The Not So Naked Ape: The Origins of Clothing

WEBVTT

NOTE
This file was generated by Descript

00:00:03.598 –> 00:00:06.618
This is Origin Stories, the
Leakey Foundation podcast.

00:00:06.997 –> 00:00:08.077
I’m Meredith Johnson.

00:00:09.398 –> 00:00:13.037
I’m really happy to be back today with
this new episode, and before we get

00:00:13.038 –> 00:00:17.437
into it, I wanna thank our generous
donors for making this show possible.

00:00:18.378 –> 00:00:21.798
If you’re not already a Leakey
Foundation or Origin Stories donor,

00:00:22.237 –> 00:00:23.948
please consider becoming one.

00:00:24.317 –> 00:00:28.458
The Leakey Foundation is one of the
only remaining funding sources for human

00:00:28.458 –> 00:00:33.497
origins research, and all of our work
is made possible by people like you.

00:00:34.518 –> 00:00:39.218
If you love this show or this science,
we’d really appreciate your support.

00:00:39.598 –> 00:00:41.587
Please go to
leakeyfoundation.org/originstories or

00:00:44.138 –> 00:00:48.128
leakeyfoundation.org/donate to give today,
or click the link in your show notes.

00:00:48.827 –> 00:00:52.247
Thank you so much, and
now, here’s our story

00:00:56.965 –> 00:01:00.626
Morning, you do something that no
other animal on Earth ever does.

00:01:01.315 –> 00:01:04.306
You pick out something to
wear and you put it on.

00:01:05.306 –> 00:01:10.026
It feels so ordinary that you probably
don’t even think of it as a technology,

00:01:10.346 –> 00:01:14.745
but clothing is one of the most
important inventions in human history.

00:01:15.975 –> 00:01:20.536
Without it, our ancestors could
not have survived the Ice Age or

00:01:20.536 –> 00:01:22.676
spread to every continent on Earth

00:01:24.694 –> 00:01:30.544
We humans have been vulnerable, naked,
hairless apes for a very long time.

00:01:31.244 –> 00:01:34.893
But figuring out how and when our
ancestors first started getting

00:01:34.893 –> 00:01:37.893
dressed is a tricky scientific problem.

00:01:38.623 –> 00:01:44.554
Organic things like skin, hides, and
plant fibers rot away over time, so

00:01:44.554 –> 00:01:49.533
evidence of clothing is almost nonexistent
in the ancient archeological record.

00:01:50.343 –> 00:01:54.654
Today on the show, we’re exploring
the origins and evolution of clothing

00:01:54.994 –> 00:01:59.894
as both a practical means of survival
and the wildly creative form of

00:01:59.894 –> 00:02:02.063
self-expression we know today.

00:02:02.873 –> 00:02:06.714
Nina Jablonski: This is probably one
of the most fascinating stories in

00:02:06.714 –> 00:02:09.403
human evolution that is rarely told.

00:02:09.814 –> 00:02:11.193
Meredith Johnson: That’s Nina Jablonski.

00:02:11.733 –> 00:02:16.293
She’s a paleoanthropologist, Leakey
Foundation grantee, professor emerita

00:02:16.293 –> 00:02:20.323
at Pennsylvania State University,
and an emerita member of our Leakey

00:02:20.323 –> 00:02:22.463
Foundation Scientific Executive Committee.

00:02:22.893 –> 00:02:26.343
She has spent much of her
career studying something else

00:02:26.353 –> 00:02:28.493
that doesn’t preserve, skin.

00:02:29.484 –> 00:02:33.384
Nina’s work has helped us understand
the evolution of our skin and

00:02:33.384 –> 00:02:35.263
why we come in so many colors.

00:02:35.554 –> 00:02:40.764
Her books, Skin: A Natural History
and Living Color, are essential

00:02:40.764 –> 00:02:42.663
reading to understand your own skin.

00:02:43.603 –> 00:02:48.833
Nina Jablonski: Clothing, and more broadly
body coverings, this is really sort of an

00:02:48.834 –> 00:02:51.963
extension of my original interest in skin.

00:02:52.514 –> 00:02:55.253
How do we protect ourselves
from the environment?

00:02:56.154 –> 00:03:02.243
I think we can imagine that perhaps even
our earliest hominin ancestors might

00:03:02.243 –> 00:03:11.014
have not only sought shelter, but maybe
used very simple screenings or coverings.

00:03:11.133 –> 00:03:15.304
I would not glorify these by saying
that they were body coverings, but

00:03:15.304 –> 00:03:21.173
they were forms of protection from
the, the extremes of cold and rain.

00:03:23.283 –> 00:03:26.844
Meredith Johnson: Keeping our bodies and
brains from getting too cold or too hot

00:03:27.283 –> 00:03:29.254
is a problem we know very well today.

00:03:30.143 –> 00:03:32.753
Our early ancestors
faced the same problems.

00:03:33.473 –> 00:03:36.993
By two million years ago, ancient
hominins had begun to lose their

00:03:37.023 –> 00:03:38.713
thick covering of body hair.

00:03:39.433 –> 00:03:43.353
By around a million years ago, our
ancestors were walking around with

00:03:43.374 –> 00:03:45.923
pretty much naked skin like we have now.

00:03:46.484 –> 00:03:51.414
Without clothes or heat or air
conditioning, how did they deal with

00:03:51.414 –> 00:03:55.393
the basic biological need to keep
their body temperature regulated?

00:03:56.943 –> 00:04:01.973
Nina Jablonski: When we were mostly
living within the tropics in equatorial

00:04:02.003 –> 00:04:11.347
Africa, our native homeland, we would
need to mostly keep warm at night and

00:04:11.398 –> 00:04:17.468
at dawn when the temperatures even
close to the equator would be cool.

00:04:17.988 –> 00:04:24.358
Now, the earliest solution to this would
be simply to be together, to be physically

00:04:24.358 –> 00:04:30.678
together, and we know that our non-human
primate cousins do this wonderfully.

00:04:30.847 –> 00:04:34.607
They huddle, they cuddle,
they, they sit together.

00:04:35.007 –> 00:04:40.547
So that’s, that’s sort of our baseline
wonderful solution, and we still use that.

00:04:40.957 –> 00:04:43.507
We may not use it as much,
but we still use that.

00:04:44.187 –> 00:04:50.108
But when you think about hominins
being much more active as individuals,

00:04:50.588 –> 00:04:57.987
walking purposefully, striding,
running, this brings in sort of new

00:04:58.018 –> 00:05:00.448
complications to thermoregulation

00:05:04.594 –> 00:05:07.034
Meredith Johnson: If you need to be
out hunting or gathering your food

00:05:07.034 –> 00:05:11.514
for the day, moving on your own with
nothing between you and the world, it’s

00:05:11.514 –> 00:05:15.453
important to keep a stable temperature
so you can move and think and do all

00:05:15.454 –> 00:05:17.464
the things you need to do to survive.

00:05:20.402 –> 00:05:27.502
Nina Jablonski: Imagine trying to stalk
an animal or to creep up on an already

00:05:27.512 –> 00:05:37.291
killed animal, and it’s a cool morning in
the African savanna, and you have to wait

00:05:37.322 –> 00:05:44.082
for a while before you can sneak up on
the prey item or on a scavenged animal.

00:05:44.181 –> 00:05:48.732
There’s a real problem here
because our hominin ancestors

00:05:48.991 –> 00:05:51.141
didn’t have a lot of fat on them.

00:05:51.142 –> 00:05:55.651
They didn’t have a lot of fur
at that point, and so they would

00:05:55.652 –> 00:06:00.611
have had to have done something to
maintain their thermal equilibrium.

00:06:01.071 –> 00:06:05.482
This is an enormously important part
of the story, that we have thermal

00:06:05.681 –> 00:06:12.841
protection, thermal regulation as a
big part of our human adaptation story.

00:06:13.312 –> 00:06:20.641
And it’s absolutely without a doubt that
many parts of the world, the extreme

00:06:20.661 –> 00:06:25.311
high latitudes of both the southern
continents and the northern continents

00:06:26.031 –> 00:06:32.271
could not have been inhabited if
hominins could not control their body

00:06:32.332 –> 00:06:39.141
temperature through some kind of body
covering in addition to the use of fire

00:06:41.330 –> 00:06:43.560
Meredith Johnson: For our ancestors
and relatives who spread out to more

00:06:43.560 –> 00:06:48.120
extreme latitudes, and here we’re
talking about early Homo sapiens,

00:06:48.120 –> 00:06:54.419
Neanderthals, Denisovans, the challenge
level went up several notches, especially

00:06:54.440 –> 00:06:58.579
if you’re a hairless hominin without
fur to protect you from the greater

00:06:58.580 –> 00:07:02.609
daily swings in temperature of a
colder, more seasonal environment.

00:07:04.019 –> 00:07:08.960
Nina Jablonski: This is a very different
ballgame than living within the tropics.

00:07:09.840 –> 00:07:16.159
When you get into more extreme latitudes,
the temperature extremes and the seasonal

00:07:16.199 –> 00:07:19.509
extremes of temperature become tremendous.

00:07:19.870 –> 00:07:23.569
And we’re talking about
way beyond discomfort.

00:07:23.609 –> 00:07:30.089
We’re talking about dangerous
extremes of cold, dangerous extremes

00:07:30.139 –> 00:07:35.539
of wind chill that have to be coped
with if people are to live day in

00:07:35.539 –> 00:07:37.109
and day out in these environments.

00:07:38.229 –> 00:07:40.589
Meredith Johnson: If you’ve ever spent
time in the winter cold without enough

00:07:40.599 –> 00:07:46.010
protection or tried to sleep outside
when it’s cold or wet or windy, you

00:07:46.010 –> 00:07:51.589
know how quickly things can turn from
uncomfortable to dangerous or even deadly.

00:07:52.469 –> 00:07:55.259
You can imagine what it might
have been like to be one of those

00:07:55.260 –> 00:07:59.750
hominins coming into a new place,
and all of a sudden it’s so cold you

00:07:59.800 –> 00:08:01.269
think you won’t survive the night.

00:08:01.870 –> 00:08:04.379
What do you do?

00:08:05.039 –> 00:08:08.239
Nina Jablonski: I think some of
the earliest body coverings were

00:08:08.279 –> 00:08:13.609
actually blankets that were fashioned
from, you know, animal hides.

00:08:13.609 –> 00:08:17.549
They might not have been fully
tanned animal hides, but probably

00:08:17.609 –> 00:08:23.899
processed in some way, dried so
that they were not alive with bugs.

00:08:24.199 –> 00:08:31.869
And those, in addition to some
fire and then the body heat from

00:08:31.919 –> 00:08:36.260
people in our own group, would have
helped us get through the night.

00:08:36.489 –> 00:08:42.649
When we think about the challenges
of extreme high latitudes, think

00:08:42.650 –> 00:08:49.539
about Siberia or far South Africa
with cold wind, very cold winds.

00:08:50.029 –> 00:08:55.950
Um, these, these extremes basically
were not a concern to hominins

00:08:55.979 –> 00:08:57.549
living within the tropics.

00:08:59.570 –> 00:09:07.140
So when we think about sort of clothing as
we would recognize it, body coverings that

00:09:07.180 –> 00:09:15.119
wrapped around the body, this is mostly
a technology of the extreme latitudes.

00:09:16.140 –> 00:09:19.780
Meredith Johnson: And this is
around half a million years ago-ish?

00:09:19.949 –> 00:09:23.120
Nina Jablonski: That would
be quite an old estimate.

00:09:23.560 –> 00:09:23.700
Meredith Johnson: Ah.

00:09:23.720 –> 00:09:26.850
Nina Jablonski: This is a really
good, uh, this is a really good

00:09:26.869 –> 00:09:31.280
inflection point in our conversation
because it shows just my uncertainty

00:09:31.280 –> 00:09:33.320
about putting an exact date on this.

00:09:33.479 –> 00:09:34.870
Was it 200,000?

00:09:34.880 –> 00:09:36.349
Was it 300,000?

00:09:36.560 –> 00:09:37.730
Mm, maybe.

00:09:38.339 –> 00:09:43.839
Uh, I’m sure that, that hominins
at that point were getting really

00:09:43.880 –> 00:09:49.490
proficient at being able to put
animal skins on their bodies somehow.

00:09:50.990 –> 00:09:57.529
When they began to actually fasten them
around their bodies, then I think we’re

00:09:57.529 –> 00:10:05.489
getting definitely into that, uh, middle
to late Paleolithic transition when

00:10:05.519 –> 00:10:14.029
humans have a much more technologically
comprehensive tool set, ability to

00:10:14.030 –> 00:10:20.179
communicate with one another, and, and
also, you know, they’re able to work

00:10:20.179 –> 00:10:23.609
together to process an animal skin.

00:10:24.019 –> 00:10:29.169
And this is a good example
of the inexactitude of what

00:10:29.170 –> 00:10:30.659
we’re trying to describe.

00:10:30.899 –> 00:10:37.729
We’re trying to triangulate from the known
archeological record, from some dental

00:10:37.729 –> 00:10:45.059
wear evidence, and from likely patterns
of hunting, foraging, and scavenging what

00:10:45.060 –> 00:10:51.040
would’ve gone on and when clothing in the
broadest sense would’ve been necessary.

00:10:52.339 –> 00:10:57.459
This is a challenge, but it’s not
a challenge that can’t be overcome.

00:10:57.719 –> 00:11:03.430
So it requires a lot of, as
I call, paleo detective work.

00:11:03.579 –> 00:11:07.880
That is part of our good
scientific tradition.

00:11:08.250 –> 00:11:14.339
In paleoanthropology, we often work
with many limitations of data, but

00:11:14.339 –> 00:11:16.869
we do our best with what we have.

00:11:17.319 –> 00:11:23.570
Looking at the paleontological,
archeological, paleoclimatological,

00:11:23.619 –> 00:11:28.229
whatever else kind of evidence
might be at hand, we use it all

00:11:28.289 –> 00:11:30.399
to try to figure out what went on.

00:11:34.850 –> 00:11:39.160
Meredith Johnson: The first and only scrap
of clothing to survive the Pleistocene

00:11:39.170 –> 00:11:44.270
period was just announced a few months ago
by scientists at the University of Oregon.

00:11:45.030 –> 00:11:48.680
That’s one thing from a time that
stretched from roughly two point

00:11:48.680 –> 00:11:52.810
six million years ago through eleven
thousand six hundred years ago.

00:11:53.530 –> 00:11:57.570
It’s a bit of sewn hide found in
a dry, sheltered cave in Central

00:11:57.580 –> 00:12:01.570
Oregon and dated at up to twelve
thousand six hundred years old.

00:12:02.330 –> 00:12:07.420
For the long expanse of time before
that, scientists use other clues and

00:12:07.420 –> 00:12:11.780
more durable artifacts to figure out the
backstory to the clothes we wear today.

00:12:12.380 –> 00:12:16.510
One clue some scientists have used to
track the timing of some of the earliest

00:12:16.510 –> 00:12:19.620
forms of clothing comes from lice.

00:12:19.859 –> 00:12:24.869
Nina Jablonski: When you study the
evolution of skin, a lot of people have

00:12:24.870 –> 00:12:30.989
said, “Well, you know, we can get a lot
of evidence about the evolution of naked

00:12:31.159 –> 00:12:38.079
skin by looking at the evolution of
the ectoparasites, especially the lice,

00:12:38.079 –> 00:12:45.990
that, that have afflicted humans in the
past and that afflict humans today.”

00:12:46.659 –> 00:12:49.710
Meredith Johnson: Today, we’re afflicted
by three different species of lice.

00:12:50.140 –> 00:12:54.829
Head lice, the scourge of parents
and teachers everywhere, pubic lice,

00:12:55.119 –> 00:12:59.390
and body lice, also known as clothing
lice, which is adapted to live in

00:12:59.390 –> 00:13:01.219
the seams of clothing and bedding.

00:13:01.979 –> 00:13:06.259
A twenty ten study in the Journal of
Molecular Biology and Evolution suggested

00:13:06.259 –> 00:13:11.410
that since clothing lice evolved from head
lice ancestors sometime between a hundred

00:13:11.410 –> 00:13:15.580
and seventy thousand and eighty-three
thousand years ago, that this can help

00:13:15.619 –> 00:13:19.509
pin down the timing of when humans
started habitually wearing clothing.

00:13:19.829 –> 00:13:24.569
Other studies used lice as a way to figure
out when our ancestors became hairless.

00:13:25.039 –> 00:13:33.559
Nina Jablonski: Much ink has been spilled
on this lousy topic of when did humans

00:13:33.899 –> 00:13:39.400
develop unique forms of body lice and
head lice that are different from one

00:13:39.409 –> 00:13:44.749
another, and did this have to do with
the evolution of body hairlessness?

00:13:45.380 –> 00:13:53.220
I have not actually found a lot of
support for the hypothesis that,

00:13:53.990 –> 00:14:00.709
that body lice became different
from head lice when humans became

00:14:00.719 –> 00:14:03.179
hairless and started using clothing.

00:14:04.029 –> 00:14:14.410
I think what is more likely is that
lice actually started inhabiting

00:14:14.770 –> 00:14:19.730
the blankets, the animal hide
blankets under which we slept.

00:14:20.780 –> 00:14:27.490
And so we started being bitten
by body lice, not as a result of

00:14:27.500 –> 00:14:34.720
having naked skin and clothing at
that time, but rather because of

00:14:34.720 –> 00:14:40.960
our communal sleeping arrangements
under animal hides, some of which at

00:14:40.960 –> 00:14:43.490
least would be infested with lice.

00:14:44.530 –> 00:14:45.120
Meredith Johnson: Delightful.

00:14:46.860 –> 00:14:47.850
Nina Jablonski: It wasn’t pretty.

00:14:48.309 –> 00:14:52.490
Much of prehistory was not pretty,
and it was certainly very smelly.

00:14:56.764 –> 00:15:00.314
Meredith Johnson: Other evidence comes
from things like Neanderthal teeth showing

00:15:00.314 –> 00:15:04.224
signs that they were using their mouths
like a third hand while processing hides.

00:15:06.074 –> 00:15:10.704
In the archeological record, we commonly
find tools like stone scrapers that

00:15:10.704 –> 00:15:12.394
can be used to work animal skins.

00:15:12.814 –> 00:15:17.774
And then in the later Paleolithic, we
start to see more specialized tools

00:15:18.514 –> 00:15:23.214
like awls, sharp, pointy objects made of
bone that could be used to poke holes in

00:15:23.244 –> 00:15:28.664
hides, which you could then run a tendon
or a twisted fiber cord through so you

00:15:28.664 –> 00:15:30.764
could lash something close to your body.

00:15:31.464 –> 00:15:36.013
The oldest of these come from
Blombos Cave, South Africa, dated

00:15:36.014 –> 00:15:38.044
to seventy-seven thousand years ago.

00:15:38.183 –> 00:15:42.934
Nina Jablonski: I think awls would
have been a real breakthrough.

00:15:43.354 –> 00:15:46.544
And not long after that, needles.

00:15:47.224 –> 00:15:54.593
Needles with eyes that would have
allowed a, a thread of some kind, even

00:15:54.593 –> 00:16:01.914
a coarse thread, whether it be fiber
or a thin piece of tendon or sinew, uh,

00:16:01.924 –> 00:16:08.744
from an animal to be threaded through
the eye and then the needle passed

00:16:08.814 –> 00:16:13.773
through, uh, smaller holes in, in a hide.

00:16:15.230 –> 00:16:21.430
When we have awls and certainly
needles, we can actually begin to think

00:16:21.440 –> 00:16:24.790
about tailored fashioned clothing.

00:16:25.330 –> 00:16:30.260
Clothing that really was
shaped to cover the body.

00:16:30.940 –> 00:16:36.840
Skins that could enclose the
limbs separately from the trunk.

00:16:37.550 –> 00:16:38.340
Sleeves.

00:16:38.630 –> 00:16:39.460
Wow!

00:16:40.260 –> 00:16:44.490
I mean, it sounds, it sounds like a
silly thing to make an exclamation

00:16:44.570 –> 00:16:51.899
about, but, but sleeves were a terrific
invention because sleeves and l-later

00:16:52.050 –> 00:17:00.259
pant legs would have protected the
appendages against cold and wind because

00:17:00.290 –> 00:17:05.040
the appendages are very susceptible,
more than the core, to, to, uh,

00:17:05.120 –> 00:17:07.500
fluctuations of body temperature.

00:17:08.339 –> 00:17:14.300
We don’t, or at least I don’t exactly
know when we see the first sleeves and

00:17:14.310 –> 00:17:23.159
pant legs, but we definitely do see early
awls and needles by seventy thousand,

00:17:23.159 –> 00:17:30.360
sixty thousand, fifty thousand years ago
in southernmost Africa, in the Denisovan

00:17:30.589 –> 00:17:39.219
Caves, uh, and throughout, uh, areas
used by early Homo sapiens in Europe.

00:17:40.700 –> 00:17:43.609
Meredith Johnson: It’s interesting
to think about needles, awls, and

00:17:43.619 –> 00:17:47.339
clever, stylish inventions like
sleeves popping up in far distant

00:17:47.339 –> 00:17:49.239
places at roughly the same time.

00:17:49.439 –> 00:17:54.100
I could imagine if you’ve never
used a needle or had a sleeve before

00:17:54.100 –> 00:17:57.610
and you saw someone with sleeves,
you’d want them to show you how

00:17:57.630 –> 00:17:59.300
they made such a wonderful thing.

00:17:59.560 –> 00:18:02.310
But how did this new tech
spread so far and wide?

00:18:02.740 –> 00:18:05.929
Nina Jablonski: Archeologists have
been puzzling over this very thing

00:18:05.939 –> 00:18:08.890
for dozens of years, if not longer.

00:18:09.380 –> 00:18:17.149
Uh, and there’s certainly many
guesses as to how many times these

00:18:17.189 –> 00:18:19.309
things evolved independently.

00:18:20.418 –> 00:18:29.698
It is pretty clear though that once they
evolved, that they caught on very quickly.

00:18:29.968 –> 00:18:35.038
Now, how many times were populations
in touch with one another?

00:18:35.478 –> 00:18:40.798
How much evidence of, you know, clothing
and needlework were observed by different

00:18:40.798 –> 00:18:45.228
populations, and there were aha moments
like, “Oh, I could do that, too”?

00:18:45.878 –> 00:18:46.678
We don’t know.

00:18:47.298 –> 00:18:54.338
There was certainly a lot of independent
invention of awls, simple piercing

00:18:54.348 –> 00:18:58.218
implements, and probably also for needles.

00:18:58.898 –> 00:19:04.798
But equally, there was a lot of
transmission of needle technology.

00:19:05.698 –> 00:19:12.217
So many things in especially Homo
sapiens cultural evolution are like this.

00:19:12.668 –> 00:19:17.408
People get the same good idea in
different parts of the world, because

00:19:17.408 –> 00:19:22.138
people are observant and smart, and they
have many of the same needs regardless

00:19:22.138 –> 00:19:28.388
of where they are, and they can put
two and two together extremely well.

00:19:28.617 –> 00:19:33.238
And similarly, we can think of other
aha moments with, you know, with th-

00:19:33.607 –> 00:19:40.638
with good foot coverings and mittens and
something like gloves that would protect

00:19:40.668 –> 00:19:46.158
the hands when, when we weren’t actively
using them in, you know, manipulating

00:19:46.198 –> 00:19:48.927
tools or animal parts and so forth.

00:19:49.448 –> 00:19:52.318
These things are really
fascinating to ponder.

00:19:52.327 –> 00:19:54.197
How did we get by without them?

00:19:54.418 –> 00:19:58.018
How did w- you know, where did
the earliest ones come from?

00:19:58.198 –> 00:20:01.387
How exactly, what
exactly was this process?

00:20:05.908 –> 00:20:09.328
Meredith Johnson: Awls and needles
are the clues left behind, but

00:20:09.328 –> 00:20:12.768
they point to a blossoming of
creativity and technology during the

00:20:12.768 –> 00:20:16.918
Paleolithic that has been thought of
as an indicator of the modern mind.

00:20:18.602 –> 00:20:22.762
Not long after the oldest needles show
up in the archeological record, we see

00:20:22.762 –> 00:20:25.802
cave art in Indonesia, Europe, Africa.

00:20:26.342 –> 00:20:30.132
We see small sculpture, beads,
and pigments from that time.

00:20:30.592 –> 00:20:32.572
I wish we could see
what they were wearing.

00:20:33.002 –> 00:20:37.162
Nina Jablonski: It was a blizzard
of, of invention, or at least, you

00:20:37.162 –> 00:20:42.602
know, a, a storm of things that we can
actually see and, and an even bigger

00:20:42.602 –> 00:20:44.512
storm of things that we can infer.

00:20:44.952 –> 00:20:51.422
Again, one of the most frustrating things
is that much of the evidence for this

00:20:51.562 –> 00:20:58.252
sophistication in technology is lost
to us because it was in the form of

00:20:58.321 –> 00:21:05.421
perishable materials, not just animal
hides, but in the form of fibers and plant

00:21:05.461 –> 00:21:14.601
materials that were being used to make
ropes or make simple braided fabrics or

00:21:14.601 –> 00:21:18.581
the soles of, of simple foot coverings.

00:21:19.492 –> 00:21:25.152
These things, you know, we begin to
actually pick them up in the archeological

00:21:25.161 –> 00:21:32.332
record in some dry environments, but,
you know, we know that they existed a

00:21:32.332 –> 00:21:34.922
long time before we actually find them.

00:21:35.242 –> 00:21:40.171
It’s the tip of probably a very
big iceberg of what we were

00:21:40.181 –> 00:21:42.622
doing with fibers before that.

00:21:43.401 –> 00:21:51.401
Because even before weaving was
developed, humans have been twisting

00:21:51.691 –> 00:21:56.421
fibers together to make ropes,
putting ropes together to make larger

00:21:56.422 –> 00:21:59.882
ropes, but also to make baskets.

00:22:00.651 –> 00:22:03.381
Meredith Johnson: When you think about
the skill and technology that goes

00:22:03.382 –> 00:22:07.912
into weaving baskets, it’s not a far
stretch to think if they were weaving

00:22:07.912 –> 00:22:11.812
plants into baskets, they could have
also been weaving some form of cloth.

00:22:12.821 –> 00:22:19.832
Nina Jablonski: Again, the, the physical
evidence for this is frustratingly absent.

00:22:21.111 –> 00:22:27.871
We have evidence of early basketry,
and then we have some nicely preserved

00:22:27.941 –> 00:22:34.911
evidence of early cloth from, not
only from prehistoric Egypt, but

00:22:35.062 –> 00:22:42.771
also in Central Asia, far western
China, far eastern Europe, that we

00:22:42.771 –> 00:22:48.852
have evidence of, you know, ancient
pieces of cloth, even patterned cloth.

00:22:49.392 –> 00:22:51.202
So what does that tell us?

00:22:51.461 –> 00:22:57.312
It tells us that people had the
ability to make fine fibers that

00:22:57.362 –> 00:23:03.692
could be woven, and then they wanted
to make designs similar to those

00:23:03.711 –> 00:23:06.231
that they would be using in basketry.

00:23:08.108 –> 00:23:13.898
I mean, the, the mind boggles
because humans have been so

00:23:13.898 –> 00:23:16.178
creative for, for so very long.

00:23:17.288 –> 00:23:23.368
Uh, so I think it’s really important
for us to continue digging, literally

00:23:23.388 –> 00:23:30.698
digging, and, you know, finding more
evidence, including paleobotanical

00:23:31.418 –> 00:23:36.138
evidence that might help us get
at the types of plants that were

00:23:36.158 –> 00:23:43.448
present or that were being harvested
i- in, in hominin habitation areas.

00:23:44.738 –> 00:23:49.848
This quest is limited by our
practical abilities to retrieve

00:23:49.868 –> 00:23:54.768
materials and the money available
for this, but it’s also limited to

00:23:54.768 –> 00:23:56.707
some extent by our imaginations.

00:23:57.628 –> 00:24:02.538
Archeologists tend to be extremely
conservative in, in what they

00:24:02.538 –> 00:24:05.087
will interpret as having happened.

00:24:05.558 –> 00:24:09.678
The, you know, if you don’t have a
stone tool for it, it didn’t exist.

00:24:10.288 –> 00:24:16.098
Well, I guess the fact that I’m not
an archeologist frees me to do a

00:24:16.098 –> 00:24:22.148
little bit more speculation, because
I know just how inventive humans can

00:24:22.148 –> 00:24:27.487
be when it comes to decorating their
bodies, protecting their bodies.

00:24:27.727 –> 00:24:31.148
They’re going to use everything at
hand, and they’re going to use their

00:24:31.187 –> 00:24:33.757
imaginations first and foremost.

00:24:37.100 –> 00:24:40.710
Meredith Johnson: Lucky for us,
clothing isn’t just for the Ice Age.

00:24:41.520 –> 00:24:45.620
Not everybody left the tropics,
and also humans are complicated.

00:24:46.400 –> 00:24:49.920
We can have more than one reason
to invent something amazing and

00:24:49.920 –> 00:24:51.450
revolutionary like clothing.

00:24:52.220 –> 00:24:56.490
Sometimes you need a thick furry coat
to stay alive, and sometimes you just

00:24:56.490 –> 00:24:58.560
wanna look good or express yourself

00:25:01.868 –> 00:25:07.428
Nina Jablonski: Here we have to look
at the interesting differences between

00:25:07.768 –> 00:25:13.128
people who have to wear clothing
in order to stay warm and people

00:25:13.218 –> 00:25:14.948
who don’t have to wear clothing.

00:25:16.008 –> 00:25:20.768
And I want to come back to our
ancestors and relatives and people

00:25:20.768 –> 00:25:26.708
living today in the tropics because
what we see is the development of

00:25:26.758 –> 00:25:33.328
clothing among tropical-dwelling
people that is much more centered

00:25:33.378 –> 00:25:39.414
toward modesty And toward decoration.

00:25:40.474 –> 00:25:46.354
Humans are visual animals, and they
have been visual for millions of years.

00:25:47.184 –> 00:25:55.624
So okay, if you don’t have to stay warm in
the tropics, you might want to advertise

00:25:55.634 –> 00:26:02.574
or conceal some other aspect of your
body, and you could use an animal skin

00:26:02.634 –> 00:26:08.994
or some plant parts, and you might do
this in some kind of creative pattern.

00:26:09.834 –> 00:26:16.204
Uh, there is no doubt that,
that people within the tropics

00:26:16.283 –> 00:26:22.233
probably were the originators of
style in, in a, the modern sense.

00:26:23.893 –> 00:26:29.174
The covering for the sake of covering, the
covering for the sake of decoration, the

00:26:29.174 –> 00:26:35.303
covering for the sake of visual effect,
perhaps to show status, to show age.

00:26:36.044 –> 00:26:42.134
One can imagine that it was important,
at least in some groups, to be able to

00:26:42.134 –> 00:26:51.454
show or to not show evidence of sexual
excitation because this could be quite

00:26:51.454 –> 00:26:56.683
a source of, of discord in a group,
or perhaps even worse than discord.

00:26:56.733 –> 00:26:57.814
Meredith Johnson: That’s so interesting.

00:26:57.823 –> 00:27:04.284
I hadn’t considered covering
certain body parts as part of a

00:27:04.633 –> 00:27:09.614
driving force for innovation in
clothing, but it does make sense.

00:27:10.633 –> 00:27:14.114
Nina Jablonski: Yes, and you can, you
can imagine that, you know, I mean,

00:27:14.694 –> 00:27:23.773
quite apart from 19th and 20th century
mores and practices that, that some body

00:27:23.773 –> 00:27:30.214
coverings, especially evidence of sexual
excitation in males, could be quite

00:27:30.294 –> 00:27:37.153
divisive and destructive to group harmony
under certain circumstances at least.

00:27:37.813 –> 00:27:47.214
And so concealing that evidence
is important, becomes socially

00:27:47.214 –> 00:27:49.983
important to maintain social harmony.

00:27:50.603 –> 00:27:57.083
We see evidence in many parts of
the world of, you know, penile

00:27:57.083 –> 00:28:02.504
sheaths being made out of animal
hides, gourds, and other materials.

00:28:03.073 –> 00:28:06.174
This is certainly part of that process.

00:28:06.213 –> 00:28:15.204
By concealing at least some of the
male sexual apparatus, you reduce

00:28:15.204 –> 00:28:20.384
the likelihood of it becoming a
point of discussion and discord.

00:28:20.483 –> 00:28:21.813
Let’s just put it that way.

00:28:22.563 –> 00:28:26.264
So you know, this is, this is really
interesting stuff to think about

00:28:26.554 –> 00:28:33.833
because, you know, when, when we look
at, at an item of clothing like this, we

00:28:33.834 –> 00:28:37.770
think- Ooh, well, that’s a bit unusual.

00:28:38.040 –> 00:28:42.980
But when you think about the
likely reasons for this having

00:28:42.990 –> 00:28:44.700
evolved, it’s not at all weird.

00:28:44.780 –> 00:28:46.030
It makes complete sense.

00:28:46.880 –> 00:28:53.930
And remember, the premium in human
societies was on figuring out how to

00:28:53.930 –> 00:28:59.150
get along without killing one another,
because human lives were precious.

00:29:00.160 –> 00:29:04.850
And you, you know, you didn’t
want to kill someone or, or wound

00:29:04.900 –> 00:29:08.890
them badly just because you feel
offended by their appearance.

00:29:09.860 –> 00:29:15.069
So you figure out ways in which,
you know, these, these states of

00:29:15.069 –> 00:29:17.699
arousal or whatever can be concealed

00:29:20.418 –> 00:29:23.438
Meredith Johnson: So in a place where
protection from extreme temperatures

00:29:23.438 –> 00:29:29.808
isn’t the main driver, as social
visual beings, social needs, modesty,

00:29:29.928 –> 00:29:33.398
visual flair, and communication
would have been more important.

00:29:33.918 –> 00:29:39.538
And we see in Africa some of the earliest
combinations of body paint plus inventive

00:29:39.538 –> 00:29:44.228
use of hides, shell beads, and even
shell beads colored with ochre pigments

00:29:46.378 –> 00:29:53.318
Nina Jablonski: This was humans’ time
to figure out how to display themselves

00:29:53.928 –> 00:29:55.938
and what those displays might mean.

00:29:56.458 –> 00:29:59.818
I mean, fashion emerges at this time.

00:30:00.498 –> 00:30:05.768
Maybe not in the sense of, you know,
runway fashion, but certainly the

00:30:05.768 –> 00:30:11.068
ability to decorate oneself, to augment
one’s appearance or to conceal certain

00:30:11.068 –> 00:30:18.008
aspects of one’s appearance became really
important in, m- more in the tropics at

00:30:18.008 –> 00:30:21.508
first than at the extremes of latitude.

00:30:23.147 –> 00:30:28.407
I don’t want to say that, that people
living in the northern extremes of

00:30:28.417 –> 00:30:35.138
Eurasia or in the southern part of
Africa didn’t decorate themselves,

00:30:35.378 –> 00:30:42.147
but thermoregulation was probably more
important, a primary consideration, and

00:30:42.147 –> 00:30:45.117
decoration would be used on top of that.

00:30:45.858 –> 00:30:52.098
So clothes possibly become seasonal and
more decorative, more oriented towards

00:30:52.098 –> 00:30:57.478
an individual’s age or status later
in prehistory and later in history in,

00:30:59.858 –> 00:31:00.558
in higher latitudes.

00:31:01.877 –> 00:31:07.867
This brings, you know, clothing into sort
of a different frame because clothing

00:31:07.898 –> 00:31:13.947
is certainly practical, but there’s
a lot of, of status identification

00:31:14.148 –> 00:31:19.407
and simple decoration that comes into
the equation, and certainly people

00:31:19.417 –> 00:31:25.888
living in warmer climes really get
the jump on the, on the decoration

00:31:25.947 –> 00:31:29.397
piece earlier than people elsewhere.

00:31:29.987 –> 00:31:36.077
And when you look at tropical peoples
today, whether they’re living in Africa

00:31:36.157 –> 00:31:42.177
or broadly Melanesia and Polynesia,
you see this welter of materials

00:31:42.428 –> 00:31:45.177
that are used to fashion clothing.

00:31:45.837 –> 00:31:53.978
Not just hides, not just fabrics, but
feathers, and today pieces of plastic,

00:31:54.318 –> 00:32:02.758
uh, beads, all sorts of things are, are
used as items of adornment to signify

00:32:03.357 –> 00:32:09.068
status, a special occasion, age, all
sorts of things, special ceremonies.

00:32:09.467 –> 00:32:15.307
It’s delightful to actually see how
these things developed, and so quickly.

00:32:15.547 –> 00:32:22.017
And we haven’t even begun to talk
about hats, so you know, because of

00:32:22.017 –> 00:32:27.630
course, you know, head coverings,
including masks Oh my word.

00:32:27.880 –> 00:32:33.780
They become an enormous part of our
culture of adornment and display.

00:32:34.570 –> 00:32:36.260
They augment our height.

00:32:36.740 –> 00:32:42.730
They can show all sorts of things
about who we belong to, how old we

00:32:42.730 –> 00:32:45.750
are, uh, and what our aspirations are.

00:32:45.780 –> 00:32:50.810
So, I mean, hats, oh, this is a
topic for a whole nother podcast.

00:32:51.560 –> 00:32:54.210
Meredith Johnson: This is so
interesting because when people

00:32:54.210 –> 00:32:58.450
think about human evolution, clothing
isn’t usually even mentioned.

00:32:58.879 –> 00:33:02.980
You know, you talk about our big
brains, tools, fire, all of that

00:33:02.980 –> 00:33:10.620
kind of stuff, but clothing seems to
me just as essential as a, as, as a

00:33:10.620 –> 00:33:12.420
part of what it means to be human.

00:33:12.430 –> 00:33:13.000
What, what do you-

00:33:13.000 –> 00:33:13.910
Nina Jablonski: Absolutely.

00:33:14.449 –> 00:33:22.470
And again, I, you know, I, I come back to
the problems that we have had broadly in

00:33:22.470 –> 00:33:28.760
science and paleoanthropology specifically
about talking about things for which

00:33:28.760 –> 00:33:35.060
we don’t have direct evidence There’s
been, you know, great hesitation about

00:33:35.310 –> 00:33:39.810
talking about the history of clothing,
even the history of skin before that,

00:33:40.120 –> 00:33:42.180
because of the lack of direct evidence.

00:33:43.080 –> 00:33:49.600
Now, with many other methods and
techniques available to us, we can begin

00:33:49.600 –> 00:33:55.300
to say, “Okay, well, we may not have
direct evidence of skin and clothing and

00:33:55.360 –> 00:34:00.450
hides that were used as body coverings,
but we have indirect evidence from

00:34:00.490 –> 00:34:08.520
ancient DNA or from pollen or from some
other sources.” And we can continue to

00:34:08.540 –> 00:34:15.570
construct good hypotheses from available
evidence to sort of triangulate and

00:34:15.570 –> 00:34:22.450
say, “This likely could have happened
or would have happened given the other

00:34:22.500 –> 00:34:24.360
pieces of evidence that we have.”

00:34:25.439 –> 00:34:29.930
Meredith Johnson: So do you see or would
you like to see more paleoanthropologists

00:34:30.000 –> 00:34:32.460
take an interest in clothing?

00:34:32.810 –> 00:34:34.220
Nina Jablonski: I certainly would.

00:34:34.810 –> 00:34:41.330
Uh, I certainly would because this is
such an essential part, especially of

00:34:41.330 –> 00:34:43.980
the adaptation to extreme environments.

00:34:44.410 –> 00:34:50.810
So really, we see this as an outgrowth
of the study of, of exercise physiology

00:34:50.810 –> 00:34:56.300
and thermal physiology, so a very sort
of nuts and bolts scientific discipline.

00:34:56.309 –> 00:34:58.859
You know, when did these things evolve?

00:34:59.059 –> 00:35:02.769
What thermal properties were
we looking for, et cetera.

00:35:03.199 –> 00:35:08.869
So even, you know, even before we start
talking about the universe of decorative

00:35:08.870 –> 00:35:16.230
uses of clothing, finding out more about
the kinds of body coverings that would

00:35:16.230 –> 00:35:22.230
have been essential for people who were,
let’s say, some of the first inhabitants

00:35:22.650 –> 00:35:28.010
of the Americas, toiling through
the coastal waters of the Aleutians.

00:35:29.860 –> 00:35:30.990
It wasn’t easy.

00:35:31.089 –> 00:35:32.100
What were they wearing?

00:35:32.650 –> 00:35:34.509
How were people protected?

00:35:34.879 –> 00:35:40.170
You know, the, I think these are real
questions of human adaptation, real

00:35:40.170 –> 00:35:47.380
questions about why we were able to live
year in, year out in extreme environments.

00:35:49.730 –> 00:35:53.040
Meredith Johnson: Does thinking
about clothing in this, like, deep

00:35:53.220 –> 00:35:57.370
history sort of way change how
you think about getting dressed?

00:35:57.930 –> 00:36:01.010
Nina Jablonski: It certainly
does, uh, in the morning.

00:36:01.140 –> 00:36:05.770
Like this morning was fairly cold
outside, and I thought, “Okay, I’ve

00:36:05.770 –> 00:36:11.500
gotta put on more layers to keep warm.”
So yes, in a sense, I was back in

00:36:11.500 –> 00:36:16.720
the Paleolithic thinking about what
kind of hide and how tightly do I

00:36:16.720 –> 00:36:19.640
need to, to fasten it around my body.

00:36:20.380 –> 00:36:25.990
But certainly also, I think about all
the different messaging we have in

00:36:25.990 –> 00:36:33.700
our clothing, messaging about our own
personal styles, signaling who we are,

00:36:34.380 –> 00:36:38.769
what our intentions are, how we think of
ourselves, how we wanna project ourselves

00:36:38.820 –> 00:36:41.110
in public, how we wanna be perceived.

00:36:41.899 –> 00:36:48.520
So I, I think about the thermoregulatory
piece, but also the signaling piece.

00:36:48.769 –> 00:36:50.870
What am I saying through my clothing?

00:36:51.179 –> 00:36:52.700
How will it be interpreted?

00:36:53.320 –> 00:36:58.449
So I think this makes it a whole lot
more fun, to be honest, because when

00:36:58.450 –> 00:37:03.339
you just sort of put on, you know,
a sweatshirt and sweatpants, okay,

00:37:03.389 –> 00:37:05.419
you covered the basics, as it were.

00:37:05.980 –> 00:37:10.879
But there’s just so much more that
you can think about and so much more

00:37:10.880 –> 00:37:18.399
that you can do when you realize the
import of the act of clothing yourself,

00:37:19.200 –> 00:37:26.329
what you are saying about yourself
as a, a warm-blooded primate that

00:37:26.330 –> 00:37:32.059
needs protection from the elements,
and as a highly visual primate that

00:37:32.120 –> 00:37:35.629
advertises its own identity to others.

00:37:37.580 –> 00:37:40.010
Meredith Johnson: Thank you to
Nina Jablonski for exploring

00:37:40.179 –> 00:37:41.179
the history of clothing with us.

00:37:41.870 –> 00:37:45.919
You can learn more about her and her work
through the links in your show notes.

00:37:47.309 –> 00:37:51.379
Origin Stories is a project of
the Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit

00:37:51.410 –> 00:37:55.239
dedicated to funding human origins
research and sharing discoveries.

00:37:56.169 –> 00:37:58.750
This episode was made
possible by our listeners.

00:37:59.069 –> 00:38:03.570
It was generously sponsored by Leakey
Foundation trustee Naoma Tate, with

00:38:03.570 –> 00:38:07.610
additional support from the Ann and
Gordon Getty Foundation, Jeannie Newman,

00:38:07.750 –> 00:38:11.569
Camilla and George Smith, and the
Joan and Arnold Travis Education Fund.

00:38:12.049 –> 00:38:15.399
This episode was produced by me,
Meredith Johnson, and Ray Pang.

00:38:15.989 –> 00:38:17.560
Our editor is Audrey Quinn.

00:38:17.939 –> 00:38:19.699
Theme music by Henry Nagle.

00:38:20.049 –> 00:38:23.020
Additional music by Blue Dot
Sessions and Lee Rosevere.

00:38:23.560 –> 00:38:26.769
We’ll be back next month
with another new episode.

00:38:27.450 –> 00:38:28.169
Thanks for listening