Posted on 09/02/2003 2:24:40 PM PDT by Willie Green
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:35:19 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
The expression "clothes make the man" may be more prescient than imagined. New theories about our evolutionary development are making the rounds in scientific journals that attempt to explain why modern humans shed the fur that characterized earlier hominids.
Evidence is mounting that when our ancestors wandered out of the forests and onto the African savannas 1.7 million years ago, they weren't simply leaving leafy trees behind. Many millennia before the heartbreak of psoriasis, early humans had an affliction that surely would've led to an unbearably itchy existence, if not extinction, had we not shed our matted body hair over hundreds of generations.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
And they know this how? Pictures? The original skin loincloth still exists? Even flimsier than usual.
Cool and Bug-free is now on my requirement list. Who knew?
Out of curiosity, what's your own estimate on how long humans have been wearing clothes?
Yah. The author of this article must've been another product of the state school system.
No data. We don't even have a clue how much hair Neandertal man or other early humans had. But if they didn't have a LOT of hair, they sure didn't live in Ice Age Europe!
One of the dumbest articles I ever read claimed that the ancestors of the Inuit were forced into the Arctic and then "evolved" their special tools and clothing over a period of a couple of centuries. Author apparently had no idea that without that special equipment they wouldn't have survived their first winter. Just look at history of early Arctic exploration.
LOL, they probably wouldn't have survived even a week in those conditions...
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.