59;

clothing and equipment are part of the male way of life. And adornment serves much the same purpose here too but in a somewhat more subtle way---the male with the most bear claws in his necklace, for example, would probably be the better hunter and therefore the stronger and brav- er and more "fit" than the male with fewer such trophies. With somewhat greater sophistication indications of fit- ness come from athletic prowess or the ability to dance war dances or chant or to brag about various exploits

These activities and attitudes are, I feel, biolog- ically inherant in the nature of maleness--the need to show himself to the best advantage to impress the other males with his prowess and virility; to induce the female to accept him sexually; and to enhance his own vision of himself. This last "figures" when we consider that females never need to "prove" their womanliness--males always do, Human males are capable of being aware of virility and sexual potency and even more important of its absence (and the embarrassment that goes with it) The symbolic and indirect "proof" of his masculinity and maleness through his trophies of the hunt etc. strengthens his masculine ego and reassures him of his capacity as a functional male. This reassurance is doubtless not on the conscious level, but it is real just the same.

Now in past times, up to the French Revolution in Western Europe, males of the species were still able to indulge in self adornment in one form or another True the nobility who had the money to afford it went to ex- tremes in personal adornment (so did the women) but even the peasantry had the right and freedom to as much such self expression as they could afford and chose to exhibit However, after the Revolution what remained of the nobil- ity hid themselves so to speak in the mass of the pea- santry by doing away with the frills and frivolity of the upper classes and strove to be just "citizens and thus to avoid any taint of nobility which was then in con- siderable disrepute. Gradually this form of dress spread throughout the western world resulting in the drab un- adorned male of the last 200 years. Of course, the aus-