What would A Tribesman’s Think About Modern Ties
To anyone visiting from a place distant from modern culture (say, some African tribesman that hasn’t met any westerners) quite a few articles of our modern clothing would seem inexplicable. This actually makes sense; a large portion of the pieces of clothing we wear are in fact pointless from a functional perspective: what would the tribesman understand of high heel boots? or cosmetic clothing? But surely the article of clothing the tribesman would find the strangest is the tie.
And what is the tie? A tie is a piece of cloth that is arranged in a bizarre manner around a person’s neck. It is not worn for protection from the cold. It is not worn for any useful reason. Then why would anyone wear it? Good question.
I can envision the baffled tribesman analyzing his western counterpart who is wearing a business attire and just wondering: “how do I tie a tie?” “Is tying a tie of any value?” “Why on Earth would someone want to wear something like that?” and ending up with no answers. And to be entirely fair, all these questions are perfectly legitimate! The value of a tie is utterly ornamental, and the fact it’s treated as important part of a man’s business attire stems only from historical reasons.
Interestingly, to us novelty ties may appear to be a weird invention. After all, they can’t be used in any business event (which is where ties are often worn), so why make ties that feature cartoons or flashing lights? But to the tribesman certainly it would look as inexplicable as an ordinary tie. In fact, he is far more likely to find certain novelty ties to be of use - for example, those with the flashing lights - can serve a practical function as they provide light.
Oh, what a weird planet we live in.