Eep... worldbuilding. What do the Wild Tribes wear?

[aldersprig]

Okay. So, for the Anthropologist sub-series of the Planners'verse...

The narrator. I picture her original clothing a combination of a British explorer - thus and Evie from the 1st Mummy movie - thus, or dollies.

Her look is something like this girl and this girl (here).

Okay. That's the easy part. Librarians wear robes, see icon. They have textile production, at least small-scale.

This is 300+ years after the "Conflict," which, as I can picture it, is a massive economic meltdown leading to total social collapse. Enclaves of "civilization" exist, along with tribes who have gone back to a nomadic lifestyle, who distrust the Tower(s), the villages, etc.

So. What do the Wild Tribes wear?

Also, why hasn't more technology reasserted itself? *why* is so much of the country still wild?

But more importantly right now, what do the Wild Tribes wear?

Comments

[meridian_rose]

The Wild Tribes are nomads? So bits of clothing they've scavenged up/traded for from more civilised areas, along with skins of fur and leather from any animals they hunt; maybe they weave wool too, and use things like feathers as decorations. Strong plant fibres woven into material too. Very personal and individual in direct contrast to the uniform of the Librarians; jewellery/tattoos and the like mark leaders rather than better clothes.

Just a quick ramble on what came to mind :D

[aldersprig]

Hrrm, small-looms, the little hand-weaving ones for small strips of fabric in plant-dyed colours.

Anything left seeming apoc-y?

I sort of want a picture of the Anthropologist with a combo of her original wear and the Tribes' wear.

[(Anonymous)]

Practically speaking, backpack-sized looms are more likely - fabric about a foot across, maybe a little wider. Smaller looms would be more likely in tribes higher up on the food chain, who have time to bother with decoration as opposed to keeping warm somehow.

[aldersprig]

Okay, you have a very good point there. Shaggy goats? (<3 goats) or just really really shaggy horses?

Now I'm picturing them breeding bears for wool.

[inventrix]

My first thought is "what's the weather like?" That determines how much they wear.

From what I can see in the stories, the Tribes do a lot of raiding and pillaging of other tribes and villages. The higher-ranking members of the tribe would therefore probably wear outfits with lots of "civilized" parts; higher-quality textiles, etc.

The tribes probably have the means for some simple textiles, which would be the basic fabrics that lower-ranking tribal members would wear. Also likely skins/leathers and furs. (If it's too warm for skins and furs, they probably would not wear much in the way of functional clothing.)

There would probably be a lot of rank-based decorative accessories, beads, bones, teeth, pillaged trinkets.

[inventrix]

As for why Civilization hasn't reinstated itself, well, you can look at the post-Roman Fall period for some ideas. (5th through 7th centuries or so.) Not nomadic, true, but it's a similar concept of isolated pockets of knowledge preservation.

[aldersprig]

*makes notes on history to read* okay. Thanks. :-)

[inventrix]

I just noticed on the LJ comments that it's basically set in the NYish area? That changes a lot...

One of the notable characteristics about nomadic tribes is that they usually occur in fairly plains-like areas. The main nomadic groups I can think of offhand are the mongols and some African tribes, both in fairly wide-open areas with migrating herds. (I've been picturing the setting as a somewhat arid was-once-apocalyptic-wasteland as a result.)

There is not really any herd migration in the northeast US, so a nomadic lifestyle is very unlikely to develop. If you look at the sort of tribal Native American groups in that area, they tended much more towards the agricultural or relatively stay-put hunter/gatherer.

You could (and quite likely would) still easily get a lot of the aggressive tribal warfare, but I don't really see a nomadic lifestyle specifically being sustainable in the Appalachians etc.

[elfling_eryn]

Along with what was said above (mix of clothes, simple materials, raided higher class stuff) I'd also think that there's a lot of changing and 'fitting' going on, so the clothes might be made from various patches of different materials so long as the color fit, or different colors of the same material, a bit like a rag rug.

If the nomads distrust the whole civilisation thing then it might also be possible that the raided stuff would be seen as unwanted/dirty/unfit for proper nomads, leaving the self made, high class leathers and fabrics for the leaders while the raided shirts ends up with the lower ranking members to be integrated into their clothes.

[aldersprig]

Good idea, thanks. Hee rag rug vesties.