Nudity
While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not having developed the crafts needed to make clothing.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.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.Contemporary social norms regarding nudity reflect cultural ambiguity towards the body and sexuality, and differing conceptions of what constitutes public versus private spaces.[17] Clothing and adornment became part of the symbolic communication that marked a person's membership in their society, thus nakedness meant being at the bottom of the social scale, lacking in dignity and status.[20] For millennia from Mesopotamia to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt the majority of men and women wore a cloth wrapped or tied to cover the lower part of the body.[30] In Etruscan and early Roman athletics, in which masculinity involved prudishness and paranoia about effeminacy, the Greek traditions were not maintained because public nudity became associated with homoeroticism.In contemporary rural villages, both boys and girls are allowed to play totally nude, and women bare their breasts in the belief that the meaning of naked bodies is not limited to sexuality.[42] The upper torso of women is not sexual due to the general acceptance of breastfeeding in Africa, while their legs are covered by skirts to a greater extent than by Western clothing.[43] The revival of pre-colonial culture is asserted in the adoption of traditional dress—young women wearing only beaded skirts and jewelry—in the Umkhosi Womhlanga (Reed Dance) by the Zulu and Swazi.[70] The Awá hunters, the male members of an Indigenous people of Brazil living in the eastern Amazon rainforest, are "completely naked except for a piece of string decorated with bright bird feathers tied to the end of their penises".The interaction between the Greek classical and later Abrahamic traditions has resulted in Western ambivalence, with nudity acquiring both positive and negative meanings in individual psychology, in social life, and in depictions such as art.The meaning of the creation myth is inconsistent with a philosophical analysis of shame as an emotion of reflective self-assessment which is understood as a response to being seen by others, a social context that did not exist.[89] Jesus was originally depicted nude as would have been the case in Roman crucifixions, but the Christian adoption of the pagan association of the body with sex prompted the clothing of Christ.In one of a series of lectures entitled "Theology of the Body" given in 1979, Pope John Paul II said that the innocent nudity of being before the fall is regained only between loving spouses.The most conservative is the Hanbali School in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where the niqab, the garment covering the whole female body and the face with a narrow opening for the eyes, is widespread.[101] The topfreedom movement in the United States promotes equal rights for women to be naked above the waist in public on the same basis that would apply to men in the same circumstances.Other court decisions have given individuals the right to be briefly nude in public as a form of expression protected by the First Amendment, but not on a continuing basis for their own comfort or enjoyment as men are allowed to do.[122][123][124] The era of male nude swimming in indoor pools declined steadily as mixed-gender usage became the norm,[114] and sped up following the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.[132][133] Bonny Rough, who raised her children while residing in the United States and the Netherlands, advises US parents and caregivers to understand that a child's explorations of their own and others' bodies are motivated by curiosity, not anything similar to adult sexuality.Germans, who are extremely low in cultural context, maintain public propriety on a nude beach by not wearing adornments, avoiding touching themselves and others, and any other behaviors that would call attention to the body.[178] Some have investigated the benefits of arts education including drawing nudes from life as an opportunity to satisfy youthful curiosity regarding the human body in a non-sexual context.[181] In the mainstream, Diana Vreeland could note in Vogue in 1970 that a bikini bottom worn alone had become fashionable for young women on beaches from Saint-Tropez, France to Sardinia, Italy.[196] There were advocates of the health benefits of sun and fresh air that instituted programs of exercise in the nude for children in groups of mixed gender, Adolf Koch founding thirteen FKK schools.[197] With the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, the nudism movement split ideologically, the socialists adopting the views of Koch, seeing his programs as part of improving the lives of the working class.[198] Between the first and second world wars, naturism spread to other countries based upon the German model, but being less ideological and political; incorporating cultural elements within Scandinavia, France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands.[204] Worldwide, laws regarding clothing specify what parts of the body must be covered, prohibiting complete nudity in public except for those jurisdictions that allow nude recreation.[214] Legal definitions are further complicated by laws regarding indecent exposure; this term generally refers to engaging in public nudity with an intent to offend common decency.[219] In 2003, Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq gained international notoriety for accounts of torture and abuses by members of the United States Army Reserve during the post-invasion period.[230] The naked human body was one of the first subjects of prehistoric art, including the numerous female figurines found throughout Europe, the earliest now dating from 40,000 years ago.
Depictions of nudityNaturismNaked (disambiguation)Nude (disambiguation)Naturistsclothinganatomically modern humanscraftsbehaviorally modernbody paintscarificationIndigenous peoplesmodern erasegregated by sexsexualizationsocial normsthe artssocial nuditylaws defining proper dressindecent exposureExhibitionismGymnophobiaVoyeurismNorman FrenchAnglo-SaxongenitalsbuttocksbreastsPrehistory of nakedness and clothingsea snailUpper Palaeolithic Europehuman evolutionarysociocultural evolutioneccrine sweatingearly humanssavannajewelrytattoosbody modificationsMark LearyPaleolithicScienceFifth DynastyAbusirAkrotiriSantorinistamnosHistory of nudityNeolithicAbrahamicClothing in ancient EgyptClothing in ancient GreeceHeroic nudityMesopotamiaMiddle Kingdom of EgyptbarefootNew Kingdom of EgyptBabylonianApolloGreek gods of OlympiaAphroditeEtruscanearly RomaneffeminacyhomoeroticismRoman EmpirethermaeNakedness and colonialismhunter-gathereruncontactedAndaman IslandspastoralAboriginal Australiansfall of manpersonal freedomhuman sexualitygender rolesnaturist resortssub-Saharan countriesBurkinabeseSurma peoplestick-fightingLagos, NigeriaSub-Saharan AfricanEswatiniEthiopiaKaokoveldSuri tribeUmkhosi Womhlanga (Reed Dance)human dignityNudity in IndiaasceticsAkka MahadeviAcharya VidyasagarDigambara Jain monkUkiyo-eama diversUtamaroBangladeshMru peopleBuddhismAnimismTokugawa periodfundoshiloinclothMeiji eraShintoismkokorosentōJjimjilbangRussiabanyasNew ZealandMāori peopleforeskinglans penisracial inferiorityYap StateKayapoPará StateYawalapitiXingu tribeAmazon BasinQuaruphuntersIndigenous people