European University Institute Library

Climate, clothing, and agriculture in prehistory, linking evidence, causes, and effects, Ian Gilligan, University of Sydney

eng

index present

non fiction

Climate, clothing, and agriculture in prehistory

electronic resource

dictionaries

1077572057

Ian Gilligan, University of Sydney

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

linking evidence, causes, and effects

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

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