[~52,000BC] The Eyed Needle: The History of Clothes, Fashion, Beauty and Status Games
How to Change the World: The History & Future of Innovation
Intro
Sam Webster Harris opens with a nakedness thought experiment and introduces the episode on the history of clothing.
How humanity invented clothes. In the process, accidentally warping our psychology, sparking civilization, and changing what it means to be human forever.
A fish doesn’t know it’s wet, and a human doesn’t know they are hiding. But every morning, you participate in a ritual that separates you from nature, and your own biology.
For 90% of human history, we were naked. Then, in a blink of evolutionary time, we decided to cover up. This episode of How to Change the World challenges the standard narrative of invention stories.
We’ll explore:
- Side effects: The invention of the needle to stitch leather went on to stitch the fabric of human civilization
- Mental models: how one idea change the psychology of privacy, shame, and status
- The Algorithm of Desire: How ancient fashion trends set the rules for modern attraction and power dynamics.
Join the deep dive into the psychology of change and the invisible lines that define our future society.
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ABOUT
How to Change the World is an independent podcast on a mission to document the entire history of innovation. One world-changing event at a time. In the process we are building out frameworks and mental models to think more coherently about global change.
Written, edited, recorded, and produced by Sam Webster Harris.
🤓 Website: ChangeTheWorldPod.com
🤗 Join the Patreon: Patreon.com/ChangeTheWorldPod
Help from:
👩🎨 Design - Francisca Correia (available to hire)
🧙♂️ Mentorship - Jeremy Enns (available to hire)
Resources
Climate, Clothing and Agriculture in Prehistory - Ian Gilligan
A complete account of the development of clothing, from Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Naked Dreams
01:38 Welcome
03:50 1 - FIRST CLOTHES
03:50 Genesis
07:00 Naked Ape vs. The Ice Age
09:13 Foot bags
10:40 Tanning a hide
13:03 Lice and Permanent Clothing
18:49 The Eyed Needle
21:49 2 - PSYCHOLOGY REVOLUTION
21:49 Privacy
23:26 Modesty, Shame and Maturity
27:45 Fashion and Mammoth Beads
29:34 Beauty, Biology and Culture
31:12 Culture
32:04 3 - EXTERNALISING ENCLOSURE
33:40 Textiles and Weaving
34:19 Farming Clothes
35:18 Birth Control And Population Growth
37:21 New Religions
38:52 Shoe Technology
40:37 Enclosure Thesis
42:39 4 - PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHES
42:39 The Cost of Beauty
43:38 Belladona - eye poisoning
44:45 Status beauty - skin and teeth
46:30 Chinese feet binding
49:22 Modern trends and surgeries
51:09 Algorithm of Desire
52:28 What clothing means today
56:32 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A HUMAN?
58:13 The evolution of nakedness
01:00:50 Become a member
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