![]() The spread of Western concepts of modest dress was part of colonialism. The association between nudity and shame is unique to followers of Abrahamic religions. Indigenous peoples in tropical climates used clothing for decorative or ceremonial purposes but were often nude, having neither the need to protect the body from the elements nor any concept of sexual shame. In ancient religions, deities were often depicted as perfect naked humans. Such functional nudity occurred in groups that were usually but not always segregated by sex. However, through much of history until the late modern period, people might be unclothed by necessity or convenience when engaged in labor and athletics or when bathing or swimming. With the rise of civilizations, clothing became part of non-verbal communications, indicating a person's social status and individuality, thus the lack of clothing could be a sign of low status. The invention of clothing was part of the transition to being not only anatomically but behaviorally modern. While estimates vary, for at least 90,000 years anatomically modern humans were naked. ![]() Adaptations related to hairlessness contributed to the increase in brain size, bipedalism, and the variation in human skin color. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. Sunbathers at Müggelsee lake beach in East Berlin, 1989.
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