defending self from l weather. The Earth , as we have the seasons, goes from periods of extreme heat and extreme cold, and the in between. This cycles are huge in time. Then as away of disguise smells (since people did no bath)... Then religion did the rest...with the crusades.
I derailed and did not answer your question, Shame came, I reckon ,with the crusades. Women where seen either as witches and burned in the fire, or either as temptations so they should behave and have their bodies covered.
There is a great podcast episode and to some extent all of season 5 of Articles of Interest touch on this topic to varying degrees. This is the link to the first episode of season 5 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/articles-of-interest/id1455169228?i=1000649826378
I think cold weather created cloting, and then clothing created hidden areas, and exposure of hidden areas became associated with sexual signalling which started the whole shame thing. It's not the nakedness that is shamed, it is inappropriate sexual signalling that is. Just a guess.