Hell, if there's a single anthropological universal, it might very well be that. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Nudity is a very buddha kind of thing. It extends from the pacific to Europe and the US, but it is lacking in most non-buddha, non-Chrst ,-non_allah, no-single major-entity above the semi-gods (in crhistian faith called saints) culture...
I wonder why that would be? well I guess I now have to go and reread Levi-Strauss again :)
Specially toa pply the reading to nude beaches, interesting topic.
On the topic at hand, everybody knows my point of view around here.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
I have the gut opinon that it is like a sacred place (I have never been done ethnology on a nude beach so I do not know, but I would love to), and it is structured like a non-monotesitic religion. Since I seem to remember that the concept of being nude is strongly linked with monoteistic (or one god above the others) religion I would bet that most people in nude beaches either are agnostic or follow other spirittual structures, and therefore they use it as a sacred place.
In any case, I do not know enough about that, I should read a bit on religion structre/space structure/and human body covering or bodies tabus...and relearn some antrhopology 201 :)
structured like a non-monotesitic religion
Some crhristian congregations, those on the left and on "god is love" who work with kids use them too. I have always wondered how they manage and why they do it.
It is difficult to translate to english , but I guess in spanish you get my point. In catalan I call it the "esplai" structure. Do you know what a "esplai" is?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esplai
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esplai
It is similar to scouts, but completely different :)
"Kumbaya" (also spelled Kum Ba Yah) is a spiritual song from the 1930s. It enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s and became a standard campfire song in Scouting and other nature-appreciative organizations. The song was originally associated with human and spiritual unity, closeness and compassion, and it still is, but more recently it is also cited or alluded to in satirical, sarcastic or even cynical ways that suggest blind or false moralizing, hypocrisy, or naively optimistic views of the world and human nature.[1]
"Kumbaya" (also spelled Kum Ba Yah) is a spiritual song from the 1930s. It enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s and became a standard campfire song in Scouting and other nature-appreciative organizations.
The song was originally associated with human and spiritual unity, closeness and compassion, and it still is, but more recently it is also cited or alluded to in satirical, sarcastic or even cynical ways that suggest blind or false moralizing, hypocrisy, or naively optimistic views of the world and human nature.[1]
