Lucy Fossils From 3.2 Million Years Ago Could Shed Light on Shame, Nudity

The fossils of Lucy, which were found 50 years ago, could help shed light on nudity and shame.

The female specimen is from roughly 3.2 million years ago.

Lucy Fossils

The fossils belong to the Australopithecus afarensis, which has been described frequently as the "mother of us all." As the discovery was being celebrated, it was given the name "Lucy," inspired by the song of popular band Beatles.

Her skeleton is roughly 40% complete. When Lucy was found, her skeleton was considered the most complete early hominin that has ever been found and known. Her skeleton covers 47 bones (out of 207), with parts of the legs, arms, spine, pelvis, ribs, lower jaw, and skull fragments included.

Lucy's appearance still remains a mystery of ancestry. Some popular renderings of the specimen have dressed her in reddish-brown and thick fur, with her feet, hands, face, and breasts peeking from dense thickets.

However, according to advancements in technological genetic analysis, Lucy could have actually been naked or thinly veiled.

Body Hair Loss

Humanity's immediate ancestors may have lost body fur roughly three to four million years ago. They may not have donned clothing up until roughly 83,000 to 170,000 years ago, which means that early humans and their ancestors were just naked for over 2.5 million years.

For early humans, the body hair loss could have been due to a mix of factors, such as physiological development delays, thermoregulation, sexual partner attraction, and parasite warding off. Cultural, social, and environmental factors could have encouraged the use of clothing later on.

Nudity and Shame

Research regarding why and when hominins shed body hair and why and when they get dressed eventually stresses shear brain size. This requires years of nurturing as well as a disproportionate amount of energy in order to be sustained relative to other body parts.

Since human babies need long periods of care in order to survive independently, researchers of evolutionary inter-discipline have posited that early humans may have adopted a pair-bonding strategy.

By collaborating with each other, both of them could manage the parental care period. However, there are risks with pair bonding. Since humans are part of large groups and are social beings, there could be attempts to break the monogamous pacts, which could affect how children are raised.

A mechanism was necessary in order to keep the sexual and social pact secure. It is likely that such a mechanism was a shame.

Daniel M.T. Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist, explained in a documentary that nudity serves as a threat to the basic social contract due to it being a defection invitation. On the other hand, shame could encourage faithfulness to partners and responsibility-sharing in raising children.

When it comes to the systemic use of clothing and the lack of fur, humans are quite unique. It was only by prohibiting nudity that nakedness actually became a reality.

With the development of human civilization, measures have been implemented to strengthen the social contract. This is how the link between shame and human nudity could have been born.

Going back to Lucy, she was actually not naked when it came to fur density. However, since she was found, Lucy has been revealed in a manner that shows historical assumptions regarding the nuclear family and motherhood.

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