A 17th-Century Russian Community Living in 21st-Century Alaska

[baldguy]

10. I have no clue about the psychology.

The psychological make up of illiterate prehistoric Middle Eastern goat herders has very little in common with humans in 21st century post-industrial Western society.

It's really just a traditional convention based on ancient Hebrew customs, which were written down in the Bible in I Corinthians (Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians). Paul was messed up about a lot of things - the treatment of women being a big one - and people thought he was a little old-fashioned in the First Century AD.

I Corinthians 11 starts out with:

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

And it gets worse from there. This is what forced my sainted Irish grandmother to wear a headscarf everywhere, even after Vatican II said it was OK to go without it.