Clothing and climate in Aboriginal Australia

Abstract

Ethnohistorical study of the use of clothing among Australian Aborigines in relation to their thermal environment indicates that clothing was a behavioral adaptation to cold exposure. Seasonal data and trends in Tasmania and parts of northern Australia are not entirely consistent with the overall thermal pattern. Likely reasons for these anomalies include interaction between latitude and season of observation, greater biological adaptation to cold south of Bass Strait, and influence from a regional cultural sphere centered north of the mainland.