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A loincloth is a one-piece garment – sometimes kept in place by a belt – which covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks. ==History and types== Loincloths are being and have been worn: *in societies where no other clothing is needed or wanted *as an undergarment or swimsuit *by wrestlers *by farmers in paddy fields in Sri Lanka and India, where it is called kaupinam 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, or cloth - passed between the legs and covering the genitals. Despite its functional simplicity, the loincloth comes in many different forms. A breechcloth, or breechclout, consists of a strip of material – bark, cloth, leather – passed between the thighs and secured by a belt. A loincloth is a long piece of cloth, passed between the thighs and wound around the waist. Breechcloths and loincloths are garments of dignity among those who traditionally wear them. The styles in which breechcloths and loincloths can be arranged are myriad. Both the Bornean ''sirat'' and the Indian ''dhoti'' have fabric pass between the legs to support a man's genitals. One style of loincloth consists of a single long strip of bark-cloth or woven cloth. This was used by the inhabitants of the Austronesian speaking area of Southeast Asia and 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 traditional loincloths, often as the only garment for everyday use. The loincloth of Southern African San, called ''!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 kilt-like ''schenti''. These loincloths consisted of fine linen cloths in a triangular shape 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 of the San fashion. A similar 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''.〕 In Pre-Columbian South America, 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''. Some of the culturally diverse Amazonian Indians still wear an ancestral type of loincloth. In most of (sub-)tropical continental Asia, types of loincloth such as the Indian ''lungi'', often unisex or with a close female counterpart, remain in use as traditional dress, especially among the rural peasant communities, while city dwellers tend to adopt western style costumes. An elaborate, decorated form is also worn as the only garment in certain martial arts, such as Kerala's ''Kalaripayattu''; like "boxer shorts", it must allow the fighter free, even acrobatic movement. Japanese men traditionally wear (formerly always) a loincloth known as a ''fundoshi''. The ''fundoshi'' is a 35 cm (14 inch) wide piece of fabric (cotton or silk) passed between the thighs and secured to cover the genitals. Men of Indo-European culture, Greeks, Romans, and Scandinavians, wore the loincloth more or less habitually. (Women wore a fuller version, with ties before and behind, a bikini, called a "perizoma", as depicted on the mosaics at Piazza Armerina.) An ancient version of the loincloth, the breechcloth, was found in the Alps on a c. 3200 BCE archaeological find named Ötzi. After the fall of the Roman empire, the loincloth disappeared in Europe. Trousers of one kind or another, which had been considered a Celtic oddity in the Ancient Mediterranean cultures, became the usual wear for men. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Loincloth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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