Evolutionary biologist tackles question of trousers

[ctbuchanan]

A professor at the University of Connecticut has studied the origin of trousers. This is brief article on his conclusions:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...orses/259696/#
For those interested there is a more detailed discussion:
http://socialevolutionforum.com/2012...n-of-pants-ii/

[McFarkus]

I knew there had to be a logical explanation. The Romans considered breeches a barbarian garment. But they were, effectively part of a new and successful battle technology.

[Chas]

It makes sense. If one looks at the differences in anatomy between the genders, one would have thought that women would have gone into trousers first and that men would have stuck with - in our case kilts.

Regards

Chas

[ctbuchanan]

I found it interesting that he referred to some of the garments, i.e. the ones worn by Amerindians, as "kilts".

[pugcasso]

so horse riding (which I heard about before) and later bicycles (at least as an initial force in pointing women towards pants) caused the social increase in pants...

I don't ride a horse or a bicycle which explains my return to wearing non-pants I think.

a 3rd-century BC Chinese statesman, King Wuling, had getting his warriors to switch to pants from the traditional robes. "It is not that I have any doubt concerning the dress of the Hu," Wuling told an advisor. "I am afraid that everybody will laugh at me."

Imagine that... a world of non-pants wearers pointing at the one guy wearing pants wondering 'what the heck is he wearing'

[Spartan Tartan]

I agree that it is a plausable arguement, but that is all...the authors argument. A conjecture. I dont think it is enuff tobsuggest that the world over, people switched to pants simply to fight from horseback. Certainly there had to be other contributing factors, no?


I am.no expert, but I would need a little more than one gents opinion and reasonable conjecture to pass this on as the reason the whole world wears pants for daily purposes. Has a horse never been to Scotland, must not have. That is probably why the Scots never abandoned their kilted ways

[freddie]

All I know is that the guy who invented them should have had a pair wrapped around his kneck and pulled tight

[xdepuydt]

Without trousers, wearing a kilts wouldn't be such a strong statement, this site wouldn't probably exist and I would have missed the chance to come into contact with everybody here... so maybe something good came from it

[Gryphon noir]

Ah, but there is a solution to the problem of kilted cycling. Dahon makes a folding bicycle that is specifically designed for women in skirts and men in kilts--and it even says so in their brochure!

Perhaps the designer should be recognized on this forum for his unique contribution to kilted freedom.

[opositive]

i do not think the need for cavalry/knights sufficiently accounts for the spread of pants outside the military or court. just as history is written by the winners, i think that the pants wearing barbarians of the north and east spread the use of pants in europe as they defeated and pushed back the tunic clad romans. as for the argument of lesser folk wanting to emulate the privileged horse riding, pant clad nobility, the inventions of the horse collar and mouldboard plough contributed to the use and number of horses as work/draft animals in the early middle ages. horses were used for a lot more than as war machines and as a means of transportation for the rich and powerful. when the romans ruled, folks in the "civilized" world dressed like the people in italy. when the barbarians took over, their dress became the "civilized" norm.