phaze

Seeing as you have given up grass skirt = camouflage

I'd just like to thank...

I thought that I had set the story far enough back so that some of the attitudes would not be considered to be present. Still no practical answer?

Your answer would indicate how much you stake on believing that there are not innate attitudes that affect our choice to be clothed. The reason being is that you overlooked a very practical reason why Zim was embarrassed by not being clothed. The clue was that in his dream they were hunting

It depends on who is doing the showing. If aliens 2000 light years away have shown the knight the state of their electoral procedure 1999 years in the future then there is nothing the knight can do change that process as any communication the knight has sent a message to indicate that senator Palpatine is in fact Sith will arrive 1 year too late. No one can stop the dark side. From our viewpoint the knights view of the future has already happened. If however we did the showing because we are not 2000 light years away from the knight, provided paradox does not ensue Hitler wins World War II after experiments in cloning.

...be prepared for the inevitable wedgie.

I don't think even this idea would be safe, as the showing still changes the attitudes of the knight you could bring about the concept of democracy early in a feudal based society. This in turn could affect the prime ministers campaign and subsequent election. The only way to be sure that a small change in the past does not mess up the future indicated is to make sure that the two time periods cannot be related at all. If instead you showed the knight the election of the alien prime minister of a planet as at most many years in the future as light years away it might work. This is dependant on no causal relationship being able to travel faster than light

@ Ysan had to do with feelings of inadequacy (the state of the house). While you approaching this issue top down by noticing actions and establishing motives I am approaching it bottom up by noticing motives and seeing if they would explain actions. The Nightmare Zim was in the middle of a hunt. Crouching in the long grass the hunting party had spied their prey. The hunt leader turned and saw Zim. He then wordlessly pointed to where his grass skirt should have been. Zim realising that he was not wearing a grass skirt awoke to see that the fire had gone out. What was the source of Zims embarrassment?

Was my comical interlude off topic?? (Maybe you need to think about it longer) How do we know that ancient cavemen spoke Buffy Speak?

Comical Interlude Friend of the family on the phone: It is just going to be a quick visit so there is no reason to tidy your house Later Conversation: Wife: Oh, he is coming over, we need to tidy up. Husband: But he said there is no need to tidy up. Wife: {pause} We need to tidy up. Husband:

But the multi-million dollar question is if it affects our attire any more than status does...

@marksmanjay Approx 4 votes (one can be yours), 4 days or whenever you get sick being host

Be sure to include in your research an explanation for Japans attire along with their predominant animistic Shinto/Buddhist beliefs. Then as a practical sideline would you feel awkward about going to a major event without make-up? My quest is not to discover that we feel embarrassed about nakedness but feel embarrassed about our self-image and so conform to what we believe to be an acceptable dress/undress for a culture or situation.

For my theories to hold true (that we use clothing or the lack thereof is a social mask) I do not need to compare our current standards of dress with another culture who has different standards. All I need to do is establish if they have their own standard of dress. I cannot do this by examining artefacts as this could just be telling me that their standards are different to ours rather than implying a complete lack of standards. I believe if you look into Greek culture a bit further you will see that although athletes participated naked that only the gents were allowed to attend ( http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/olympics/f/080708OlympicWo.htm). I believe this is an indication that even in this environment there was some dress code. It is also interesting to note that while in Egypt while breasts were depicted as being exposed that they still wore clothes. The reason why I would prefer talking to someone contemporary is that it is hard to get an indication from artefacts if these fashions were considered prudish, enlightened or they were genuinely uncommitted about the way they dress. This said however if artefacts show that they had a similar style of dress it may be an indication of a dress standard. Not knowing the culture of the time we cannot be assured that a dress standard change shows different classes (statuses) or that they felt that others would be so accepting of them that their style of dress did not matter. If the style of dress didn't matter then and only then can you state that clothing solely serves rudimentary functional purposes (such as being a physical protective covering for hygiene or protection against the cold). What I was attempting to prove with art is that artefacts on there own are not going to provide enough cultural information to know what people are thinking therefore I tried showing you that a misunderstanding could easily be achieved via the artefacts of Victorian art because of the following quote

@Thalia I think that "Did A just say [whatever A said]?" qualifies

Define the word "best", as conserving light bulbs does not seem to be it, despite them being expensive.

However have you considered a career as a grammar Nazi?

The more I think about it clothes apart from being protection against cold or a display of status (helps us stand out) are more of a mask that allows us to fit in with what we think society deems noteworthy (a mark of conforming to expectations). This is most evident in the realm of womens fashion. This means that your question can be adapted to "What part of the evolutionary process involved us being insecure about our appearance?"

Assuming the world exists, means you are not cut out for life as a philosopher.