The Thermal and Transpirative Properties of Arctic Clothing Construction: A Women’s Adaptive Technology

Summary

The technical ability of women to engineer clothes as adaptation to the harsh arctic environment in Indigenous North America has not been extensively investigated. My research focuses on the analysis of the thermal and transpiration properties of Arctic clothing. The materials chosen for clothing have certain inherent properties that include species of animal selected, different tanning processes, patterning of the garments, seam construction, and tailoring. All these properties play into the thermal and transpirative properties of a finished piece. Through the examination of garments in the collections of the Smithsonian National museum of Natural History I determined the patterning and seam construction employed by Western Alaskan women; here I focus on a parka, a pair of leggings, and a pair of mittens. Such patterning, seam construction, and tailoring techniques make possible year round habitation of the Arctic.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage