" Our realities
and our traditional ideals are hopelessly at variance; the Greeks
represented their statues without pubic hair because in real life they had
adopted the oriental custom of removing the hairs; we compel our sculptors
and painters to make similar representations, though they no longer
correspond either to realities or to our own ideas of what is beautiful
and fitting in real life. Our artists are themselves equally ignorant and
confused, and, as Stratz has repeatedly shown, they constantly reproduce
in all innocence the deformations and pathological characters of defective
models. If we were honest, we should say--like the little boy before a
picture of the Judgment of Paris, in answer to his mother's question as to
which of the three goddesses he thought most beautiful--"I can't tell,
because they haven't their clothes on."
The concealment actually attained was not, however, it would appear,
originally sought. Various authors have brought together evidence to show
that the main primitive purpose of adornment and clothing among savages is
not to conceal the body, but to draw attention to it and to render it more
attractive. Westermarck, especially, brings forward numerous examples of
savage adornments which serve to attract attention to the sexual regions
of man and woman.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323