A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the

genitals A sex organ, also known as a reproductive organ, is a part of an organism that is involved in sexual reproduction. Sex organs constitute the primary sex characteristics of an organism. Sex organs are responsible for producing and transporting ...

and sometimes the

buttocks The buttocks (: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed of a lay ...

. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or breechclout.U.S. National Park Service
Retrieved on 2009-12-22.
. Retrieved on 2009-12-22. Often, the flaps hang down in front and back.

History and types

Loincloths are worn in societies where no other clothing is needed or wanted. Loincloths are commonly used as an

undergarment Underwear, underclothing, or undergarments are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer clothing from being soiled ...

swimsuit A swimsuit is an item of clothing designed to be worn by people engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, diving and surfing, or sun-orientated activities, such as sun bathing. Different types and styles may be worn ...

wrestlers Wrestling is a Martial arts, martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling ...

and by farmers in paddy fields in both

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, where it is called Kovanam in Tamil, in Sinhala and

kaupinam The kaupinam, kovanam, kaupina, langot, or lungooty is a loincloth worn by men in the Indian subcontinent as underclothing. It is still commonly worn in South Asia by '' pehlwans'' (wrestlers) while exercising or sparring in a '' dangal''. It is ...

or langot. The loincloth, or breechcloth, is a basic form of dress, often worn as the only garment. Men have worn a loincloth as a fundamental piece of clothing which covers their genitals, not the buttocks, in most societies which disapproved of genital nakedness throughout human history. The loincloth is in essence a piece of material, bark- bast,

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

, or cloth, passed between the legs and covering the genitals. Despite its functional simplicity, the loincloth comes in many different forms. The styles in which breechcloths and loincloths can be arranged are myriad. Both the Bornean ''sirat'' and the Indian ''

dhoti The dhoti is an ankle-length breechcloth, wrapped around the waist and the legs, in resemblance to the shape of trousers. The dhoti is a garment of ethnic wear for men in the Indian subcontinent. The dhoti is fashioned out of a rectangular p ...

'' have fabric pass between the legs to support a man's genitals. A similar style of loincloth was also characteristic of ancient

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. The male inhabitants of the area of modern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

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 Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

, Mayan . In Pre-Columbian

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, ancient

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, 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 An apron is a garment worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body to protect from liquids. They have several purposes, most commonly as a functional accessory that protects clothes and skin from stains and marks. However, other typ ...

, always well ornamented. The same garment, mostly in plain

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

but whose aprons are now, like T-shirts, sometimes decorated with logos, is known in Japan as . Some of the culturally diverse Amazonian indigenous still wear an ancestral type of loincloth. Until World War II, Japanese men wore a loincloth known as a . The is a piece of fabric (cotton or

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

) passed between the thighs and secured to cover the genitals.

Loincloths by culture

Australia

Worn by adult males in some Aboriginal cultures. Called ''naga'', ''narga'', ''nargar'' (etc) from Yulparija dialect of the Western Desert.

India

Unsewn

Kaupinam The kaupinam, kovanam, kaupina, langot, or lungooty is a loincloth worn by men in the Indian subcontinent as underclothing. It is still commonly worn in South Asia by '' pehlwans'' (wrestlers) while exercising or sparring in a '' dangal''. It is ...

and its later-era sewn variation

langot The kaupinam, kovanam, kaupina, langot, or lungooty is a loincloth worn by men in the Indian subcontinent as underclothing. It is still commonly worn in South Asia by '' pehlwans'' (wrestlers) while exercising or sparring in a '' dangal''. It is ...

are traditional clothes in India, worn as

underwear Underwear, underclothing, or undergarments are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer clothing from being soiled ...

in dangal held in

akhara Akhara or Akhada (Hindi: अखाड़ा, romanised: ''Akhāṛā'') is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artists or a ''sampradaya'' monastery fo ...

s especially

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

, to prevent

hernias A hernia (: hernias or herniae, from Latin, meaning 'rupture') is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. The term is also used for the normal development of the i ...

and

hydrocele A hydrocele is an accumulation of serous fluid in a body cavity. A hydrocele testis, the most common form of hydrocele, is the accumulation of fluids around a testicle. It is often caused by fluid collecting within a layer wrapped around the tes ...

Kacchera Kacchera or Kachera () or Kaccha () are an undergarment for the lower body that is specially tailored for shalwar with a tie-knot ''naala'' or ''naada'' drawstring worn by fully initiated Sikhs. They are similar to European boxer shorts in a ...

is mandatory for

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

to wear.

Japan

Japanese men and women traditionally wore a loincloth known as a ''

fundoshi is a traditional Japanese undergarment for men and women, made from a length of cotton. Before World War II, the fundoshi was the main form of underwear for Japanese men and women. However, it fell out of use quickly after the war with the int ...

''. The ''fundoshi'' is a 35 cm (14 in.) wide piece of fabric (cotton or

) passed between the thighs and secured to cover the genitals. There are many ways of tying the ''fundoshi''.

Native American

In most Native American tribes, men used to wear some form of breechcloth, often with

leggings Leggings are several types of leg attire that have varied through the years. Modern usage from the 1960s onwards has come to refer to elastic close-fitting High-rise (fashion), high-rise garments worn over the legs typically by women, such as leg ...

.Minor, Marz & Minor, Nono (1977)
''The American Indian Craft Book''
Bison Books. pp. 72–73. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on 2010-07-15.Mayfield, Thomas Jefferson (1997)
''Adopted by Indians: A True Story''
Heyday Books. p. 83. . Google Book Search. Retrieved on 2010-07-15.
Retrieved on 2010-07-15. The style differed from tribe to tribe. In many tribes, the flaps hung down in front and back; in others, the breechcloth looped outside the belt and was tucked into the inside, for a more fitted look. Sometimes, the breechcloth was much shorter, and a decorated apron panel was attached in front and behind. A Native American woman or

teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...

girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. '' daughter'' or '' girlfriend'' regardless of age ...

might also wear a fitted breechcloth underneath her skirt, but not as outerwear. However, in many tribes' young girls did wear breechcloths like the

boy A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is usually described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy ...

s until they became old enough for skirts and dresses. Among the

Mohave people Mohave or Mojave (Mojave language, Mojave: 'Aha Makhav) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people indigenous to the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert. The Fort Mojave Indian Reservation includes territory within the bo ...

of the American Southwest, a breechcloth given to a young female symbolically recognizes her status as ''hwame''.

Philippines

In the Philippines, loincloths of any sort are generally called ''bahág''. It is often a single, long, rectangular cloth that is not tied with a belt or string and were made from either barkcloth or hand- woven textiles. The design of the weave is often unique to a specific tribe, while colors may denote the wearer’s social rank, such as plain white for commoners. Throughout the pre-colonial period, the ''bahág'' was the normative dress for commoners and the servile class (the ''

alipin The ''alipin'' refers to the lowest social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Visayan languages, the equivalent social classes were known as the ''oripun ...

'' caste). It survives today among some indigenous tribes of the Philippines, most notably the various Cordilleran peoples in the mountains of inland northern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

. The ''bahág'' was also favoured by the pre-colonial

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

(''tumao'') and

warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

(''timawa'') classes of the

Visayan people Visayans (Cebuano language, Cebuano: ''mga Bisayà'' ) are a Ethnic groups in the Philippines, Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, to the southernmost islands south of Luzon, and to a significant port ...

, as it showed off their elaborate, full-body tattoos (''

batok Batok, batek, patik, batik, or buri, among other names, are general terms for indigenous tattoos of the Philippines. Tattooing on both sexes was practiced by almost all ethnic groups of the Philippines, ethnic groups of the Philippine Islands ...

'') that advertised combat prowess and other significant achievements: One method of wrapping the ''bahág'' involves first pulling the long rectangular cloth (usually around ) in between the legs to cover the genitals, with a longer back flap. This back flap is then twisted across the right leg, then crossed at the waist in an anti-clockwise direction. It then goes under the front flap, then across the left leg. It is twisted back across the back loop, above the buttocks. The result is the two rectangular ends hanging in front of and behind the waist, with a loop around the legs resembling a belt. The native Tagalog word for "rainbow", ''bahagharì'', literally means "loincloth of the king".

Europe

Clothing of the French Canadiens and the Milice reenactment 1

Some European men around wore

breechcloths, as can be seen from the clothing of

Ötzi Ötzi, also called The Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC. Ötzi's remains were discovered on 19 September 1991, in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi", ) at the Austria–Italy border. He i ...

.South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Retrieved 2010-07-15.

Ancient Romans The Roman people was the ethnicity and the body of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens (; ) during the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. This concept underwent considerable changes throughout the long history of the Roman ...

wore a type of loincloth known as a subligaculum. The use of breechcloths took on common use by the Metis and Acadians and are mentioned as early as the 1650s. In the 1740s and 1750s they were issued to the Canadien as part of their war uniform and in 1755 they even tried to issue them to soldiers from France.

Notes

References

External links

The Loincloth of BorneoBreechcloth on Wordnik, retrieved on 22.12.2009Breechcloth by Rick Obermeyer (Dec. 1990), retrieved on 22.12.2009
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