Nakedness and colonialism

In 2014 the parliament of Uganda passed an anti-pornography law which included a dress code outlawing "immoral" clothing that exposes the intimate parts of the body.[14] This law was enforced in the capital, Kampala, by male vigilantes, while the Karamajong people continued to dress untouched by western values, but celebrate the human body and acceptance of nakedness. In other traditional societies of the region such as the Samburu and Turkana in Kenya, the Nuba of Southern Sudan, and many others continue to dress appropriately for the climate.[15] The dress code was defended as addressing the problem of sexual assaults, which women protested, pointing out not only it unfairly place the responsibility for assaults on women rather than men, but was inconsistent with the fact that for centuries women had worn little clothing, but rape had been rare.[14]

The South African province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) was a British colony until 1994. The Christian missionaries among the white colonial minority pursued the policy of civilizing the Zulu majority, imposing Western clothing being a visible symbol of this effort. Indigenous peoples resisted by either wearing clothing inappropriately or reverting to their traditional attire when not at the mission station.[16]

Initially Islam exerted little influence beyond large towns, outside of which pagan norms continued. In travels in Mali in the 1350s, Muslim scholar Ibn Battuta was shocked by the casual relationships between men and women even at the court of Sultans, and the public nudity of female slaves and servants.[17]

Dressing Africans in European clothes to cover their nakedness was part of converting them to Christianity.[18]

In the 19th century, photographs of naked Indigenous peoples began circulating in Europe without a clear distinction between those created as commercial curiosities (or erotica) and those claiming to be scientific, or ethnographic images. Given the state of photography, it is unclear which images were posed, rather than being representative of everyday attire.[19][20] George Basden, a missionary and ethnographer who lived with the Igbo people of Nigeria published two volumes of photographs in the 1920s and 1930s. The book described images of unclothed but elaborately decorated Igbo women as indicating their high status as eligible brides who would not have thought of themselves as naked.[21]

In ethnographic research done in 1950-51, members of the Ibibio people of Nigeria were open about sexuality. There were many who remembered the arrival of the first white people in 1901. All children were naked until puberty, and then wore only a loincloth until marriage. Women did not cover their breasts while working. Adult clothing for both sexes was a cloth that reached the ground. Having no shame in the body, both sexes openly bathed nude. Sexual behavior was however strict, premarital intercourse being frowned upon and adultery being a crime.[22]

Indigenous peoples of the Americas had no associations of sexuality or nudity with shame or sin. European colonizers became aware of other practices, including premarital and extramarital sex, homosexuality, and cross-dressing, that motivated their efforts to convert Natives to Christianity. However, characterization of others as savage may have been to justify conquest and displacement.[25] Many early colonists did not view Native Americans as distinctly different in color from themselves, and thus could be assimilated into colonial society following conversion.[26] Colonists could view natives as either docile or violent, justifying their preference for conversion or extermination.[27]

The Aztec city Tenochtitlán reached a population of eighty thousand before the arrival of the Spanish in 1520. Built on an island in Lake Texcoco, it was dependent upon hydraulic engineering for agriculture, which also supplied bathing facilities with both steam baths (temazcales) and tubs. The conquistadors viewed indigenous bathing practices, which included both men and women entering temazcales naked, in terms of paganism and sexual immorality and sought to eradicate them. In the Yucatan, Mayan men and women bathed in rivers with little concern for modesty. Yet in spite of the number of hot springs in the region, there is no mention of their use for bathing by indigenous peoples.[28]

Two women of the Zo'é tribe of Pará State, Brazil

Some Indigenous peoples of the Amazon remained uncontacted into the 20th century, maintaining their cultural traditions, including dress. Now, their contact with outsiders is mainly loggers exploiting the forest.[29]

Arrernte people welcoming dance, Alice Springs, Central Australia, 9 May 1901

Aboriginal people at Cape Dombey, north of Port Keats, Northern Territory (1905)

Aboriginal Australians in 1819 wore only the jackets they were given, but not pants.[31]

Missionaries and anthropologists came to Central Australia much later than other regions, it being sparsely populated due to scarce water resources. The first Europeans arrived in the late 1870s with a second wave in the 1930s. Aboriginal peoples welcomed clothing, but made use of it in ways disconcerting to outsiders. The 19th century missionaries pursued a policy of cultural conversion that included proper dress, but in the 20th century anthropologists were more accepting of nakedness.[32]

In an autobiography by an Arrernte man in 1950, he does not describe his people as naked. Instead, he reports that children were taught behaviors appropriate to each gender that maintained modesty without clothing, such as sitting facing away from others. These behaviors were not known or understood by Europeans at the time. He also described the missionaries trying to prevent an Arrernte ceremony which involved the men being naked with their bodies painted with sacred markings. The missionaries refused to give them food until they had dressed.[32]

As the 20th century continued, it was found that clothing had results that were the opposite of what was intended. When aboriginal children had grown up naked, they had little interest in sexuality until adulthood, but clothing made them more sexually aware and precocious.[32]

A book by a German national serving as a medical doctor in the Netherlands East Indies army between 1912 and 1914 describes the island of Bali as an "Eden" for Western visitors. His praise includes the beauty of Balinese women, who were bare-breasted in everyday life and unclothed while bathing. Both men and women covered their upper bodies in some situations, such as in a temple.[33]

Soon, the Dutch colonial administration began issuing conflicting orders regarding proper dress, which had limited effect due to some Balinese supporting tradition, others modernization.[34]

Depictions of naked savages entered European popular culture in the 18th century in popular stories of tropical islands. In particular, Europeans became fascinated by the image of the Pacific island woman with bare breasts.[35] While much was made of Polynesian nakedness, European cloth was welcomed as part of traditions of wrapping the body.[36][37] Into the 20th century, the people of Pukapuka continued to be naked until adulthood.[38]

Christian missionaries had a great influence, establishing alternative villages for their families, building schools as well as churches, and employing native women as domestics. Proper dress was a prerequisite for receiving these benefits, although not observed consistently. Hawaiian women thought of clothes as decoration, not for covering their nakedness, and often removed them for work or bathing.[39]

The practice of surfing originally was part of native ritual, and was done naked. This was forbidden by Christian missionaries, putting an end to surfing for a period of time.[40]

Māori people prior to European colonization wore woven cloaks and kilts for protection from the weather and to denote social status. However, very little of the human body had to be concealed for modesty's sake. In informal settings, men went naked except for a belt with a piece of string attached holding their foreskin shut over their glans penis. Women covered their pubic area with small aprons or bunches of fragrant plant material when in the presence of men – although these parts could be exposed in the gesture of contempt known as whakapohane. Pre-pubescent children wore no clothes at all. There was no shame or modesty attached to women's breasts, and therefore no garments devoted to concealing them; the colourful woven bodices (pari) now worn in kapa haka performances became standard costume only in the 1950s.

The European colonists regarded nudity as an obscenity. The nakedness of Māori was cited, often in the phrase "naked savages", as a sign of their racial inferiority, which in turn was seen as casting into doubt the validity of the Treaty of Waitangi.[41][42][43][44][45]

Western tourists often come to the tropics with expectations based upon their prejudices rather than the authentic way of life of Indigenous peoples. Tourism companies may provide performances that satisfy these expectations, but also find resistance from groups within each county that have different conceptions of post-colonialism.[51]

An annual event that draws thousands of tourists is Umkhosi woMhlanga or "Reed Dance" in Eswatini. Thousands of Zulu girls participate in a ceremony representing their pledge to virginity before marriage, wearing traditional dress which does not cover their breasts.[52] At tourist "villages" that are part of resorts, Zulu teenager girls perform bare-chested in traditional dress.[53] While primarily seeing this as an expression of their culture, they are not unaware of being sexualized by male tourists.[54]