Dress, drinks, and drums : further studies of savages and sex / by Ernest Crawley ; edited by Theodore Besterman.

  • Crawley, A. E. (Alfred Ernest), 1869-1924.
Date:
1931
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dress, drinks, and drums : further studies of savages and sex / by Ernest Crawley ; edited by Theodore Besterman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ultimate genesis of clothing. But, once instituted, it was sure to coincide with emotions of modesty. The general connexion between modesty and dress is a subject of little importance, except in so far as it has involved the creation of false modesty, both individually and socially. Modesty, where there is dress, tends to be concentrated upon it mechanically. When clothing is once established, the growth of the conception of women as property emphasizes its importance, and increases the anatomical modesty of women. Waitz held that male jealousy is the primary origin of clothing, and therefore of modesty. Diderot had held this view. Often married women alone are clothed. It is as if before marriage a woman was free and naked ; after marriage, clothed and a slave. The garment appears—illogically, though naturally—a moral and physical protection against any attack on his [the husband's] property. ^ But the fact of dress serving as concealment in- volved the possibility of attraction by mystery. Even when other emotions than modesty, emphasized by male jealousy, intervene, they may work together for sexual attraction. The social fear of arousing dis- gust combines easily and perfectly with any new development in the invention of ornament or clothing as sexual lures. Even among the most civilized races it has often been noted that the fashion of feminine garments (as also sometimes the use of scents) has the double object of concealing and attracting. It is so with the little apron of the young savage belle. The heightening of the attraction is indeed a logical out- come of the fear of evoking disgust. ^ 1 H. H. Ellis, op. cit.^ i. 41. ^ Ibid..^ I. 39.