Our Naturist Ancestry

Here is a blog, opposed to a complaint. Ultimately, I guess my ramblings here provide food for thought when it comes to why naturism is in our nature. For millions of years--yes millions--our ancestors roamed this planet naked except for the hair on their bodies. Eventually, our direct ancestors gradually evolved out of much of their hair, and along the way, they gained sweat glands over most of their bodies. These adaptations and others allowed us to hunt almost anything that was not hunting us. Our special hunting skill was not strength or speed but endurance. We gained the ability to run savanna animals to exhaustion. This helped us to survive and evolve as a species but limited our range to warm climates. Around about 170,000 years ago there was a period of global cooling and evidence of the invention of clothing. As naturists, we may curse this innovation, but one could argue covering ourselves was our greatest invention right there with fire. In large part this adaptation to a changing environment allowed us to journey to and inhabit every corner of every continent except oneAntarctica. The frustrating thing is that clothing became more than just protection from the elements, it became a status symbol. The chief went from wearing the best headdress to Italian suits, Rolex watches, and womens fashionthats a whole other blog. That industry alone contributes something like two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even considering the necessity and status of clothing, it was optional for many civilizations until very recent times200 to 3,000 years ago. If you were a Polynesian or Native American, for example, on a hot day 400 years ago, there probably was not a taboo about shedding your clothes. An Ancestral Puebloan on a trek to the metropolis of Chaco Canyon may not have worn a stitch of clothing except for some kind of pouch for his essentials. Hunters on the Great Plains may have only found clothing a hindrance. For 99.9 percent of our history as a species, we were naturists as well asimportantly naturalists. Whether on a naked hike on the sagebrush steppe of Wyoming, the sub-alpine forest near my home, or the high desert of the Colorado Plateau I feel connected with these ancient people when hiking naked, and I try to emulate themnot the those who wear clothes as a statement. I often imagine myself as an ancient wanderer when out hiking naked in wild places. It is this connection to my ancestors that causes me to call myself a naturist. Give me a naturist hike to an alpine lake any day over a day behind a computer writing blogs. Cheers to all of us who would rather spend our unclothed like our ancestors.