Economists have estimated that an unclad society eats 
40 per cent more than one in Western attire. Clothing as an 
extension of our skin helps to store and to channel energy, so 
that if the Westerner needs less food, he may also demand 
more sex. Yet neither clothing nor sex can be understood as 
separate isolated factors, and many sociologists have noted 
that sex can become a compensation for crowded living. 
Privacy, like individualism, is unknown in tribal societies, a fact 
that Westerners need to keep in mind when estimating the 
attractions of our way of life to nonliterate peoples.

     Clothing, as an extension of the skin, can be seen both as 
a heat-control mechanism and as a means of defining the self 
socially. In these respects, clothing and housing are near twins, 
though clothing is both nearer and elder; for housing extends 
the inner heat-control mechanisms of our organism, while