| 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. |
| Abstract |
"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. |
| Abstract |
"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. |
| LCCN | 2018010096 |
| ISBN | 9781108470087 (hardback) |
| ISBN | 1108470084 |
| ISBN | 9781108455190 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 1108455190 |
