If our ancestors learned to use animal skin to keep their body warm, why did it eventually turn into a construct of covering your bodies to hide your naked body?

Question

In other words, why did humans start feeling shame?

In: Other

Answer 1

For many animals, familiarity is powerful motivation. Familiarity is safety. Unfamiliar things are risky, so many animals will gravitate towards the familiar.

If a group of people very often cover their bodies because of necessity (weather, exposure, etc), this becomes the familiar practice. Once it’s familiar, it’s not long until the people perceive clothing as the “safe/correct” way to do things.

The reverse side of that when it becomes uncommon to see a naked person, that becomes unfamiliar. It’s not long after that, that nakedness becomes the “unsafe/incorrect” way to do things.

People then see clothing as familiar (ie safe/correct) and nakedness as unfamiliar (ie unsafe/incorrect). Social norms grow, and this distinction becomes socially ingrained as proper vs taboo, which you call “shame.”