Clothing

A feature of nearly all modern human societies is the wearing of clothing or clothes, a
category encompassing a wide variety of materials that cover the body.
The primary purpose of clothing is functional, as a protection from the elements. Clothes also
enhance safety during hazardous activities such as hunting and cooking by providing a barrier
between the skin and the environment. Clothes incidentally also provide a hygienic barrier,
keeping toxins away from the body and limiting the transmission of bacteria and viruses.
Clothes also have important social and cultural functions. A uniform, for example, may
identify civil authority figures, such as police and army personnel, or it may identify team or
group or even political affiliations. In most societies, clothing is an aspect of norms of the
society, in relation to standards of modesty, religious practices and social status. Clothing may
also function as a form of adornment and an expression of personal taste or style.
Throughout history, many materials have been used for clothes. Materials have ranged from
leather and furs to weaved and woven materials, to elaborate and exotic natural and synthetic
fabrics.
Articles carried rather than worn (such as purses, canes, and umbrellas) are normally
considered fashion accessories rather than clothing, but hats and small dress sweaters can be
called either clothing or accessories.[citation needed] Jewelry and eyeglasses are usually considered
as accessories ,[citation needed] even though in common speech these particular items are described
as being worn rather than carried.
Clothing probably originated in the neolithic age. Some recent scientific research estimates
that humans have been wearing clothing for as long as 650,000 years.[1]

Functions of clothing

A baby wearing many items of winter clothing: headband, cap, fur-lined coat, shawl and
sweater
One of the primary purposes of clothing is to keep the wearer warm or in some cases cool. In
hot climates clothing provides protection from sunburn or wind damage, while in cold
climates its thermal insulation properties are generally more important. Shelter usually
reduces the functional need for clothing. For example, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, socks, and
other superficial layers would normally be removed when entering or once inside a warm
home, particularly if one is residing or sleeping there. Similarly, clothing have seasonal and
regional aspects, so that thinner materials and fewer layers of clothing are generally worn in
warmer seasons and regions than in colder ones.
Clothing at times is worn as protection from specific environmental hazards, such as insects,
noxious chemicals, weapons, and contact with abrasive substances. Clothing can protect
against many things that might injure the uncovered human body. Clothes act as protection
from the elements, including rain, snow and wind and other weather conditions, even from the
sun. Clothes also reduce the level of risk during an activity, such as work or sport.
Conversely, clothing may protect the environment from the clothing wearer, as for example
wearing of medical scrubs.
Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to environmental
hazards. Some examples include: space suits, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suits,
swimsuits, bee-keeper gear, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and other pieces of
protective clothing. Meanwhile, the distinction between clothing and protective equipment is
not always clear-cut, since clothes designed to be fashionable will often have some protective
value and clothes which are designed to be functional will often consider fashion in their
design.
Cultural aspects
[edit] Gender differentiation

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish President Abdullah Gül both
wearing Western-style business suits.
In most cultures, gender differentiation of clothing is considered appropriate for men and
women. The differences are in styles, colors and fabrics.
• In Western societies, skirts, dresses and high-heeled shoes are usually seen as women's
clothing, while neckties are usually seen as men's clothing. Trousers were once seen as
exclusively male clothing, but are nowadays worn by both sexes. Male clothes are
often more practical (that is, they can function well under a wide variety of situations),
but a wider range of clothing styles is available for females. Males are typically
allowed to bare their chests in a greater variety of public places. It is generally
acceptable for a woman to wear traditionally male clothing, while the converse is
unusual.
• In some cultures, sumptuary laws regulate what men and women are required to wear.
• Islam requires women to wear hijab, or modest clothing. What qualifies as "modest"
varies in different Muslim societies; however, women are usually required to cover
more of their bodies than men are. Articles of clothing worn by Muslim women for
purposes of modesty range from the headscarf to the burqa.
• Men may sometimes choose to wear men's skirts such as togas or kilts, especially on
ceremonial occasions. Such garments were (in previous times) often worn as normal
daily clothing by men.
• Compared to men's clothing, women's clothing tends to be attractive, often intended to
be looked at by men.[2] In the modern West, women are more likely to wear makeup,
jewellery, and colorful clothing, while in very traditional cultures women are protected
from men's gazes by modest dress.
[edit] Social status
Alim Khan's bemedaled robe is a social message
In some societies, clothing may be used to indicate rank or status. In ancient Rome, for
example, only senators were permitted to wear garments dyed with Tyrian purple. In
traditional Hawaiian society only high-ranking chiefs wear feather cloaks and palaoa or
carved whale teeth. Under the Travancore Kingdom of Kerala, (India), lower caste women
had to pay a tax for the right to cover their upper body. In China, before the establishment of
the republic, only the emperor could wear yellow. There are numerous examples throughout
history of elaborate systems of sumptuary laws regulating what people could wear. In
societies without such laws, which includes most modern societies, social status is instead
signaled by the purchase of high cost, rare, or luxury items, the purchase of which are
effectively limited to those with the wealth or status to acquire them. In addition, peer
pressure may influence clothing choice.
[edit] Religious aspects
See also: Category:Religious vesture
Religious clothing might be considered a special case of occupational clothing. Sometimes it
is worn only during the performance of religious ceremonies. However, it may also be worn
everyday as a marker for special religious status.
For example, Jains wear unstitched cloth pieces when performing religious ceremonies. The
unstitched cloth signifies unified and complete devotion to the task at hand, with no
digression.[citation needed] Sikhs wear a turban as it is a part of their religion.
The cleanliness of religious dresses in Eastern Religions like Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism
and Jainism is of paramount importance, which indicates purity.
Clothing figures prominently in the Bible where it appears in numerous contexts, the more
prominent ones being: the story of Adam and Eve, Joseph's cloak, Judah and Tamar,
Mordechai and Esther. Furthermore the priests officiating in the Temple had very specific
garments, the lack of which would make one liable to death.
Jewish ritual also requires rending of one's upper garment as a sign of mourning. This practice
is found in the Bible when Jacob hears of the apparent death of his son Joseph.[3]
Origin and history of clothing
Main article: History of clothing
See also: History of Western fashion and Category:History of clothing
According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest clothing likely consisted of fur,
leather, leaves or grass which were draped, wrapped or tied around the body. Knowledge of
such clothing remains inferential, since clothing materials deteriorate quickly compared to
stone, bone, shell and metal artifacts. Archeologists have identified very early sewing needles
of bone and ivory from about 30,000 BC, found near Kostenki, Russia in 1988.[citation needed]
Dyed flax fibers that could have been used in clothing have been found in a prehistoric cave
in the Republic of Georgia that date back to 36,000 BP.[4][5]
Scientists are still debating when people started wearing clothes. Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser
and Mark Stoneking, anthropologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology, have conducted a genetic analysis of human body lice that suggests clothing
originated quite recently, around 107,000 years ago. Body lice is an indicator of clothes-
wearing, since most humans have sparse body hair, and lice thus require human clothing to
survive. Their research suggests the invention of clothing may have coincided with the
northward migration of modern Homo sapiens away from the warm climate of Africa, thought
to have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second group of
researchers using similar genetic methods estimate that clothing originated around 540,000
years ago (Reed et al. 2004. PLoS Biology 2(11): e340). For now, the date of the origin of
clothing remains unresolved.[citation needed]
Some human cultures, such as the various people of the Arctic Circle, until recently made
their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures have
supplemented or replaced leather and skins with cloth: woven, knitted, or twined from various
animal and vegetable fibers.
See also: weaving, knitting, and twining
Although modern consumers may take the production of clothing for granted, making fabric
by hand is a tedious and labor intensive process. That the textile industry was the first to be
mechanized during the Industrial Revolution attests to this fact; before the invention of the
powered loom, textile production took many hours and callused many hands.