<< >I'm glad to know those Eskimos are so fashion-conscious (since it's
>clearly not their horses).
The association of trousers with status goes back at least 2000 years and they have been adopted exclusively in the majority of the world for about 1500 years. I don't know when the Inuit separated culturally from the other asian immigrants to North America >>
Around 2300 BC - but surely the question is 'when did they separate culturally from peoples that use horses?' In fact, at the time their ancestors immigrated into North America (c. 12,000 BC at the latest), the horse had not yet been domesticated so they can't have been exposed to such a culture until the white man arrived in the New World.
<<but it is possible that the social convention already existed then. >>
Not if it arose from horse-riding, it can't have done.
<<Alternatively it may be a relatively recent change and previously they wore leggings under their knee length tunics (AKA dresses). >>
That would remain the only possibility - and I'm not at all convinced it's true.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
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