[grudk]

Originally Posted by dd74

I don't know if I completely buy that. What about the ice age man who had the bright idea to put a deer carcass over his body to keep from freezing to death? Clothes, as they say, make the man. It might have come to pass that he was thought of as wealthy, and from that point on, others tried to emulate him by also clothing themselves.

Clothes = wealth
Nudity = poverty and shame

I agree that this is likely the root of it. Anxiety over nudity depends on social context. At the beach, we are practically nude, and nobody much cares. To wear the same to a dinner party would be scandalous. We strip for doctors, and this is 'accepted.' It is not the nudity, but the social context, and the interpretation thereof.