Chronology of the Development of Boys' Clothing Styles: Pre-history

Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution did people begin to wear clothes. Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory. One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cuktural evolution. While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern desserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Interesting DNA evidence from lice are providing some possible insights.
Body Hair (1 million years ago)
One aspect that is difficult to determine is the extent of body hair of early men like Neanderthals. Man's transition from hairy to hairless and the development of clothing are critical stages in both biological and cultural evolution. A new report based on Human DNA suggests that peope became hareless about 1 million years ago. [Rodgers]
Neanderthals (130,000-30,000 years ago)
Neanderthals dominated Europe fot 100,000 years. They inhabited most of Europe an western Asia. Beanderthals developed a culture similar to that of early man. They wore clothes and used fire. They were nomadic hunters. I am not sure to what extentb if any they developed agriculture. They made stone, but no metal tools. Their principal weapons were spears and clubs. Neanderthals disappeared after the arrival of modern man. Neanderthals were heavy built and squat, more powerful, but apparently less intelligent than modern man and were unable to successfully compete with modern man. The last Neaderthal traces date back to about 30,000 BC. One enduring debate in anthropology is whether is how Neanderthals are related to modern men. We know that the two groups coexisted before Neanderthals seemingly disappeaed. Some believe that modern man outcompeted and displaced Neanderthals. Others that Neanderthals merged with and interbread with modern man. A recent study based on an assessment of sculls have found substantial differences which suggest that the two were different species rather than related sub-species. [Harvati] Teeth studies suggest that Neanderthal children grew faster than human children. Some anthropologists believe that Neandethals may have been anatomically adult by about age 15, but not all anthropologists accept this theory.
Stages
Anthropolgists have studied a variety of stages in pre-history. Technological developments are of great importance, including fire, tools, pottery, and metal working. Clothing is one of the important developments. Anthropologists have debated at what stage in human evolution people begin to wear clothes. Many of these developments occurred before the Holocene (past 10,000 years.) Other major developments in pre-history include religion, writing, and kingship.
Economic Organization
The primary ecomic organization for much of pre-history was hunter-gathering including fishing. This by its very nature was small tribal activity. Gradually pastoralism and primitive agriculte developed. Agriculture was limited by the technology of the day.
Early Clothes (40,000-25,000 years ago)
Almost certainly the first clothes were animal skins. More contentious is when people started wearing animal furs, presumably initially for warmth. There is little evidence that anthropolgists have been able to develop about clothing worn in prehistory, primarily because clothing deteriorates over time. Some fascinating finds in the Middle Eastern deserts or the Ice man in the alps provide fascinating information about the clothing of erly man, but not about when man began wearing clothes. Anthropolgists believe that needles and other artifacts suggest that people were sewing clothes at least 25,000 years ago and possibly as much as 40,000 years ago. Some anthropolgists speculate that man first using animal skins about 100,000 years ago, but these are only rough estimates with no real evidence to support them. Also unknown us precisely when people first took the step from just draping animal skins on them to actually fashioning crude garments.

Clothing was a major step in the human experience. Clothing was an enormous step in the expansion of human inhabitation and the appearance of culture. The key activity to early humans became food production, but the production of clothing became the second most important activity. Determining when people began fashioning clothes is of interest to antrhropolgusts because it represents a cultural step of huge importance. Once people began creating clothing it expanded the environments which they could exploit. It also meant the fise of fashion, affording people to convey information about tribal identity, social status, fertility, and other mnatters--all imprtat cultural matters.
Research Difficulties
While anthropolgists can sudy focilized bones to assess physical evolution, the fact that fur and fabric rot mean that there is not physical evidence available to provide insights as to when people first began to wear clothes. As such any evidence from this era is extremely tantilizing. One fascinating glimse is the preserved impressions seen here of pre-historic foot steps . This is an actual piece of pre-historic evidence. This is an actual adult and child foot print. The story seems to be that a mother and child probably went to a river to collect water. They leave their foot prints behind and the sun bakes them. Hundreds of thousands of years later the Leaky family find them. Actually there is even more to the footprint story. The Leaky's believe that there are three sets of footprints. The third set is inside the larger adult one. The scene from thousands odf years ago comes to life. A child, laughing as the little one plays a game of walking inside the footprints of mum while the other child walks in the water by mum's side.
DNA Evidence