Humans and Clothes: When Did We Start Wearing Them?
Vocabulary
ancestor
Noun
ˈænsɛstər
a person from whom one is descended; an early type of animal or plant from which others evolved
Many of my ancestors emigrated from Ireland to America in the 1840s and 50s.
evolve
Verb
ɪˈvɑːlv
to develop and adapt over time
Our early human ancestors evolved in Africa before migrating around the world.
species
Noun
ˈspiːʃiːz
a group of animals or plants that are similar to each other and can produce healthy young
With less than 300,000 left in Africa, Chimpanzees are an endangered species.
sweat
Verb
swet
to have drops of liquid coming out through one's skin
I'm still sweating from that workout!
evidence
Noun
ˈɛvɪdəns
a fact, object, etc. that shows that something is true
Scientists have discovered evidence that the coronavirus spread from a wildlife market in China.
needle
Noun
ˈniːdl
a long, thin piece of metal used in sewing, knitting, etc.
All you need to sew a button on is a needle and some thread.
Article
Humans and Clothes: When Did We Start Wearing Them?
If you have trouble choosing what to wear every day, think about this: there was a time, which probably lasted for tens of thousands of years, when humans didn't wear clothes at all.
As humans are the only animals that wear clothes, we might wonder why we wear them.
The simple answer is that, unlike our cousins the apes, we don't have fur. Our ancestors evolved in Africa, where it's hot, and our species lost its fur and learned to sweat more to deal with the heat.
But when humans moved to cooler parts of the world, they needed clothes.
Exactly when humans started wearing clothes is a difficult question to answer, because clothes don't last very long. The oldest piece of clothing that has been found is just a little over 5,000 years old.
But we know that humans must have worn clothes long before that, because they lived in cold places like Ice Age Europe and Asia, where they couldn't survive without clothes to keep them warm.
Evidence found in northern China suggests that our ancestor, Homo erectus, used stone tools to make simple clothes from animal skins 800,000 years ago.
Other species of early humans would also have needed simple clothes to keep warm.
But it seems only Homo sapiens — modern humans — had the tools, like needles, to make more complicated fitted clothes. The oldest needles that were probably used to make clothes have been found in Russia, and date from 40,000 years ago.
But when did modern humans start wearing clothes? The answer may be found with lice that developed to be able to live in our clothing.
A 2011 study of lice DNA found that body lice that live in human clothing, and head lice that live on human heads, separated into two species sometime between 83,000 and 170,000 years ago. So it's believed that modern humans started wearing clothes no later than that.
Discussion
Have a discussion based on the following questions.
1.
What facts in the article did you find surprising?
2.
What is your country's traditional clothing like? Have you ever worn it?
3.
On what occasions do people wear your country's traditional clothing?
4.
Do you know how to sew? Would you like to learn?
5.
Do you know anyone who makes their own clothing?
6.
In your opinion, what decade had the best fashion?
