THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODESTY AND CLOTHING.
No altogether Satisfactory theory of the origin of modesty
has been advanced. The naive assumption that men were ashamed
because they were naked, and clothed themselves to hide their
nakedness, is not tenable in face of the large mass of evidence
that many of the natural races are naked, and not ashamed of
their nakedness; and a much stronger case can be made out for
the contrary view, that clothing was first worn as a mode of attraction, and modesty then attached to the act of removing the clothing; but this view in turn does not explain an equally large
number of cases of modesty among races which wear no
clothing at all. A third theory of modesty, the disgust theory,
stated by Professor James[1] and developed somewhat by Havelock Ellis,[2] makes modesty the outgrowth of our disapproval
of immodesty in others — " the application in the second instance
to ourselves of judgments primarily passed upon our mates."[3]
The sight of offensive behavior is no doubt a powerful deterrent
from like behavior, but this seems to be a secondary manifestation
in the case of modesty ; and I hope presently to show that the
genesis of modesty is to be found in the activity in the midst
of which it appears, and not in the inhibition of activity like
the activity of others ; and that it has primarily no connection
with clothing whatever.[4]
Professor Angell and Miss Thompson have made an investigation of the relation of circulation and respiration to attention,
- ↑ William James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, p. 435.
- ↑ "The Evolution of Modesty," Psychological Review, Vol. VI, pp. I34ff.
- ↑ James, loc. cit., p. 436.
- ↑ Darwin's explanation o£ shyness, modesty, shame, and blushing as due originally to "self-attention directed to personal appearance, in relation to the opinion of others," appears to me to be a very good statement of some of the aspects of the process, but hardly an adequate explanation of the process as a whole. (Darwin, Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, p. 326.)
246
