Another Tasmanian Paradox. Clothing and Thermal Adaptations in Aboriginal Australia

This work explores the nature and extent of the use of clothing in the pre-colonial Australian Aboriginal population.

Anthropological reviews have indicated that while a total absence of clothing was the usually the case, garments were sometimes worn, exclusively it would seem for reasons of warmth.

A problem with this picture emerges, however with the native population of Tasmania, who given their far southern location could be expected to make similar use of clothing as their counterparts on the southern mainland; they in fact seem to have made far less use of clothing.

This study examines this paradox, reviewing the ethnographic, physiological and archaeological evidence to propose some solutions.