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Browsing All posts tagged under »clothing«
When Real Men Wore High Heels
High-heel, over-the-knee boots seem to be back in fashion. But you are highly unlikely to see a man wearing them – that is, unless you go to the new Broadway musical, Kinky Boots. Kinky Boots: Billy Porter as Lola, a drag performer, in this musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times […]
Not a Feather Shy of Magnificent
February 12, 2013 by Peter Turchin
I recently was sent a link to this really wonderful video about birds of paradise. Watch the video, you won’t regret it. The birds of paradise are out of this world: (from Australian Geographic image source) (image source) But beautiful coloration and weird mating rituals are found, although in not quite as extreme form, in […]
The Inertia of Culture
July 18, 2012 by Peter Turchin
Norbert Elias discusses an interesting case of cultural evolution in his opus magnum, The Civilizing Process. As we know, during the Middle Ages Europeans did not use forks. During meals they simply grabbed greasy pieces of meat from the serving dish with their fingers (or, at best, speared them with belt knives). The first known […]
Cultural Evolution of Pants II
July 10, 2012 by Peter Turchin
While classical Greece and Rome produced excellent heavy infantry (hoplites), their cavalry was really pathetic. Yes, some of them (usually, the wealthy) rode horses. Among the Romans the upper class was even called ‘knights’ – equites, from equus, the Latin word for horse, but these ‘knights’ served mostly as officers and perhaps messengers. They never […]
Cultural Evolution of Pants
July 7, 2012 by Peter Turchin
If you are in North America or Western Europe and look around, on any particular day, you will find most people wearing pants. But why is it the standard item of clothing for people, especially men belonging to the Western civilization. Why not a kilt, a robe, a tunic, a sarong, or a toga? I […]
April 25, 2013 by Peter Turchin
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