Perhaps the most important process in the history of humanity was the rise of agriculture. Over the course of thousands of years (and at different times in different places), the early humans learned to domesticate plants and animals. Farming meant that humans no longer had to hunt and gather for their food.
Because farming is more efficient than hunting and gathering, some humans no longer needed to produce food and could instead focus on other things, such as becoming leaders, priests, scribes, or warriors. Agriculture also meant that humans needed to stay in one place to tend their crops; as a result, humans developed sedentary societies, creating the first villages. As populations grew due to food surpluses, these villages became the first cities, which amalgamated into the earliest civilizations.
Clothing was also revolutionized by agriculture. Now humans could produce textiles at a much higher rate. Plants like cotton and flax were processed into textiles, which were then sewn together to form items of clothing. People in different areas used different material to make their clothing; people in the Andes, for example, made clothes from llama wool.
In Asia, people harvested silk from insect cocoons to make luxuriously soft clothing. Silk, much like it is today, was an expensive luxury in the ancient world. The silk trade animated connections stretching between Eurasia, connecting Europe to distant China.
Additionally, many began to express themselves through clothing. Dyeing allowed for people to wear clothes of different colors, while clothing dyed rare colors or made of silk signified wealth and prosperity. In fact, many societies passed laws which limited what certain classes could wear.
The Industrial Age
Beginning in the 1700s, humanity went through another important process: the Industrial Revolution. Developing new technologies and machines fueled by steam, then coal, then oil, people were able to mass produce products. Besides crisscrossing their countries with new railroads or constructing vast factories, industrialized societies also produced consumer goods at immense scales.
One key consumer good, of course, was clothing. Clothing could now be produced quickly and at large scales, then shipped to distant markets through railroads or across the seas by steamships. Many women worked in these textile factories—a continuation of their earlier role as the chief producer of textiles.
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Today, clothing and textiles continue to be as important as before. New technological processes have also led to widespread use of new synthetic textiles, which are fibers that originate not from nature but from chemical processes. These include:
- Nylon, which is generally made from petroleum
- Polyester, which refers to several different synthetic products
- Rayon, which is made from synthesized cellulose
- Spandex, which is known for its elasticity
- Saran, an elastic plastic
Many of these, such as nylon or saran, are ultimately produced by petroleum pumped from underground. Petroleum is perhaps the most important resource in the modern-day, as it fuels vehicles and is the key ingredient of both rubber and plastic. Alongside other fossil fuels, such as coal, the consumption of petroleum has released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping heat and leading to global warming.
Some have argued that we continue to live in an industrialized age today; clothing is produced at a mass scale and can be sent great distances to far markets. However, others have argued that a large part of the planet is in a post-industrial era. Many in the United States and Europe work in the services sector of the economy in jobs such as marketing, financial services, or computer engineering. While these societies produce clothes, more items of clothing are produced in other countries then shipped great distances. The largest manufacturer of textiles and clothing today by far is China, though countries like India, Pakistan, and Brazil produce many as well.
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Clothing and textiles are a key aspect of human history and civilization. Textiles are manmade materials based upon fibers. Clothing dates back tens of thousands of years. Humans initially wore animal furs exclusively. These initial clothes were utilitarian in purpose, keeping humans safe from the environment (whether cold weather, mosquitos, or hostile animals). However, humans soon developed textiles from plant life in their environment. The earliest fiber discovered is approximately 34,000 years old. As humans switched to an agricultural society, textiles could be produced at a larger scale using materials such as cotton and flax. Some also produced clothes from silk, a luxury in the ancient world which was traded across great distances. Others used different sources from their environment; the ancient Andean people, for example, used wool from llamas.
Another key revolution in human civilization was the Industrial Revolution. Starting in the 1700s, humans began to manufacture new materials at rapid scales. Today, clothing is frequently made of synthetic textiles, such as rayon, which are made of chemically produced fibers. Like thousands of years ago, people today wear clothing for expression (for example, a spiffy hat) or for utilitarian purposes (such as the plain denim overalls of a farmer).
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Clothing and Textiles
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Did you know that the earliest people to wear clothing were not early modern hom*o-sapiens? It is speculated that clothing may have first been adopted by another branch of the human family tree, the Neanderthals. Clothing and textiles have been produced for a very long time, with some sources arguing that modern hom*o-sapiens have been clothing themselves in some form or fashion for circa 180,000 years. How do we know this when few ancient textiles have survived to the modern age?
The discovery of the remains of clothing lice associated with ancient humans, ancient stone and pottery figures that depict clothing, and tools such as needles and loom weights, and other artifacts have all provided insight into what we once wore. Once in a great while we get lucky, and a well-preserved piece of textile or hint of fiber can be found. So far, the oldest dates to around 34,000 years ago.
At some point, clothing became a necessity, but through the centuries clothing, and the textiles that they are made from, have not remained solely utilitarian. Clothing and what it is made from has also come to represent individual style and expression as well as social status, gender/sex, religious, and other roles within society. Let us explore a little bit of the history of clothing and textiles.
In the Beginning
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Textiles are fabrics or cloths, some of which may be woven, that are used in the production of clothing and other textile-based goods, for example, blankets and rugs.
In the beginning, clothing would have been very basic; it would have come from the skins and fur of animals. At some point, instead of wrapping oneself in one single large skin, humans began to stitch pieces of skin together instead.
The earliest clothing not made from animal skins would have been made from plants, such as flax which can be converted into a textile called linen and cotton plants for cotton cloth. The domestication of animals added clothing made from wool textiles into the mix. Feathers, shells, leaves, and dyes were used to ornament clothing and create patterns, designs, and figures.
The earliest evidence of fibers made from flax are 34,000 years-old and from the Republic of Georgia while the oldest evidence of cloth can be traced back to around 6300 BCE in what is today the modern nation of Turkey.
Rise of Civilizations and Clothing Textiles
The rise of civilizations resulted in more sophisticated textiles that included patterns and dyes. Clothing was not just worn to protect you from the elements but to tell everyone who you are, be it princess or pauper, priest or warrior, or the common laborer, clothing became a symbol of your identity and place in society.
For example, in China circa 2700 BCE, silk was being woven from the cocoons of silkworms. The cloth was fine and soft and those who wore silk were usually people of wealth and nobility. It would not have been something that was widely available to the general public. Silk was so prized that it would later become a very valuable luxury commodity traded along the Silk Road that joined cultures from the East and West.
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Woolen textiles from camelids, such as the llama and alpaca, were produced by the Andean Chancay culture, and displayed not only artistry in their weaving but their adeptness in using dyes and creating shapes.
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In the 1700s CE, during the birth of the Industrial Age, the process of textile making was accelerated by improved looms and spinners and larger quantities of cloth could be produced for the designing of clothing. Eventually, machines began to take the place of people in this process.
Modern Clothing and Textiles
Modern clothing and textiles continue to use the same types of fabrics and weaves that are common in our human ancestry but have also developed and manufactured new, human-made textiles not found in nature. Rayon, nylon, Tencel, and polyester are all modern inventions. The mass mechanized production of textiles and clothing is also more common than the more labor-intensive handmade creations of the past. Because of the mass production of clothing, quality is often sacrificed for quantity and clothing does not have the same durability and workmanship it once did.
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Lesson Summary
Clothing and textiles have been produced for at least 100,000 years. Evidence such as clothing lice and artifacts give us a peek into what we wore in the past. Occasionally, textiles, which are cloth that is usually woven, survive. For example, a 34,000-year-old flax fiber was found in the Republic of Georgia.
Clothing, which was initially made from skins and fur, transitioned to textiles made from plants such as flax (linen) and cotton plants. With the domestication of animals such as sheep and camelids like llamas, wool was added to the mix of textiles available for clothing. Silk was developed by the Chinese using the cocoons of silkworms to create a luxurious textile that was so prized it became a popular commodity linking the West and the East on the Silk Road.
In modern times have, while many of the older textiles are still in use, there are also human-made textiles, which are textiles invented by humans that do not occur naturally in nature, like rayon.
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