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Climate, clothing, and agriculture in prehistory : linking evidence, causes, and effects
Author
Title
Climate, clothing, and agriculture in prehistory : linking evidence, causes, and effects / Ian Gilligan, University of Sydney.
ISBN
9781108455190
1108455190
9781108470087
1108470084
Publication
Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Copyright Notice Date
©2019
Physical Description
xx, 326 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm
Summary
"Clothing was crucial in human evolution, and having to cope with climate change was as true in prehistory as it is today. In Climate, Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory, Ian Gilligan offers the first complete account of the development of clothing as a response to cold exposure during the ice ages. He explores how and when clothes were invented, noting that the thermal motive alone is tenable in view of the naked condition of humans. His account shows that there is considerably more archaeological evidence for palaeolithic clothes than is generally appreciated. Moreover, Gilligan posits, clothing played a leading role in major technological innovations. He demonstrates that fibre production and the advent of woven fabrics, developed in response to global warming, were pivotal to the origins of agriculture. Drawing together evidence from many disciplines, Climate Clothing, and Agriculture in Prehistory is written in a clear and engaging style, and is illustrated with nearly 100 images"-- Provided by publisher.
"For someone who has no interest in clothes at a personal level and virtually no knowledge of fashion, it is strange that I had to write a book about clothing. There are two reasons why this happened. First, my real motivation is trying to understand how humans came to be the most unusual species on this planet. A long time ago, in High School I was reading the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding when something struck me about that allegorical tale. The fate of the boys marooned on a tropical island during a nuclear holocaust rang true, but I was bothered by something that did not seem to make sense. If we are products of evolution, a tendency towards self-destruction is an unlikely outcome of our evolutionary inheritance. I think Golding, like many others, was inclined to put it down to a conflict between our civilized state and our animal nature"-- Provided by publisher.
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
February 27, 2019
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-297) and index.
Contents
What separates us from nature?
A wider view
When agriculture once made sense
Time to forget about food, and remember naked people
An unusual evolutionary history
Natural climate change
Naked in a colder world
When naked is hot and not
Climate change and clothing
Our natural nakedness
The common thread
An invisible invention
Women's work is never seen
The definition of clothing
Clothing and human uniqueness
No return to nature
Climate change and the invention of clothes
Trouble with the transience of clothing
The science of early clothing
Complex clothing and modern life
The origin of nakedness
Naked is not necessarily sexy
Neoteny and loss of body hair
The thermal theory and its problems
Stand up and stay cool
How long have we been naked?
Nakedness and dark skin
Getting pubic lice from gorillas
Naked before the ice age
Global Cooling
A wobbly theory
Chilling out in the Pleistocene
Ice age or cold age?
Measuring the cold with isotopes
Why it got colder in the Northern Hemisphere
A bigger chill in higher latitudes
Why it got windy as well
Measuring past wind chill levels
Rapid climate swings
Averages and extremes
Sunny but freezing
Cold facts and naked truths
The limits of cold tolerance
Hypothermia
Not drowning on the Titanic
Frostbite and the shrinking penis
Acclimatization and its limits
Getting into shape for the cold
Clothes can make us feel colder
The unusual hypothermia of Australian Aborigines.
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