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Intro to Nudity article on en.WP

Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair and living in hospitable climates. As humans became behaviorally modern, body adornments such as jewelry, tattoos, body paint and scarification became part of non-verbal communications, indicating a person's social and individual characteristics. Indigenous peoples in warm climates used clothing for decorative, symbolic or ceremonial purposes but were often nude, having neither the need to protect the body from the elements nor any conception of nakedness being shameful. In many societies, both ancient and contemporary, children might be naked until the beginning of puberty. Women may not cover their breasts, being associated with nursing babies more than with sexuality.

In the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, from Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire, proper attire was required to maintain social standing. The lower classes might possess a single piece of cloth that was wrapped or tied to cover the lower body; the lowest classes including slaves might be naked. However, through much of Western history until the late modern period, people of any status were also unclothed by necessity or convenience when engaged in labor and athletics; or when bathing or swimming. Such functional nudity occurred in groups that were usually but not always segregated by sex. Although improper dress might be socially embarrassing, the association of nudity with sin regarding sexuality began with Judeo-Christian societies, spreading through Europe in the post-classical period. Traditional clothing in temperate regions worldwide also reflect concerns for maintaining social status and order, as well as by necessity due to the colder climate. However, societies such as Japan and Finland maintain traditions of communal nudity based upon the use of baths and saunas that provided alternatives to sexualization.

The spread of Western concepts of modest dress is part of colonialism, and continues today with globalization. Contemporary social norms regarding nudity reflect cultural ambiguity towards the body and sexuality, and differing conceptions of what constitutes public versus private spaces. Norms relating to nudity are different for men than they are for women. Individuals may intentionally violate norms relating to nudity; those without power may use nudity as a form of protest, and those with power may impose nakedness on others as a form of punishment.

While the majority of contemporary societies require clothing in public, some recognize non-sexual nudity as being appropriate for some recreational, social or celebratory activities, and appreciate nudity in the arts as representing positive values. A minority within many countries assert the benefits of social nudity, while other groups continue to disapprove of nudity not only in public but also in private based upon religious beliefs. Norms are codified to varying degrees by laws defining proper dress and indecent exposure.

Alternate version

Nudity is the state of a human being entirely without clothes (naked) or lacking the body covering concidered normal in a particular social setting (undressed). Human nakedness is a biological fact, but nudity is only understood in a cultural context. The cultural context for nudity did not exist until humans became not only anatomically modern, but also behaviorally modern; capable of abstract thought or conscious self-reflextion.

Before clothing, people decorated their bodies to show tribal membership, prosperity, marital status, and individuality. Body adornments included paint, tatoos, scarification, and jewelry called attention to, rather than hiding the body. Early humans had draped themselves in animal skins for protection before behavioral modernity; afterward such drapings became part of the non-verbal communications.[1] As human communities grew in population to become the first civilizations, clothing became more important in social life in maintaining identity and status. Having no clothes in public situations indicated having no status. This was normal for children, for adults

Becoming naked

The evolution of hominids into anatomically modern humans included many changes, increased brain size and upright posture generally being thought of as the most significant. However, humans also became the only primates to loose their body hair.[2] While there have been a number of theories about nakedness, the most generally accepted one is thermal regulation of the body. Cooling was required when hominins moved from shady forest to open savannah. An increase in the number of sweat glands, and sweat drying on bare skin, provided cooling during the day, fire was used to keep warm at night. Thermal regulation was related to the increasing size of the brain, the most heat-sensitive organ.[3][4] Hair on top of the head was retained, providing shade during the day and insulation at night.[5]: 265–270 

Becoming dark-skinned

No longer having fur, the first humans developed dark skin as protection from the Sun.[6][7][8]

In addition to carrying weapons and tools, bipedalism became adaptive in part due to babies no longer having fur to cling to, so mothers had to carry them.[9]

Becoming clothed

Body adornments, including jewelry, body paint, and tattoos are indications of the beginning of human behavioral modernity in the late Paleolithic (40,000 to 60,000 years ago).[10] Although there is no consensus on a definition of behavioral modernity, four sets of behaviors are included; abstract thinking, planning in depth, innovativeness, and symbolic representation.[11]

The habitual wearing of clothing has been dated to between 83,000 and 170,000 years ago by comparing the divergence of clothing lice from their body louse ancestors.[12] If anatomically modern humans first appeared 350,000 to 260,000 years ago, they were naked in prehistory for at least 90,000 years.[13] This means illustrations or films that show prehistoric humans as light-skinned and modestly dressed are distortions of reality.

The technology for making clothes evolved slowly, having originated for other purposes. Animal skins and woven mats used for sleeping became decorative when draped on the body, but might not cover the genitals.[14] Complex, fitted clothing needed to survive in cold climates required the invention of fine stone knives for cutting animal skins into specific shapes, and the eyed needle for sewing. Evidence has been found that this was done by Cro-Magnons in Europe around 35,000 years ago.[15]

Body adornments including clothing may serve to enhance rather than hide sexual attraction. The non-sexual, or functional nudity in everyday life is maintained by behavioral norms; including sitting or standing modestly and not staring at others. In modern sociology, these behaviors are called (PCIVIL INATTENTION) and serve to maintain personal boundaries even when naked.

In ancient civilizations from Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire, gods and goddesses were depicted as perfect naked humans and nudity was part of some religious ceremonies. However, being nude in everyday life was often socially embarrassing, not due to sexuality but the lack of status.[16][a] Otherwise, being naked or undressed in social contexts where clothes were the norm meant being poor, being a slave, or doing labor that was hot, dirty or wet. The average person, both men and women, might own a single piece of cloth that would be wrapped or tied (e.g. a (PLOINCLOTH) to cover the lower part of the body, but otherwise were bare-chested and barefoot. Only those of high status were habitually dressed[18], but even they would often be naked when bathing or swimming, which were social activities.[19] Children, having no status, might be naked until puberty.[19][20][21]

Discovering shame

Among ancient cultures, only members of the Abrahamic religions associated nudity with shame regarding sexuality, while in other cultures being naked was a loss of status and dignity, an embarrassment but not deeply shameful.[22] The Genesis myth, with its misunderstanding of human nature and sexuality, continues to influence or dominate the attitudes and behaviors regarding nudity in most of the world. In addition to the human body being shameful, scripture asserts male domination as fundamental to moral behavior.[23] The societies that have become more secular are also those that have freed themselves from shame regarding the human body and have more gender equality as in Finland,[24] Germany,[25] and The Netherlands.[26]

For the first millennium after the fall of Rome (approximately 500 to 1500 CE), the conversion of Europe to Christianity included conflicting interpretations of scripture and accommodations for existing social norms regarding the human body and sexuality. Groups emerged with beliefs as different as Adamites who worshiped nude, to ascetic monks who slept fully clothed.[27]: 455–456  The predominant view of Medieval Christian theology was that sexuality and nudity were sinful except for procreation, which might include avoiding nudity even between spouses.[28] However, theology did not put an end to all behaviors that had been normal during the Roman era, in particular public communal bathing, which might be mixed-gender.[29][30]

The modern era begins in the Renaissance with the rediscovery of classical texts and art, which interacted with Abrahamic traditions to produce Western ambivalence, nudity acquiring both positive and negative meanings in individual psychology, in social life, and in depictions. The conservative versions of these religions continue to prohibit public and sometimes also private nudity.[31]: 7 

Nudity and Abrahamic religions

The Abrahamic religions all share the Genesis myth, which is ambivalent and contradictory. In Genesis 1:27 Adam and Eve are created together in the image of God, naked but unashamed.[b] In Genesis 2:21-22 Adam is created first, then Eve from Adam's rib. After "The Fall" in Genesis 3, they attempt to hide their nakedness from God, who sees everything anyway. This myth attempts to establish clothing as necessary for human moral conduct from just after the beginning, ignoring the period of naked innocence and that there was no social context for feeling shame.[33] Orthodox Judaism generally forbids complete nudity, at the most extreme even between spouses. In addition to misunderstanding human nature, Genesis places the responsibility for all immorality, beginning with the "original sin" of disobedience, on women.[23]: 104–105 

 
Adamites being rounded up.

The body as shameful became ambivalent in early Christianity. For the first centuries CE, baptisms were conducted nude[34] in the belief that converts were restored to the innocence of humans "before the fall". A group called the (PADAMITES) in the 2nd century CE acted upon this interpretation by worshiping nude, but were suppressed as heretics.[35][36]

The variation in early Christian behavior is likely due to the first European converts being Romans, who did not give up their public baths, which remained popular in the Carolingian Period It was only in later centuries, when converts were from Northern tribes with climates that required being fully clothed, that nudity became problematic. European pagans were nude in public only during fertility rituals, which they gave up after conversion. In the Medieval era, the theology of Thomas Aquinas and Augustine of Hippo defined sexual arousal, and thus nudity, as something to be avoided except for procreation.[28]

Religious beliefs continued to determine behavior into the 20th century. English families in the 1920s to 1940s never saw other family members undressed, including those of the same gender; and married couples were not nude even during sex.[37]


Islamic countries are guided by schools of law regarding public modesty that forbid nudity based upon the assumption that men are powerless to control their sexual urges. Since sinful thoughts will earn a believer an eternity in Hell, women are responsible for covering themselves, and may be punished severely or killed for disobeying the law. In Saudi Arabia and Qatar the niqab, the garment covering the whole female body and the face with a narrow opening for the eyes, is widespread. Hands are also hidden within sleeves as much as possible. The burqa, limited mainly to Afghanistan, also has a mesh screen which covers the eye opening.[38] In private, different rules apply to men, women, and children; and depend upon the gender and family relationship of others present.[39] Men need only cover themselves from navel to knees.[40]

Colonialism and racism

 
Igbo women of Nigeria adorned to show their high status.[41]

Technologies for navigation and transport in the 1500s led to contact with more distant parts of the world. By the 18th century European thought was embracing ideas such that social progress represented movement from primitive to agriculture to industrialization. Many Europeans justified colonization as spreading civilization rather than as conquest.[42] The lack of body coverings was one of the first things explorers noticed when they encountered indigenous peoples of the tropics. Europeans were concerned with explaining states of undress, which they did not see as a natural. For centuries, being properly dressed in Western cultures was required to fit into society. Explanation for the scanty dress or nudity of others was generally provided by religion.[43] An enduring stereotype of non-western others is the naked savage based upon the belief that clothes signified membership in a civilized society, thus the lack of clothes represented the complete lack of culture.[44]

Some indigenous peoples of the Americas, Asia, and Oceania have skin no darker than that of southern Europeans, or among workers tanned by the Sun, thus their nakedness was interpreted as being of low status. The darker skin and other superficial differences in African, Melanesian, and Australian peoples could be interpreted as their being less than human. Darker skin was also assumed to be dirty, however anthropologists have noted that many non-Western societies have elaborate rituals of bathing and purification.[43]

Contemporary cultural differences

While human societies vary widely in their way of life, all share common characteristics that are conceptualized as dimensions of culture.[45] Dimensions of culture as related to nudity include power distance — the degree to which people accept unequal power and privilege in society. Clothing became an important means of communicating status and wealth, thus historically nudity was a sign of being at the bottom of society, while certain clothing styles and colors were reserved for the ruling classes. Socialism initially adopted nudism as part of promoting equality, but split between democratic and authoritarian forms.[source?]

Intersecting with power is gender equality, the degree to which norms for women are more severe and restrictive than for men. Contemporary societies that score high in gender equality are also those with more positive attitudes towards sexuality and non-sexual social nudity; as seen in Iceland, Scandinavia, Finland, and The Netherlands.[46] These positive attitudes are attributed by some to sauna culture, which normalizes non-sexual nudity in the context of relaxation and purported health claims.[26]

Although maintaining sexual propriety is the primary reason given for avoiding nudity, maintaining the hierarchy of power and gender is an underlying motivation. Participants in the counterculture of the 1960s practiced nudity as part of their daily routine and to emphasize their embrace of equality and rejection of anything artificial. Communes sometimes practiced naturism, bringing unwanted attention from disapproving neighbors.[47]: 197–199  In 1974, an article in The New York Times noted an increase in American tolerance for nudity, both at home and in public, approaching that of Europe.[48] By the 1990s, Americans had returned to their general disapproval of public nudity, although remaining liberal regarding sexual activity.[49]

Indigenous nudity

 
Indigenous dress, Ethiopia - 2015

Indigenous cultures adapted to climates that do not require clothes as protection from the elements. All hunter-gatherer societies from prehistory to the present have one thing in common, being naked or nearly-naked (such wearing a (PLOINCLOTH)[50][51]) most of the time.[52]: 3–4 

In urban areas of former colonies in Africa, South America and Oceania, contemporary behaviors combine traditions with Christian or Islamic religious teachings, with varying results. In rural areas, some societies continue to pursue a hunter-gatherer or pastoral way of life that includes functional nudity while doing work or bathing in natural bodies of water.[53]

Asian cultures

Outside of Western cultures societies retained some distinctiveness, not being dominated by Christian values.

In Southeast Asia, people initially had habits of dress and undress as in the warm climates, but were gradually changed by colonization and religious conversion.

In India, some Hindu[54] and Jain[55] (PASCETICISM) may have no possessions, including clothes. There were very few female ascetics who did the same, but one was Akka Mahadevi of Karnataka, a 12th century poet.[56]

In remote tropical regions, some remaining indigenous peoples may retain pre-colonial minimal dress, both men and women covering only the lower part of the body, and removing all clothing to bathe in rivers or the ocean.

In temperate climates countries such as China adopted clothing that covered the body for comfort, and have values that relate modesty to maintaining " (PFACE (SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT))" and social order.[57]: 378–380  In Japan, the tradition of mixed-gender communal bathing is maintained in some places, but is disappearing.[58] In Korea, public baths are gender-segregated, but nudity is required.[59]

Western culture

In mainstream Western cultures public, mixed-gender nudity, defined as not covering the genital areas, is generally prohibited; while gender-segregated nakedness may be expected in situations such as communal bathing or changing clothes. Social nudity may be permitted in private or semi-private situations.

Certain societies within the Western world, in which social and gender equality is greater, also allow for more mixed-gender situations where clothing is optional in public, in particular beaches and other recreational activities. Positive attitudes toward nudity are based upon long-standing traditions that provide early experiences of nudity as non-sexual, such as the use of the sauna in Northern Europe.[24] Social nudity has become normal in Germany to a greater extent than other countries, even within Europe.[60]

Private nudity

While behavior in private is influenced by social norms, there is more variation and individual differences. In societies where public nudity is rare, individuals tend to report that they are also not naked when home alone. However, behavior documented only by self-report is often unreliable. In a 2014 survey in the U.K., 42% responded that they felt comfortable naked and 50 percent responded they did not. Only 22% said they often walk around the house naked, 29% slept in the nude, and 27% had gone swimming nude.[61]

In societies that are often naked at home, not only alone but with family members, there is also more openness to clothing-optional behaviors in public.[26]: Ch.2 

Nudity and moral emotions

The universality of bodily shame is not supported by anthropological studies, which do not find the use of clothing to cover the genital areas in all societies. Instead, people may be nude with no self-consciousness, and use adornments to call attention to sexuality.[62]: 26  The shame regarding nudity is one of the exemplars of the emotion, but unlike positive examples of shame as motivation for improvement, body shaming is now generally thought of as psychologically harmful.[63][64]: 11 

Communal nudity

Between private and public spaces, there are activities where complete or partial nudity may be the norm. Places for these activities often limit access based upon age, gender, or other social characteristics, but generally include others who are not known, so behavior depends upon shared norms rather than prior relationships. Many of these spaces are facilities for athletics or hygiene; changing rooms, sports locker rooms and showers, steam rooms and saunas. However, communal nudity has served purely social functions as well.

Many cultures maintain a tradition of communal use of bathing facilities, such as the sauna, which is attended nude and usually mixed gender in Finland where it originated.[24] When Finns immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century, many settling in South Dakota, built saunas on their farms for family use that was social as well as hygienic. As saunas began to be built in towns, they became gender-segregated.[65]

The centuries-old Japanese tradition of communal use of public bathhouses[66] slowly declined as more homes had bathing facilities, and may be on the verge of extinction.[67]

Public nudity

The majority of Western societies define all public display of the genitals as disruptive or aggressive, and thus prohibit all public nudity as "indecent exposure". Some German cities have designated parks and beaches as clothing-optional, and those that do not want to see naked people can avoid those areas. Otherwise, societies may have no specific laws regarding public nudity, but apply laws against disorderly conduct to prohibit behavior that is disruptive. In the UK, authorities are advised to take no action regarding public nudity unless "members of the public were actually caused harassment, alarm or distress".[68] Stephen Gough, the "Naked Rambler" put this to the test by walking nude through the British countryside, and was jailed when he was nude where others objected.[69] Pursuing what he claimed as a legal right, Gough eventually lost his case before the European Court for Human Rights.[70]

Public partial or complete nudity is sometimes allowed at particular times and places, based upon allowing transgressive conduct during celebrations, following the traditions of Carnival as in Rio de Janero and New Orleans. Similar behaviors are seen at secular events, such as music and arts festivals.[71]

 
Florida Young Naturists - 2014

Topfreedom

Some women object to the prohibition of their being bare-chested in places where this is allowed for men.[72] In some jurisdictions, protests have been successful in establishing this right, but "topfreedom" may not be exercised due to resistance from the general public.[73] In 2020 the US Supreme Court refused to hear a case arguing that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes laws prohibiting topfreedom unconstitutional. However, the court citing the inclusion of female breasts, or specifically the nipple, in the legal definition of nudity in the US as precedent for retaining the restriction.[74] Islamic countries may react more severely, such as in Tunisia, putting a woman in a psychiatric hospital for posting a topless photo of herself on Facebook.[75]

Naturism

Naturism or nudism is the belief held by individuals that social nudity is beneficial in more situations than are recognized by mainstream cultures, defining naturists as the members of a (PSUBCULTURE) or as (PDEVIANCE (SOCIOLOGY))[76] Modern social nudism movements can trace their origin to Germany in the 1920s-1930s, where it emerged as a reaction to urbanization and rapid industrialization.[77][78] Nudist movements also argue that social nudism encourages body acceptance,[79] which is supported by British psychologist Keon West.[80][81][82] Furthermore, some will also argue that nudity eliminates the well-known[83] social stigmas, identities, paradigms, and sexualization associated with various forms of dress, creating a "more level playing field for human interactions".[84] A common assumption by non-nudists is that nudists are more sexually permissive, but this was not supported by research that found no difference between sexual attitudes and behaviors between nudists and non-nudists.[85]

Nudity in visual culture

Depictions of the body (dressed and undressed) define what each culture understands as normal, which is part of socialization. Pictorial conventions provide the contexts which make images comprehensible. In Western cultures, the basic contexts for images of nudity are information, art, and pornography. Images that do not fit into one of these categories may be misunderstood, leading to disputes. A perennial dispute is between art and porn, between those who see all nudity as sexual, and those who find artistic value in nude images, including some that are erotic.[86]

 
Nudity as information: Images of a man and woman on the Pioneer plaque as part of a message to extraterrestrials
 
1920s bathing suits

Visual arts

 
Hylas and the Nymphs (1896) by John William Waterhouse

In most of the Western world, nudity has a symbolic meaning that is different from the everyday meaning of nakedness.[87] This difference was articulated by Kenneth Clark in The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form.[88] Clark defined "The Nude" as a work of art that used the body to symbolize beauty, strength, and emotion. Clark was writing in 1956, when the classical concepts in art that had begun in the Renaissance lingered in art history, but were being replaced in the art world by contemporary concepts. In the 1970s, John Berger said in (PWAYS OF SEEING) that the nude in Western art was voyeuristic and exploitative, while to be naked in real life was to be one's true self. The contemporary nude may be used to symbolize the reality of the human condition including gender, sexuality, violence, but also beauty redefined. However, the legacy of classical nudes remain in museums. In February 2018, in the wake of the (PMETOO MOVEMENT) the (PMANCHESTER ART GALLERY) temporarily removed a painting of female nudes called (PHYLAS AND THE NYMPHS (PAINTING)) in order to "encourage debate" on how the female nude in art should be presented.[89]

Historically, nudity was restricted by the Abrahamic religions in art as it was in life. Both orthodox Judaism and Islam forbids depictions of nudity, but in Christianity there is ambivalence. Few nudes were painted in the Middle Ages except Adam and Eve, but with the rediscovery of ancient statues, nudity became a frequent subject in Renaissance paintings of Biblical stories and classical mythology. In the Protestant Reformation, many of these works were destroyed, or genitals were covered by drapery or fig leaves. In America, fundamentalist Christians are once again seeking to restrict or eliminate the nude from art. In Mormon Utah in December 2017, an art teacher was fired for sharing postcards containing classic artwork for a fifth and sixth grade art lesson about color theory, postcards which happened to contain some nudes.[90][91]

Performing arts

Nudity has generally been accepted by Western societies in dance and theater presentations since the 1960s.[92]

Dance

Some contemporary choreographers consider nudity as one of the possible "costumes" available for dance, seeing nudity as expressing deeper human qualities through dance which works against the sexual objectification of the body in commercial culture.[93] Proponents of such nudity hold that there is a distinction between sexual and non-sexual or sensual nudity.[94]

Further reading

  • Jablonski, Nina G. (2006). Skin: A Natural History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520954816.

Notes

  1. The exception was for male citizens of Ancient Greece, for whom nudity in athletics and the symposium expressed their status of freedom, masculinity, privilege, and physical virtues.[17]: 6, 82 
  2. In some Babylonian and Hebrew mythology, the first woman was Lilith, created from the same clay as Adam but banished from Eden for being too independent. The Burney Relief is identified by some as Lilith.[32]

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