Thursday, March 22, 2012

Nudity as a solution to dampness - March 22, 2012

mixed light shower and humid all day. Decent ground moistening weather (which we badly need), and prefectly OK most of the day to walk about in. Walked Anya around the block this morning... things are greening up and she really likes to sniff things.

I got a book from the library on Native American clothing. In fact that's what it's called, Native American Clothing: an Illustrated History. Lovely pictures, but it's such a massive subject it really can't go into as much detail as I would like.

I did spend a little while looking at the Northwest Coast section a bit, still intrigued by the question: what did the locals do right that Lewis, Clark et al. did wrong?

One answer is pretty straightforward: there was a lot more nudity before European traders began to dominate the economy. Nudity with capes and hats. That could work. Well, some of the year it could work. It doesn't really answer the question of how you survive (hunting and fishing) in January on Vancouver Island or by the mouth of the Columbia River.

Alas, the author is very interested in clothing as status marker, and indeed much of the reall interesting "ethnographic" material we have is from formal, ceremonial life, not everyday working gear. Oh well, I'll have a further read through relevant sections.

No comments:

Post a Comment