Comments on: What the well-dressed fieldworker is wearing this summer (i)

By: Archaeo_Gyrl

Archaeo_Gyrl — Thu, 01 May 2014 01:36:38 +0000

When I went to Belize (ages ago), it was highly recommended we bring cotton underpants (or fancy wicking, but no guarantees that it wouldn’t get messed up.)
The other recc we got that I pass along is- don’t wear thongs to locations with chiggers (such as Belize or the southern US) unless you know you are absolutely non-reactive to chiggers. Chiggers like tight spots, especially bands. Find some full bottomed drawers you like, or else get stuck with the drawstring broadcloth Victorian style Mennonite underwear and trying to shove all that fabric into your pants.
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Bras are going to be very personal, but in general a quality sports bra will be wicking. For person with breasts of large size, I highly recommend Enell sports bras (I wear them as a J-cup), they are even available as custom-sized, they are my absolute most supportive bra and they do well in sweaty, high impact activities (bonus, they get tissue out of my pits so I can swing a shovel or pick more fluidly). As an extra layer of protection, I have sweat pads (I make my own of linen, but they are available for purchase on the web) to absorb sweat from under and between the breasts- if it’s really sweaty i’ll change them out a few times through the day. These are just a few layers of fabric shaped sort of like uu and sewn together; they stay in from pressure of the bra.

By: dianabuja

dianabuja — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 06:22:59 +0000

Thanks for the reference, which I-m following up. We don-t get a lot of fancy stuff in the used clothes bundles that arrive here, I generally go for the cotton. In years that I bought for field work (in Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, etc) I always opted for the Bananna Republic, whose styles were conservative enough and always 100 per cent. Don-t know how they are doing now.
PS I enjoy your blog and only wish that you had an Email function, which perhaps you do have and only I cannot find it.

By: Matthew Timothy Bradley

Matthew Timothy Bradley — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 12:13:48 +0000

Thanks, glad you are enjoying it. I have seen a couple of good things on the secondhand clothing trade. There is of course the documentary T-shirt Travels, and last year the National Public Radio program Planet Money did a project on the cradle-to-grave life of a t-shirt.

By: dianabuja

dianabuja — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 06:25:25 +0000

This is a great series and i will pass it on! Here in Burundi we do buy most of our clothing as part of the cheap and fantastic used clothing business: One of the best businesses in this part of the impoverished world

By: What the well-dressed fieldworker is wearing this summer (ii) | Savage Minds

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:58:12 +0000

[…] initial entry in this series focused on some commonly taken for granted pieces of clothing—underwear, hats, […]

By: Matthew Timothy Bradley

Matthew Timothy Bradley — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 21:54:40 +0000

For female bodied anthropologists, cotton underwear is a necessity. In many fieldsites, the “law enforcement” of metronidazole/yeast infection cream is not easy to find, and antimalarials etc. can mess with your vaginal flora to begin with. TMI perhaps, but if you’re going somewhere where the health services are crappy, you want to keep yourself healthy.

This is a question that female thru-hikers worry at length. (And I’m an RN’s son, so there is no TMI with me as far as bodily functions go. ) The best preventative medicine underwear would be non-binding and made of hydrophobic, wicking, highly breathable, quick-drying fabric. No one fabric does all of those individual things equally well. Many but not all female hikers do choose cotton. Many choose to hike with no underwear.

As you mention with the doxycycline, there are other factors to consider, as well. The right sleepwear can be a huge help in keeping fungal infections at bay.

By: barbaraaandersen

barbaraaandersen — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 20:21:22 +0000

For female bodied anthropologists, cotton underwear is a necessity. In many fieldsites, the “law enforcement” of metronidazole/yeast infection cream is not easy to find, and antimalarials etc. can mess with your vaginal flora to begin with. TMI perhaps, but if you’re going somewhere where the health services are crappy, you want to keep yourself healthy.

By: Matthew Timothy Bradley

Matthew Timothy Bradley — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:43:08 +0000

Obviously bodies are different, and others might find them quite nice, but my advice is to definitely know that you are comfortable in whatever undergarments you’re taking with you. I underestimated how much underwear affected my daily mood.

It’s true. Socks tend to have the same effect and to come with the same proviso, in my experience.

By: nell haynes

nell haynes — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 08:02:38 +0000

Several years ago, before embarking on fieldwork in La Paz (not at all a warm weather destination), I bought a few pairs of women’s ExOfficio quick drying underwear, thinking it would be helpful to be able to wash and dry them quickly. However, I thought they were extremely uncomfortable, and ended up only wearing the few pairs of regular ol’ cotton undies I had with me. They took much longer to dry, but I didn’t spend all day trying to adjust them without anyone spying me. Obviously bodies are different, and others might find them quite nice, but my advice is to definitely know that you are comfortable in whatever undergarments you’re taking with you. I underestimated how much underwear affected my daily mood.