A blog dedicated to the finer things in life about inspirational stories, people and places.

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A Taste for the Finer Things: The Girl Behind the Blog

Enter the world of a girl who dreams daily of wearing couture dresses, can run in super high heels, loves the thrill of getting new magazines; a girl who is trying to figure out what direction to take in her career and possesses a strong work ethic which pushes her to challenge herself daily. The finer things in life are not just about expensive trinkets, gorgeous ball gowns, or high status events. Often, they are the things we often overlook in daily life, those things we take for granted; beautiful, natural, and little things that end up making all the difference when it comes down to it. This blog is dedicated to exploring the issues surrounding the 'finer' things in life, from the eyes of a conservative girl in an ever changing world.

Note: All posted content is exclusively owned by Elizabeth Hebeler except when noted. Please contact author for use of material. Thanks! :)

Jan 6, 2011

Clothes Over 170,000 Years Ago

As I was perusing the UF student website this evening, I came across an article about humans, lice and clothes over 170,000 years ago. Gross? Maybe a little. Interesting? Definitely a yes.

Recently, David Reed, the associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History at UF, completed a 5 year study on lice. What he ended up discovering was data that concluded that humans wore clothes over 170,000 years ago. Because the clothes had no way to have lasted that long, we have no idea what they could have looked like! But research figured out that humans started to wear clothes around this time due to decreasing temperatures (the Ice Age occurred about 120,000 years ago. The man in the picture depicts what an IceMan would have been wearing) and because humans were starting to lose body hair. The assumption there is that we were really a lot like monkeys at one time!

Lice is strongly linked to clothing material, so it was concluded that because lice was around at this time, humans must have been wearing something to cover their bodies.

So, it makes me think...what have clothes done for us? Where have clothes taken us since 170,000 years ago? Sure, they may have started out as protection at first, but think about what clothes mean to us today.....

Clothes to me are a way of expression, stress relief (love to shop, but you already knew that), and a way to fit in to appropriate social interactions (you wear different things to different functions and places).

I wonder what I would have been wearing 170,000 years ago...I wonder if I would have cared.

What do clothes mean to you? How do you think they have defined history?

I'll be exploring this topic about the history of fashion and clothes throughout the year, I hope you enjoy!

Original newsletter from: http://news.ufl.edu/2011/01/06/clothing-lice/
Picture from: http://www1.american.edu/ted/iceman.htm
Posted by Elizabeth at Thursday, January 06, 2011
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