The first person to wear clothes, according to historians, was a hunter during the Ice Age. As is known, this period was characterized by a cold climate on the planet, which made the existence of primitive man especially uncomfortable. Clothing carried the function of protection from cold, wind and precipitation. It was made from the skins of various animals, it was rough, shapeless, but it performed the main function - it made it possible to live in the conditions of the north. The skins went through several stages of processing, namely: scraping, drying, softening and making sheets of the required length and width. 
The first stage consisted of animal skin they secured them to the ground with stakes and scraped them clean. After the skin was cleanly scraped, it was pulled tightly onto stones, trees - anything that could help prevent the skin from tightening and drying out during the drying stage. The dried skin had to be softened; it was beaten with stones, wooden sticks, and stretched by hand. And the finished skin was cut using a pointed stone into separate pieces, which in turn were pierced with a special stone (the prototype of a modern awl) and holes were made. Large skins were sewn together with thin strips of leather; a little later, a prototype for modern threads appeared - horsehair, durable and more flexible than a thin strip of leather.
A little later, a stone needle was invented, and they were also made from bones and horns. This made it possible to sew animal skins more accurately, and clothes began to take on clearer shapes—pants, tunics. Bags and shoes were also made from skins, tied to the feet with leather strips. 
It was here that, along with the need to protect his body from the cold, primitive man began to care about aesthetics appearance. There was a desire to decorate clothes. The first decorations were made of stones, shells, and clay figurines.
When agriculture appeared along with hunting, primitive man noticed that some plants, or rather their parts, gave color when wet. For example, tree bark and nut shells are red, indigofera leaves are blue, and lawsonia leaves are yellow to brown. Clothes began to be dyed.
Along with dyeing clothes, people learned to make fabrics from plant fibers (flax, bast), as well as to obtain yarn from animal wool. These fabrics were also dyed, and some kind of tunics and trousers were sewn from them. 
Judging by the rock paintings, both men and women wore jewelry. These were beads made of pebbles, seeds, necklaces made of shells, feathers, bones of fish and animals, horns, teeth and tusks. Bead threads were made from thin strips genuine leather, and later - from plant fibers.
Attention was also paid to hairstyles. They were braided into a kind of braid and decorated with wooden combs and pins made of bones and stones; shells and teeth were also used to decorate hair.
Thus, depending on the conditions of existence in the cold climate of the Ice Age and the availability of improvised means, primitive man became a trendsetter for clothing made of fur, decorated with pebbles, shells and fish bones, as well as fur shoes secured with leather laces on the leg.
What were the clothes of primitive people? Did they wear anything else besides mammoth skins? Did ancient people sew clothes or not? And anyway, how do we know what people wore in ancient times?
If (and clothing appeared about 107 thousand years ago) biologists who studied DNA and lice helped more or less accurately determine what the clothes of primitive people looked like, not everything is so simple.
How to find clothes of ancient people?
And the main problem is that neither fabrics, nor skins, nor plant leaves are stored for a long time; they decompose very quickly. Thus, when conducting excavations, archaeologists can discover pottery, tools made of stone or iron, the bones of primitive people themselves, their jewelry, but not clothing.
Still from a film about Indians with Yugoslav actor Gojko Mitic
In this case, there are several ways to understand how ancient people dressed. Firstly, these are drawings - drawings on rocks, in caves. Drawings depicting hunters, and, accordingly, their clothing. But there is one difficulty here, primitive people drew animals very realistically, while people can be seen very rarely in the drawings and most often they will be drawn very schematically.
Still from the film “Sons of the Big Dipper”
Another option is an analogy. There are still people on Earth who live as if time has stood still for them and they are still in the Stone, Bronze or Iron Age. For example, these are the tribes of Africa or Australia. Before the discovery of America by Europeans, the Indians also lived like primitive people.
And, accordingly, studying the traditions and clothing of the tribes of Africa, Australia, a number of islands in the Pacific Ocean, the American Indians, and the peoples of Siberia, one can assume that the ancient people had somewhat similar traditions to them and dressed almost the same.
So what kind of clothes did primitive people wear?
Of course, mammoth skins. But not only mammoths, they generally wore animal skins. Such skins served as a kind of cloak, protecting from the cold.
The further north the tribes lived, the more closed their clothing was.
Thus, among almost all the peoples of Siberia who lived in the polar zone, traditional clothes worn over the head and made exclusively from fur. But among the peoples who lived in the taiga, their clothes were already open, that is, with a slit in the front. Moreover, in addition to fur, they could also use tanned leather, as well as fabrics.
For example, suede (thin and soft elk or deer leather with a velvety surface), as was the case among some Indian tribes in North America. The Woodland Indians of North America sewed long shirts that were worn by both men and women. Men also wore leggings - something like shoes without feet or a kind of stockings. Legs covered part of the leg from the knee to the foot, usually made of wool.
The first fabrics - wool, linen, cotton
People learned to weave the first fabrics during the Neolithic period - the New Stone Age. Neolithic time in Europe is approximately from 7 thousand years BC. e. until the 18th century BC e. The appearance of fabrics was associated with the transition of people to a sedentary lifestyle and agriculture.
The first fabrics were made from wool and plant fibers. The basis for woolen fabrics was the hair of domestic animals; plant fabrics were woven from fibers of plants such as flax, cotton, and hemp.
If in the North people had to warm themselves, then in the South people in ancient times, and even today some African tribes, wore a minimum of clothing. This was most often a loincloth; it could be woven simply from plant leaves, and sometimes a blanket over the shoulders.
Shoes were also known to primitive people. It could be wicker shoes made from plants. From straw, for example. Or just shoes in the form of a piece of animal skin wrapped around the foot.
Primitive people wore hats not only as protection from the cold, but also as a symbol of social status. The most intricate headdresses were worn by the leaders or priests of the tribe.
The story of Ötzi, the man who froze to death in the Alps 3300 BC.
Archaeologists almost never manage to find the clothing of primitive people; most often they find only jewelry. For example, in the Vladimir region Russian Federation Archaeologists have found burials of children from Paleolithic times. The children's clothes, of course, were not preserved, but the mammoth bone beads with which these clothes were trimmed were found intact.
But sometimes archaeologists get lucky. So, in 1991, an ice mummy of a man was found in the Alps, who was unlucky and 3,300 BC. frozen in the mountains. Historians have given to this person name Ötzi. His clothes were also frozen. Thus, scientists were able to reconstruct the clothes worn by people 3300 BC.
Reconstruction of Ötzi's clothing. Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria
Ötzi was dressed in a straw cloak, vest, loincloth, leggings and. Bast was used as laces on boots. And as socks - soft grass, which was tied around the feet. He also wore a bearskin hat, which was held on his head with a leather cord under the chin.
The vest, loincloth, leggings, and shoes were sewn from strips of leather, and tendons were used as threads.
Ötzi also had about 57 tattoos on his body, drawn with crosses, lines and dots.
Still from the film "Chingachgook - the Big Snake" 1967
At the beginning of the Mesolithic era, with a change in climate, communities of primitive people began to develop new ways of obtaining food, no longer limited to simple gathering and hunting. With the birth of cattle breeding and agriculture, people began to produce their own food. This was the formation of an ancient civilization, a historical milestone in the development of mankind. At the same time, the concept of clothing appeared, which became a way of protection from the cold climate, various insects, and the claws of predators. It could soften the blow of the enemy and even served as a screen from evil spirits.
Body painting instead of clothes
One of the first manifestations of ancient people's desire for self-expression was body painting and tattooing. Even in those distant times, people already knew how to prepare paints of a fairly wide palette, using coal, ocher, lime, manganese, adding fat - to create makeup that was applied to the body. The process of coloring itself, as a rule, had a deep meaning - be it the application of a battle pattern that brings terror to the enemy, or a ritual drawing for the rite of passage of a young man into an adult man. The drawings conveyed information about where the person was from, what tribe, what his status was, his merits.
Elements of primitive clothing
The headdress appeared later, reflecting the social status of its owner. Various steel hats distinctive feature priests, shamans, rulers.
Elements of clothing also include jewelry that was made from fangs, bones, tusks, shells, feathers, pearls, corals and other materials. These things performed a double function: they were carriers of information about a person and protected the owner’s body from exposure to the external environment.
Mammoth ivory jewelry
The main material for the production of clothing at that time was animal skins. Most likely, the inhabitants of the North were the first to sew clothes from pieces of skins. The main types of clothing worn were pants, cloaks and tunics, which could be decorated with stones and shells. Fur shoes were sewn to insulate and protect feet. Thin strips of leather were used as ribbons, and needles for sewing the leather together with “threads” from tendons were made from bone.
First fabric
A little later, the primitive people of the Middle East learned to make fabric from wool. In other regions, plant fibers - flax, bast, cactus, cotton - became the basis for clothing. Dyes used for dyeing clothes and tanning hides were also prepared from plants.
Development of clothing
The first cloaks made from skins later developed into different types clothes worn on the shoulders - ponchos, tunics, shirts, togas, burkas. Loincloths turned into skirts and pants. Simple pieces of leather on the feet became the basis for the development of such types of shoes as moccasins and chuni. Shoes were also made from wood and bark. The evolution of clothing occurred constantly and steadily; it increasingly corresponded to the special needs of each nation, adapted to the climatic characteristics of different regions, and became more diverse and technologically complex.
What do people know about primitive man? In fact, quite a bit. It is known that he lived in caves, hunted mammoths, used a club as a weapon, and dressed in the skins of killed animals.
Having even such fragmentary knowledge about the first people, you can make an excellent costume of a primitive man with your own hands. For a child in kindergarten, for a holiday, for a performance at school or a performance in the theater - the outfit will suit any thematic event.
Costume parts
How to make a primitive man costume? Before you start assembling your outfit, you need to decide what the suit will consist of.
Their clothing was simple - torn skins with jagged edges, roughly brushed with pieces of leather or sinew, or belted with leather thread. They replaced pajamas, “business attire”, and an evening suit. For a very cold season, another skin could be stored, which was used as a cloak or cape.
The jewelry was the same for everyone - animal bones that were tied to hair or strung on a thread like beads. The belt could be decorated with bones.
Bandages on the forearms and shins were used as additional accessories.
The most important attribute is the baton. Both women and men had it. The only difference was in the size of the weapon - men, as stronger representatives of the tribe, were entitled to a larger club than a woman's. Consequently, the costume of a primitive man for a boy and a girl is made in the same way, only the baton will be of different sizes.
Hair is the final part of the outfit. Soap and shampoo were not yet known to our ancestors; accordingly, the hairstyle on the head was vaguely similar to a neat modern hairstyle. To create a complete look, you will need a wig.
So, the suit will consist of:
- basic clothing;
- capes;
- belts and jewelry;
- batons;
- wig;
- bandages.
Basic clothing
Our ancestors dressed in the skins of captured animals. Therefore, the color must match and be similar to genuine leather or fur. Fabric of any quality is suitable for this purpose. The color is brown, leopard or brindle. You should not opt for shiny fabrics; they are not very appropriate for this purpose. But felt, velor, artificial suede are just that.
Models may vary. The simplest option is a winding with a knot on one arm.
The work will require about 1.5 fabrics.
The material is folded in half to form a rectangle. On the side where the fold is, the middle is outlined. This can be done by eye; the suit does not have to be perfect and symmetrical: primitive people were far from high fashion. The middle is also located along the long side of the rectangle. The points are connected to each other and the fabric is cut. It turns out that a triangle was cut out of a large rectangle.
Where the fabric on the fold remains connected will be the shoulder. The side that has become short must be sewn using classic thread and a needle. Or you can be original by connecting parts of the outfit using coarse stitches. For the second option, you need to use nail scissors to make holes in the fabric on both sides, and then use a knitting thread suitable color or tie the halves together with a thin cord. You can do this crosswise - like lacing on sneakers, or you can thread it through each hole. Which method to choose depends only on the imagination of the master.
Simple option
The second option is the simplest. In a piece of fabric folded in half, a hole is cut in the middle on the fold side for the head. There is no need to sew anything: the clothes are belted - and that’s it. A DIY primitive man costume for a boy can be considered almost ready!
Well, an option for summer cavemen is a loincloth. A piece of fabric is cut into strips of different widths. The main strip, equal to the circumference of the hips, acts as a base; the remaining flaps are hung on it.
Cape
The cape is made from the same fabric as the main part. But you can choose any other texture; dense material is best.
For a cape, you can make holes in the upper part of the fabric, thread a cord through them and use the cord to tie it around your neck. An easier option is to tie the two ends of the cape in a knot and throw it over your head.
Belt and decorations
The costume of a primitive man is decorated with natural materials - bones and bandages.
To make bandages on the arms and legs, you need to cut 4 strips of fabric, 2 of which are equal to the circumference of the forearm above the elbow, and the other 2 are equal to the circumference of the leg below the knee.
Strips are hung on strips of fabric according to the same principle as for such decoration. Such decoration is tied into a knot directly on the arm or leg.
The costume of a primitive man is decorated with bones. You can easily make them yourself from polymer clay. Similar accessories are also sold in handicraft stores - beads in the shape of bones and teeth are easy to string on a thread and convenient to use.
From polymer clay white, previously kneaded in the hands, make animal fangs or bones. After heat treatment (manufacturers write the rules for working with clay on the packs), holes are made in each workpiece, then the resulting parts are strung on a thread or a strip of leather. Such decorations can also be strung on the ends of the strips from which the loincloth for the arms and legs is made.
The caveman is often depicted with a bone in his hair. In order to make such a decoration for a boy, you will have to stock up on a hair hoop and a glue gun or a long thread. A drop of glue is applied to the hoop and a large bone is attached. And you can simply tie this accessory tightly with a thread. A bone tied directly to the hair will look best, but this will require skill, since boys usually have short hair.
Wig
The costume of a primitive man is completed by a headdress. The easiest way to buy a wig with matted hair is at a specialty store. Making such an accessory yourself is no more difficult than tying a knot in a headband.
You can make an excellent fake hair from a hoop and a tuft of felting wool. You will need strands of wool Brown Carefully glue it to the hoop in several layers. The workpiece is decorated with a bone, which is tied to the strands exactly in the center.
Primitive costume
THE APPEARANCE OF CLOTHING
Archaeological excavations show that clothing appeared at the earliest stages of the development of human society (40-25 thousand years ago).
Clothing, like any item of decorative and applied art, combines beauty and practicality. By protecting the human body from cold and heat, precipitation and wind, clothing performs a practical function; decorating it is an aesthetic function.
For the practical purpose of protection from bad weather and insect bites, people in ancient times coated their bodies with clay, damp earth, and fat. Then these lubricants were added vegetable paints- ocher, soot, carmine, indigo, lime, and the body was already painted in various ways and colors for aesthetic purposes. Over time, the fragile surface coloring is replaced by a tattoo: a layer of paint is passed under the skin in the form various patterns. In the same way, feathers, bones, hair, teeth of killed animals were initially worn on the body as protective and symbolic elements of the costume. When the body is increasingly covered with the fibrous materials of the clothing itself, a person creates artificial attachment points for pendants-symbols, piercing holes in the ears, nose, lips, cheeks, and wears them as jewelry.
Body painting and tattooing were the direct predecessors of clothing. However, even with the advent of clothing made from fibrous materials, they continue to remain in the costume, performing illusory and aesthetic functions.
The tattoo designs were subsequently transferred to the fabric. Thus, the multi-colored checkered tattoo pattern of the ancient Celts remained the national pattern of Scottish fabric.
The significance of decorations in historical costume increased and expanded: class, symbolic, aesthetic. Their forms became more complex and diversified: removable, fastened to the body (bracelets, rings, hoops, earrings); motionless, fixed on fabric (embroidery, printed design, relief decor).
MAIN TYPES OF CLOTHING IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY
The shape of the human body and lifestyle determined the first primitive types of clothing. Animal skins or plant materials were woven into rectangular pieces and draped over the shoulders or hips, tied, or wrapped around the body horizontally, diagonally, or in a spiral. This is how two main types of clothing appeared based on the attachment point: shoulder and waist. Their most ancient form is draped clothing. It enveloped the body and was held in place with ties, belts, and fasteners. Over time, a more complex form of clothing arose - an invoice, which could be closed and swinging. They began to bend panels of fabric along the warp or weft and sew them on the sides, leaving slits for the arms in the upper part of the fold and cutting out a hole for the head in the center of the fold. Clothing that was closed was worn over the head; the swinging one had a slit in the front from top to bottom.
MAN AND CLOTHING
Try to imagine yourself naked. Not in your bed at night, not making love, not washing in the bathroom. Try to imagine yourself naked on the street, in a cafe, in a movie, at work. Remember how you felt when your fly came undone or a button on your blouse fell off. And try to say a list of these emotions to yourself. Shame, discomfort, anger, irritation - just to name a few. But no one could have noticed what happened to you. Now imagine that suddenly you find yourself without any clothes at all.
It is quite difficult to imagine such a situation, because we are not somewhere in the deserts of Australia, but in a big city, in the capital of a huge country. And we don’t tend to think about things like that. However, it is precisely in the described spectrum of emotions of a person left without clothes that the secret of its (clothing) appearance lies. Not in climate change, not in abstract shame, which is described in the Bible, Koran, Talmud.
Modern researchers of the psychology of primitive people are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the reason for the appearance of clothing was fear. Fear of being naked in the face of danger. First, we asked you to imagine yourself naked on the street or at work. Let's change the problem conditions a little.
Imagine that for some reason you find yourself in a position where you need to fight. The enemy looks at you furiously, clenching his fists, you get closer. And suddenly you realize that you are completely naked, that you have no, no clothes left on you! Now what? I'm sure you won't be able to fight at full strength. If you don't believe me, try throwing a few punches naked at home in front of a mirror.
It was this fear, the reasons for which are hidden in the depths of our subconscious, that became the basis for the appearance of clothing. Understanding human psychology is extremely important in order to understand why the history of clothing developed the way it did and not otherwise.
But what did the first people wear? The answer is simple: in conditions when there were no such important incentives as fashion, public opinion, or the social structure of society, the only purpose of clothing was to save a person from the feeling of fear. And since the first people appeared, as we now know, in Africa, there was no such factor as weather conditions.
The first clothes apparently appeared about a hundred thousand years ago and were tanned animal skins. Obviously, the first thing people wanted and tried to protect with clothing was their intimate areas. So the first garment is loincloths. In addition, at the same time, clothing items such as arm sleeves and knee pads appeared to protect against possible damage.
We will conclude the article on the history of clothing of primitive people with the Neolithic era, the beginning of which is considered to be the middle of the tenth millennium BC. At this time, people already had many skills for creating a wardrobe, and archaeologists find the most different types clothes: sleeveless vests, shirts, stockings! In addition, woven clothing appeared (before that, clothing was made only from the skins of killed animals), and by the middle of the Neolithic, such almost modern elements as an oar shirt (unbuttoned in the middle) appeared.
So, we found out that the first people began to dress because of the subconscious fear of being naked in the face of an enemy or a wild animal. The importance of clothing can be seen, in addition to the obvious, from how quickly (historically) the methods of creating it developed.
Only weapons, which were no less necessary, developed at the same speed. Neither the arts nor the methods of obtaining food have undergone such changes over a similar period of time. Obviously, issues related to clothing worried primitive people extremely much, perhaps no less than you and I!
THE ORIGIN OF CLOTHING AND ITS MAIN FUNCTIONS
Archaeological excavations show that clothing appeared in the earliest stages of human development. Already in the Paleolithic era, man was able, using bone needles, to sew, weave and bind various natural materials - leaves, straw, reeds, animal skins - to give them the desired shape. Also used as headdresses natural materials eg hollowed out pumpkin shell coconut, ostrich egg or turtle shell.
Shoes arose much later and were less common than other elements of the costume.
Clothing, like any item of decorative and applied art, combines beauty and practicality, protecting the human body from cold and heat, precipitation and wind; it performs a practical function, and by decorating it, an aesthetic one.
It is difficult to say exactly which of the functions of clothing is more ancient... Despite the cold, rain and snow, the aborigines of Tierra del Fuego walked naked, and East African tribes near the equator dressed in long fur coats made of goat skins during the holidays. Ancient frescoes from the 4th millennium BC. e. show that only people of noble classes wore clothes, while the rest went naked.
So, it is assumed that clothing first arose as a means of decoration and class distinction for a person...
The direct predecessors of clothing are tattooing, body painting and the application of magical signs to it, with which people sought to protect themselves from evil spirits and strange forces of nature, to frighten enemies and win over friends.
Subsequently, tattoo patterns began to be transferred to fabric. For example, the multi-colored checkered pattern of the ancient Celts remained the national pattern of Scottish fabric.
The shape of the human body and lifestyle determined the first primitive forms of clothing. Animal skins or plant materials were woven into rectangular pieces and draped over the shoulders or hips, tied, or wrapped around the body horizontally, diagonally, or in a spiral.
This is how one of the main types of clothing of a person in a primitive society appeared: draped clothing. Over time, more complex clothing arose: an invoice, which could be closed and swinging. They began to bend panels of fabric along the warp or weft and sew them on the sides, leaving slits for the arms in the upper part of the fold and a hole for the head in the center of the fold.
The overhead closed clothing was put on over the head, the swinging one had a front slit from top to bottom.
Draped and overlaid clothing has survived to this day as the main forms of fastening it on the human figure. Shoulder, waist, and hip clothing is represented today by a variety of assortments, designs, cuts...
The historical development of basic forms of clothing took place in direct connection with the economic conditions of the era, aesthetic and moral requirements and the general artistic style in art. And changes in the style of an era are always associated with ideological shifts occurring in society. Within each style, there is a more mobile and short-term phenomenon - fashion, which affects all sectors of human activity.
Fashion is the temporary dominance of certain forms, associated with a person’s constant need for diversity and novelty in the reality around him.
THE EMERGENCE OF COSTUME AND WEAVING
From the beginning of the Mesolithic (tenth to eighth millennium BC), when climatic conditions, flora and fauna changed, a major environmental crisis broke out on Earth. Primitive communities were forced to look for new sources of food and adapt to new conditions. At this time, there was a transition of man from gathering and hunting to a productive economy - agriculture and cattle breeding, which gives scientists reason to talk about “ neolithic revolution", which became the beginning of the history of civilization of the ancient world.
The separation of agriculture and cattle breeding into separate types of labor was accompanied by the separation of crafts. Agricultural and pastoral tribes invented a spindle, a loom, and tools for processing leather and sewing clothes from fabrics and leather (in particular, needles from fish and animal bones or metal).
With the cooling in many regions, the need arose to protect the body from the cold, which led to the appearance of clothing made from skins - the oldest material for making clothing among hunting tribes. Before the invention of weaving, clothing made from skins was the main clothing of primitive peoples.
Skins taken from animals killed by men while hunting were, as a rule, processed by women using special scrapers made of stone, bones, and shells. When processing the skin, they first scraped off the remaining meat and tendons from the inner surface of the skin, then removed the hair as much as possible. different ways, depending on the region. For example, the primitive peoples of Africa buried skins in the ground along with ash and leaves, in the Arctic - they soaked them in urine (skins were treated in the same way in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome), then the skin was tanned to give it strength, and also rolled, squeezed, pounded using special leather grinders to add elasticity.
The skin was tanned using decoctions of oak and willow bark; in Russia it was fermented - soaked in sour bread solutions; in Siberia and the Far East, fish bile, urine, liver and animal brains were rubbed into the skin. Nomadic pastoral peoples used fermented milk products, boiled animal liver, salt, and tea for this purpose. If the top grain layer was removed from fat-tanned leather, suede was obtained.
Animal skins are still the most important material for making clothing, but a great invention was the use of sheared (plucked, selected) animal hair. Both nomadic pastoral and sedentary agricultural peoples used wool. It is likely that the oldest method of processing wool was felting. Ancient Sumerians in the third millennium BC. wore felt clothes.
Many felt items (headdresses, clothing, blankets, carpets, shoes, cart decorations) were found in Scythian burials in the Pazyryk mounds of the Altai Mountains (VI-V centuries BC). Felt was obtained from sheep, goat, camel wool, yak wool, horse hair, etc. Felting felt was especially widespread among the nomadic peoples of Eurasia, for whom it also served as a material for making dwellings (for example, yurts among the Kazakhs).
Among those peoples who were engaged in gathering and then became farmers, clothing was known from specially processed bark of bread, mulberry or fig trees. Among some peoples of Africa, Indonesia and Polynesia, such bark fabric is called “tapa” and is decorated with multi-colored patterns using paint applied with special stamps.
Various plant fibers were also used to make clothing. They were first used to weave baskets, canopies, nets, snares, ropes, and then a simple weaving of stems, bast fibers or fur strips turned into weaving. Weaving required a long, thin and uniform thread, twisted from various fibers.
During the Neolithic era, a great invention appeared - the spindle (the principle of its operation - twisting fibers - is preserved in modern spinning machines). Spinning was the occupation of women, who also made clothes. Therefore, among many peoples, the spindle was a symbol of a woman and her role as the mistress of the house.
Weaving was also the work of women, and only with the development of commodity production did it become the lot of male artisans. Loom formed on the basis of a weaving frame on which the warp threads were pulled, through which the weft threads were then passed using a shuttle. In ancient times, three types of primitive looms were known:
1. A vertical loom with one wooden beam (beam) hanging between two racks, in which the thread tension was ensured using clay weights suspended from the warp threads (the ancient Greeks had similar looms).
2. A horizontal machine with two fixed bars, between which the base was tensioned. It was used to weave fabric of a strictly defined size (the ancient Egyptians had such looms).
3. Machine with rotating beam shafts.
Fabrics were made from banana bast, hemp and nettle fibers, flax, wool, silk - depending on the region, climate and traditions.
In primitive communities and societies of the Ancient East, there was a strict and rational distribution of labor between men and women. Women, as a rule, were engaged in making clothes: they spun threads, wove fabrics, sewed leather and skins, decorated clothes with embroidery, appliqué, drawings made using stamps, etc.
THE APPEARANCE AND FORMATION OF THE COSTUME
The history of costume is a reflection of the history of man and human society. The social structure of society, culture, worldview, level of technological development, trade relations between countries - all this, to one degree or another, was expressed in the costumes worn by people in a certain era.
A modern suit is the result of a long evolution, a definite result creative discoveries and achievements, the fruit of the improved experience of many generations and at the same time the image of a man of our time, in which all the basic values are embodied modern society.
Clothing appeared in ancient times as a means of protection against unfavorable climate, from insect bites, wild animals on the hunt, from blows from enemies in battle and, no less important, as a means of protection from evil forces. We can get some idea of what clothing was like in the primitive era not only from archaeological data, but also from information about the clothing and lifestyle of primitive tribes who still live on Earth in some inaccessible and remote places. modern civilization areas: Africa, Central and South America, Polynesia.
A person’s appearance has always been, in a sense, a “work of art,” one of the ways of self-expression and self-awareness, determining the individual’s place in the world around him, an object of creativity, a form of expression of ideas about beauty. The most ancient types of “clothing” are painting and tattooing, which performed the same protective functions as clothing covering the body. This is evidenced by the fact that coloring and tattooing are common among those tribes that even in our time do without any other types of clothing.
Body painting also protected against the influence of evil spirits and insect bites and was supposed to terrify the enemy in battle. Make-up (a mixture of fat and paint) was known already in the Stone Age: in the Paleolithic people knew about 17 paints.
The most basic: white (chalk, lime), black (charcoal, manganese ore), ocher, which made it possible to obtain shades from light yellow to orange and red. Body and face painting was a magical rite, often a sign of an adult male warrior and was first applied during the initiation rite (initiation into adult full members of the tribe).
The coloring also had an informational function - it reported on belonging to a certain clan and tribe, social status, personal qualities and merits of its owner. A tattoo (a pattern pricked or carved into the skin), unlike coloring, was a permanent decoration and also denoted a person’s tribal affiliation and social status, and could also be a kind of chronicle of individual achievements throughout life.
The hairstyle and headdress were of particular importance, since it was believed that hair has magical power, mainly long hair women (therefore, many nations had a ban on women appearing in public with their heads uncovered). All manipulations with hair had a magical meaning, since life force is concentrated in hair. A change in hairstyle has always meant a change in social status, age and social and gender role. The headdress may have appeared as part of the ceremonial costume during rituals of rulers and priests. For all peoples, the headdress was a sign of sacred dignity and high position.
The same ancient type of clothing as makeup is jewelry, which originally performed a magical function in the form of amulets and amulets.
At the same time, ancient jewelry served the function of indicating a person’s social status and an aesthetic function. Primitive jewelry was made from a wide variety of materials: animal and bird bones, human bones (among those tribes where cannibalism existed), animal fangs and tusks, bat teeth, bird beaks, shells, dried fruits and berries, feathers, corals, pearls, metals
Thus, most likely, the symbolic and aesthetic functions of clothing preceded its practical purpose - protecting the body from environmental influences. Jewelry could also serve an informational function, being a kind of writing among some peoples (for example, among the South African Zulu tribe, “talking” necklaces were common in the absence of writing).
PRIMITIVE COSTUME. GENERAL INFORMATION.
Along with housing, clothing arose as one of the main means of protection from various external influences. Some bourgeois scientists recognize this utilitarian reason for the origin of clothing, but many take idealistic positions and put forward as the main reasons a feeling of shame, aesthetic motivation (clothing supposedly arose from jewelry), religious and magic shows, etc.
Cloth- one of the oldest inventions of man. Already in the monuments of the late Paleolithic, stone scrapers and bone needles were discovered, which were used for processing and stitching skins. The materials for clothing, in addition to skins, were leaves, grass, and tree bark (for example, Tapa among the inhabitants of Oceania). Hunters and fishermen used fish skins, sea lion intestines and other sea animals, and bird skins.
Having learned the art of spinning and weaving in the Neolithic era, man initially used fibers from wild plants. The transition to cattle breeding and agriculture that occurred in the Neolithic made it possible to use the hair of domestic animals and fibers of cultivated plants (flax, hemp, cotton) for the manufacture of fabrics.
Sewn clothes preceded by its prototypes: a primitive cloak (skin) and a loin cover. Various types of shoulder clothing originate from the cloak; subsequently, a toga, tunic, poncho, burka, shirt, etc. arose from it. Belt clothing (apron, skirt, trousers) evolved from the hip cover.
The simplest ancient shoes- sandals or a piece of animal skin wrapped around the foot. The latter is considered the prototype of the leather morshni (pistons) of the Slavs, the chuvyak of the Caucasian peoples, and the moccasins of the American Indians. Tree bark (in Eastern Europe) and wood (shoes among some peoples of Western Europe) were also used for shoes.
Headdresses, protecting the head, already in ancient times played the role of a sign indicating social status (headdresses of a leader, priest, etc.), and were associated with religious and magical ideas (for example, they depicted the head of an animal).
Clothing is usually adapted to the conditions of the geographical environment. In different climatic zones it differs in shape and material. The oldest clothing of the peoples of the tropical forest zone (in Africa, South America, etc.) is a loincloth, an apron, and a blanket on the shoulders. In moderately cold and arctic regions, clothing covers the entire body. Northern type clothing is divided into moderate northern and clothing Far North(the last one is entirely fur).
The peoples of Siberia are characterized by two types of fur clothing: in the subpolar zone - blind, that is, without a cut, worn over the head (among the Eskimos, Chukchi, Nenets, etc.), in the taiga zone - swinging, having a cut in the front (among the Evenks, Yakuts, etc.). A unique set of clothing made of suede or tanned leather developed among the Indians of the forest belt of North America: women had a long shirt, men had a shirt and high leggings.
Forms of clothing are closely related to human economic activities. Thus, in ancient times, peoples engaged in nomadic cattle breeding developed a special type of clothing convenient for riding - wide pants and a robe for men and women.
As society developed, the influence of differences in social and marital status on clothing increased. The clothes of men and women, girls and married women; everyday, festive, wedding, funeral and other clothes arose. With the division of labor, various types of professional clothing appeared. Already in the early stages of history, clothing reflected ethnic characteristics (tribal, clan), and later national ones (which did not exclude local variations).
While satisfying the utilitarian needs of society, clothing at the same time expresses its aesthetic ideals. The artistic specificity of clothing as a type of decorative and applied art and artistic design is determined mainly by the fact that the object of creativity is the person himself. Forming a visual whole with it, clothing cannot be represented outside of its function.
The property of clothing as a purely personal item determined in its creation (modelling) the consideration of the proportional features of the figure, the age of a person, as well as private details of his appearance (for example, hair color, eyes). In the process of artistic design of clothing, these features can be emphasized or, conversely, softened.
This direct connection of clothing with a person gave rise to active participation, even co-authorship of the consumer in the approval and development of its forms. Being one of the means of embodying the ideal of a person of a particular era, clothing is made in accordance with its leading artistic style and its particular manifestation - fashion.
The combination of clothing components and items that complement it, made in the same style and artistically coordinated with each other, creates an ensemble called a costume. The main means of imagery in clothing is architectonics.
Numerous tribes that settled in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire (5th century) had a fundamentally different approach to clothing, which was not supposed to envelop the body, but reproduce its shape, giving a person the opportunity to move easily. Thus, among the peoples who came from the North and East, the main parts of clothing were coarsely woven trousers and a shirt. On their basis, such a type of clothing as tights developed, which occupied the main place in European costume for several centuries.
