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A loincloth is one-piece garment, sometimes kept in place by a belt, that is used:
- in societies where no other clothing is needed or wanted
- as an undergarment
- to express soberness
- Mohandas Gandhi wore a dhoti, a Hindu loincloth, as a way of identifying with the poorest Indians, even though he knew it could be taken as a sign of primitiveness.
History and types
The loincloth is the most basic form of male dress. It has been nearly universal throughout the globe and all human history. The loincloth is in essence a piece of material, bark-bast, leather, or cloth, passed between the legs to cover the genitals, and despite this simplicity of function the loincloth takes many forms.
Another style of loincloth (more typical of tropic regions) consists of a single long strip of bark-cloth or woven cloth. This was used by the inhabitants of the Malayo-Polynesian area of Oceania, where it was known as chawat *, sirat, bah, bahag, maro or malo. The cawat/maro style loincloth is an important cultural marker of the region.
Various cultures in tropical Africa wore or still wear loincloths, often as (nearly) only garment for every day use. The loincloth of Southern African Bushmen is called xai. The xai is a piece of skin roughly T-shaped with long ties at the corners of the arms. The free end is pulled in back and tucked under the ties. The ancient Egyptians, both men and women, wore loincloths as underwear, the men beneath their schenti kilt. These loincloths consisted of fine linen cloths in the shape of a "pennant" triangle with ties at the two corners. The base of the triangle was placed at the small of the back and the ties tied in front, then the point or apex was drawn between the legs and tucked under the string: exactly the opposite to the Bushman fashion.
This style of loincloth was also characteristic of ancient Meso-America. The male inhabitants of the area of modern Mexico wore a wound loincloth of woven fabric. One end of the loincloth was held up, the remainder passed between the thighs, wound about the waist, and secured in back by tucking. (Local names: Nahuatl maxtlatl, Mayan ex.)
Ancient Inca men wore a strip of cloth between their legs held up by strings or tape as a belt. The cloth was secured to the tapes at the back and the front portion hung in front as an apron, always well ornamented. The same garment, mostly in plain cotton but whose aprons are now, like t-shirts, sometimes decorated with logos, is known in Japan as etchu fundoshi. Japanese men traditionally wore a loincloth known as a fundoshi. The fundoshi is essentially a 14 inch wide piece of fabric (cotton or silk) passed between the thighs and secured to cover the genitals. Yet there are a hundred ways of tying the fundoshi, and in the modern age, men are coming to enjoy using patterned cloth for their fundoshis.
Men of Indo-European culture, Greeks, Romans and Scandanavians, wore the loincloth more or less habitually. (Women wore a fuller version, with ties before and behind, called a "perizoma."; these are the "bikinis" depicted on the mosaics at Piazza Amerina.) An ancient version of the loincloth, the breechcloth, was found on a ca. 2000 BCE archealogical find named Oetzi the Ice Man. After the fall of the Roman empire the loincloth disappeared in Europe. Trousers of one kind or another were prescribed for men. When Europe once again came into contact with the broader world, Europeans viewed the loincloth as an exotic (hence ideal for 'primitive' movie characters like Tarzan) and indecent garment, probably because men's buttocks were not covered. Despite that loincloth-wearing peoples consider the loincloth an expression of modesty, when Europeans conquered other peoples among whom the loincloth was traditional, the Europeans banned this garment as uncivilised and offensive to the Christian morality they usually preached.
Connotations
The connection of loincloth-wearing with "backwardness" became even more pronounced in the 19th century heyday of colonialism. Often the only garment black male slaves in the tropical colonies (e.g. in Surinam) were permitted to wear was a scanty breechcloth. During WW2, Allied prisoners of war in Japanese camps often had nothing but a breechcloth to wear. The popular western mind also connects the man's loincloth with infants' diapers, and this has added to the sense of indignity and "backwardness" associated with the loincloth. At present, except in Japan, the loincloth worldwide is nearly extinct as normal male wear.
See also
External Links
Polynesian clothing | Indian clothing | Native American clothing | Underwear
"Loincloth"