kilt history question

[xena]

Hello All,

An acquaintance of mine is doing her PhD on this very subject. That is to say the history of garments and dress and why men wear trousers and women wear skirts and dresses. Her argument is that the anatomy of men and women is different and as such we are (in general) all wearing the wrong garments - men have dangly bits and should be in a wrap around garment; women do not and should be in trousers.

She believes that there was some cataclysmic event which caused a domino effect and forced men into long hose and then trousers. She tells me that she has eliminated war and warfare and is now looking at religion or some form of pandemic to be the cause. It seems that the heart of the matter comes down to western education, which in turn points to religion.

When she next comes down to eat me out of house and home I will pump her for more information.

Regards

Chas

Yes, it strikes me as riding horses would be the main reason. Why exactly would she have ruled out war and warfare?

Religion as a source of pants on men doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering the predominant European religion at the time was Christianity whose clergy and monastics all wore unbifurbicated cassocks and similar vestments. The only effect Christianity would have had on clothing was a direction towards modesty (and when and where the Christianity was not healthy - a sense of shame about one's body - but don't blame Christianity for that! That's off kilter Christianity!).

Currently, the fashion with cassocks is to wear trousers underneath them, but there is iconographic evidence that this was not always so.

For what it's worth, when I wear my cassock, it's about 50/50 whether I'm wearing tartan flannel trousers or a Thrifty SWK Kilt.