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06702_Field_TCUM T267.txt
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1996-04-10
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934b
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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