so, we just learnt yesterday that Reagan said to Nixon in 1971:
"those monkeys from those African countries – damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
yes, once more, shoes are all about civilization, modernity, etc...
it reminds me this wonderful paper by Tim Ingold about the same question : https://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/feet.pdf
"And could not the technology of footwear be understood, again in some measure, as an effort to convert the imagined superiority of hands over feet, corresponding respectively to intelligence and instinct, or to reason and nature, into an experienced reality?"
and these few words from Ivan Illich, in Energy and Equity - 1973
"Shoes are scarce all over Latin America, and many people never wear them. They walk on the bare soles of their feet, or wear the world’s widest variety of excellent sandals, supplied by a range of artisans. Their transit is in no way restricted by their lack of shoes. But in some countries of South America people are compelled to be shod ever since access to schools, jobs, and public services was denied to the barefoot. Teachers or party officials define the lack of shoes as a sign of indifference toward “progress.” Without any intentional conspiracy between the promoters of national development and the shoe industry, the barefoot in these countries are now barred from any office"
or these words from another book, Women that Run with the Wolves :
“An old witch from Ranchos told me that La Que Sabe knew everything about women, that La Que Sabe had created women from a wrinkle on the sole of her divine foot: This is why women are knowing creatures; they are made, in essence, of the skin of the sole, which feels everything. This idea that the skin of the foot is sentient had a ring of a truth, for an acculturated Kiché tribeswoman once told me that she’d worn her first pair of shoes when she was twenty years old and was still not used to walking ‘con los ojos vendados’, with blindfolds on her feet.”
"those monkeys from those African countries – damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
yes, once more, shoes are all about civilization, modernity, etc...
it reminds me this wonderful paper by Tim Ingold about the same question : https://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/tourist/feet.pdf
"And could not the technology of footwear be understood, again in some measure, as an effort to convert the imagined superiority of hands over feet, corresponding respectively to intelligence and instinct, or to reason and nature, into an experienced reality?"
and these few words from Ivan Illich, in Energy and Equity - 1973
"Shoes are scarce all over Latin America, and many people never wear them. They walk on the bare soles of their feet, or wear the world’s widest variety of excellent sandals, supplied by a range of artisans. Their transit is in no way restricted by their lack of shoes. But in some countries of South America people are compelled to be shod ever since access to schools, jobs, and public services was denied to the barefoot. Teachers or party officials define the lack of shoes as a sign of indifference toward “progress.” Without any intentional conspiracy between the promoters of national development and the shoe industry, the barefoot in these countries are now barred from any office"
or these words from another book, Women that Run with the Wolves :
“An old witch from Ranchos told me that La Que Sabe knew everything about women, that La Que Sabe had created women from a wrinkle on the sole of her divine foot: This is why women are knowing creatures; they are made, in essence, of the skin of the sole, which feels everything. This idea that the skin of the foot is sentient had a ring of a truth, for an acculturated Kiché tribeswoman once told me that she’d worn her first pair of shoes when she was twenty years old and was still not used to walking ‘con los ojos vendados’, with blindfolds on her feet.”
