When does practising primitive skills become practising survival skills?

[Robson Valley]

At my place, you really need some sort of tarp over you and under the branches.
Gobs of spruce gum and a perpetual rain of sharp short needles will spoil your sleep.

Pine tents? Yeah. 400km south of me in the high country are Ponderosa pines.
6" long, silky needles. Find a grove of old trees that have been
dropping needles for decades.

 

[Tengu]

Im pretty sure our ancestors wore more than shorts.

 

[Janne]

Im pretty sure our ancestors wore more than shorts.

Depends on who your ancestors are?

 

[Tengu]

Yes, thats a good point.

However I know very little about my ancestors.

My Great grandfather on my fathers side was Cornish, and my Great grandfather on my mothers side was a Tinker.

So I am safe to assume that they wore more than shorts.

 

[Janne]

I do not think anybody in Europe or North America wore shorts in the old days. I do not think it was practical to wear them.

 

[Tengu]

No, I think they wore practical clothing.

 

[Robson Valley]

Pictures of indigenous people in North America are just about as old as photography itself.
Plains people were dressed from the neck to the ground.

Class distinctions demanded that the "superior" invading colonists wore really weird european style clothes.
Working immigrants wore clothes not too much unlike average clothes today. Barkerville gold miners
and shop keepers.

 

[Janne]

The only thing shorts do is to protect the modesty.
Of course, in the Caribbean Bermuda shorts are worn.
long trousers and long sleeved shirts protect against sun, wind, cold, insects and damage from nasty plants and twigs.

Plus, in the old days, most people only had one pair of everyday trousers, one or two shirts. A nice pair of trousers and a nice shirt for Sunday Church.

Clothes lasted much longer, better quality that fitted, as they were custom made. Shoes too. Thicker fabrics. Natural dies that did not weaken the fibers.

My mothers dad had a shoe factory for ladies shoes before WW2.
The shoe "prescription" was sent in, all measurements done for each foot. The customer specified leather, colour and style. My granddads workers made it.



Even of photos from Africa and India, the White Man wore long trousers.
The locals wore whatever local custom prescribed.

Of course, some more "primitive" people wore very little. Still do.

I have always wanted to try wearing the Penis Gourd like in Papua New Guinea, but gourds do not come in my size.

 

[Janne]

Maybe they grow miniature Gourds these days ?

 

[boatman]

See the Gundestrup Cauldron for images of men in knee length trousers or shorts.
http://britishmuseum.tumblr.com/post/132087416007/the-gundestrup-cauldron

 

[boatman]

What are breeches but knee length shorts? Then there are the petticoats worn by earlier sailors. Tudor doublet and hose was a form of shorts and long stockings. Many examples from different periods of history such as shorts worn by Hindu soldiers- http://world4.eu/india-hindu-soldier-costume-19th-century/

 

[Janne]

Looks like that Hindu soldier wears Spandex!