Re: Origin of Clothing

From: Lucy (yipyip_at_yipyip.com)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:27:09 -0600

I hate to stoop to simplicity, but everything (damned near!) builds nests.
HS puts one on and carries it withhim and changes it daily !

tadchem wrote:

> Strange Creature wrote:
> > The idea that there is a complete transition from
> > black to white with no shades in between, is a
> > phenomenon intrinsic to American history, if not
> > the Sahara desert.
>
> Actually it is at best a rare event and at worst an oversimplification.
>
> > Basic selection factors at
> > least as far as I have heard, with respect to
> > skin color, tend to fall under skin cancer,
> > vitamin D production, and possible camoflage
> > during hunting or gathering.
>
> Early humans started breeding at puberty and generally were done by the
> time they had lived long enough to develop adult skin cancer - little
> selecction pressure there.
>
> Natural camoflage usually involves the development of patterned
> pigmentation to confuse the outline (silhouette) or background-matching
> coloration.
>
> Vitamin D production (which selects for light skin) would have been
> important in climates where sunburn (which selects for dark skin) was
> unlikely .
>
> > The amount of near ultraviolet radiation that
> > falls upon the earth, tends to depend relatively
> > heavily upon the angle that the sun is in the
> > sky. A small level of cloud cover will only
> > scatter and diminish it very slightly, however
> > a heavy level of cloud cover will often
> > reduce it to a greater extent. Also, snow
> > glare will tend to reflect ultraviolet
> > radiation off the ground and also magnify the
> > level of ultraviolet radiation presented by
> > the environment.
>
> Local weather and climate is important. The UV index in Seattle is
> *much* lower than it is in Fargo (at about the same latitude) because
> the cloud cover at Seattle is almost always *heavy* due to geographical
> considerations, while that at Fargo is nearly always light to none -
> again for geographic reasons.
>
> > The sun will of course,
> > produce little ultraviolet radiation at
> > night.
>
> Duh!!! The sun's UV output is nearly constant, 24/7. You just aren't
> *exposed* to it at night.
>
> > I am not sure what level of UV
> > output that a campfire will put forth.
>
> There is effectively no UV output from a cool wood flame.
>
> > Man probably left Africa for at least the
> > southern part of Eurasia about 1 to 3
> > million years ago.
>
> Homo erectus migrants left no surviving descendants. The earliest
> African emigrants to leave surviving descendants left about 70,000 BCE
> and moved along the shores of the Indian Ocean to the east, leaving
> enclaves along the way (e.g. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Malaysia, the
> Philippines).
>
> > Man did not colonize the most northern
> > parts of Eurasia, at least for during the
> > highth of the ice ages, if not the
> > interglacials, until at least the past
> > 50,000 or so years, or only slightly
> > longer. Lack of extremely ancient evidence
> > for man in North and South America might
> > at least possibly indicate this.
>
> The last glaciation of the PLeistocene (about 10,000 to 15,000 years
> ago) lowered the sea level 100 +/- 30 meters - enough to permit a
> stroll from Siberia to Alaska along the coast.
>
> > Man did not go on long ocean voyages
> > until the last 50,000 to 70,000 years
> > or so. Lack of extremely ancient
> > evidence for man in Australia might
> > tend to indicate this.
>
> The lowered sea levels of the Ice Ages would have allowed foot traffic
> from Asia to New Guinea and Australia.
>
> > However, lighter
> > skin will be able to produce more
> > vitamin D to protect against rickets,
> > for those early humans who had not
> > inferred the immediate idea, of possibly
> > eating animal livers in order to
> > compensate.
>
> I think it is rather patronizing of you to assume that malnourished
> early humans might NOT think to eat every part of the animal they
> could. Two words: "British Cuisine" They eat tongue, kidneys, blood,
> liver, spleen, stomach, heart, 'haggis', etc. - by *tradition*. The
> tradition arose locally; it wasn't imported by the Romans.
>
> > This produces the question with
> > regard to how long ago humans
> > started wearing clothing in northern
> > climates to protect against heat
> > loss in winter, and possibly
> > provide at least a temporary
> > immediate short term protection
> > against some, less powerful animal
> > bites in some areas.
>
> So far there have been no indications in the archaelogical record that
> Neanderthals (who lived in northern Europe before the advent of
> Cro-Magnons) ever produced clothing.
>
> > a heavy skin might also reduce
> > the speed of a human while
> > running, and decrease protection
> > against overheating during
> > periods of high exertion, unless
> > they are shedded (which if they
> > were not highly treated skins,
> > might also, still be eaten by
> > predators if one does not return
> > and recover them fast enough).
>
> It would also be a liability when fishing. The high prevalence of fish
> bones, the total inability of humans to synthesize their own
> omega-fatty acids (essential for neurological development) which are
> abundant in fish, and the use of perspeiration as a thermoregulation
> mechanism would argue for early humans spending a lot of time in/near
> water.
>
> > Another fundamental problem with
> > wearing at least animal skins, is
> > the potential for attracting large
> > predators from their smell if
> > they are not treated in some
> > fashion.
>
> The body odor of unwashed humans would more than compensate. Even now,
> only those predators (Bengal Tigers, wolves, cougars, etc.) that are
> unable to find other food and are nearly starving will consider eating
> a foul-smelling human.
>
> > If a human were to wear a large
> > amount of thick clothing, this
> > would only leave part of the
> > body available to to produce
> > vitamin D from sunlight, disposing
> > the wearer to possibly become more
> > susceptible to rickets over time.
>
> Duh!! Even humans accustomed to northern climes are likely to go nude
> in the summer. They only dress against the cold when it *IS* cold.
>
> > The question exists, with regard
> > to how long, that might have presented
> > an additional selection pressure upon
> > humans in northern climates, and what
> > effects that might have had
> > upon human physiology among its
> > different variants.
>
> "Variants?" Do you mean "populations?" 25,000 years is only from 1000
> to 2000 generations. Although this is more than enough to produce
> changes in a population when deliberately selective breeding is
> involved, it seems scarcely enough to produce a notable change in the
> physiology of a species when the stochastic effects of 'natural'
> selection are the only effective pressures - unless of course some
> punctuated evolution as selective pressure on a single trait (such as
> susceptibility to Yersina becteria) becomes predominant.
>
> > How far
> > back did clothing go, within
> > the archaeological and
> > paleontological record, as
> > we now know it?
>
> The earliest evidence (so far) for tools specifically used to make
> clothing (i.e. needles) is Upper Paleolithic - about 25,000 years ago
> (France):
> http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/sapiens_culture.htm
> The earliest fossil rag heap dates to 22,000 years ago (Russia).
>
> This is substantially after the first appearance of Cro-Magnon
> ('modern') Man.
>
> Tom Davidson
> Richmond, VA

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