Why Do Bedouins wear black in the desert?

We seem to have hijacked Ukknifer’s thread. Mea Culpa, but I can’t resist adding this.

“I always said ye shoulda’ played wi’ the Sodom and Gomorra’ Gowfin Society on the Dead Sea,” rumbled Julian…“Twelve hundred feet below the sea, their li’l coorse was. Played the thing maself before the war. Like playin’ in the inferno. The inferno itself. Only the English woulda’ thought of doin’ a think like tha’.”

“The Sodom and Gomorrah Golfing Society!” Eve exclaimed. “There was such a place?”

“Indeed there was, in a town called Kallia, upon the Dead Sea,” Julian said.

“Now, Julian, you must admit that playing such a course affected your game,”…

“Well, I’ll tell ye, Eve,” he replied, “It left an indelible impression on me that the English could stick it out in hell and niver know the difference.”

Golf in the Kingdom, Michael Murphy
 
In the middle east the heat is very dry. You cant find water in many places so one of the things you must do is cover up so you wont sweat as much. Then also lets not forget which parts are closer to the polars where its closer to the Equator which again its the sun. Im sure that even the American Indians would cover up if they had access to cotton and wool. Also in the desert there arent many places to hide during noon when most normal dogs would hide in the shade. As a kid growing up in Israel it was normal to see streets empty out between 12 and 2 during the summer time. You always heard on the news of people die from exposer to the sun or not drinking enough. Every year at the start of summer we had the teachers explain about heat stroke how to handle it how to prevent it. It was a big thing out there. As i understand with A/c more common people dont think about it as much. They also dont teach in school about how to prevent heat stroke. I guess with the technology people rely on it more then common sence.

Sasha
 
Sasha, not all of the middle east is dry. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, on the coast of the Red Sea. It was sandy desert right up to the beach, but the proximity to the coast made it extremely humid. The local bedouin still wore black or dark colors that were probably once black.
 
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As someone who is out here with indeginous middle eastern people, ive seen them wearing a multitude of colors and clothing and i think they really just wear what they want. If you took away the japanese cars and russian assault rifles some of these countries are almost portals to the past. These guys have been doing what they do for over 1000 years almost unchanged and im sure their ancestors chose the colors for looks rather than utility.
 
These ancient societies adapt over time, they all have their own techniques and obviously they work. Unfortunately our modern society is so detached because we are so much more "advanced" that we cower inside climate controlled buildings instead of braving nature's fury 24 hours a day... so many ancient secrets that were developed over centuries or even millenia get lost, it's sad really.
 
By coincidence I just had QI on in the background and this exact question came up. Their team of researchers could find no evidence for the color of the clothing making any difference.

The darker clothes shedding heat faster idea touches on what RoyalM said [reasonable guess] but is unsupported. The idea that the way the black heats up creates a cooling updraft has been proposed by others. The QI team could find no credible evidence for that though.

This all strikes me as very counter intuitive. With all the variables controlled I'd expect the black to be hotter, but 'till someone puts up something concrete I'm retaining a provisional it doesn't matter.
 
Ron Hood reckons they wear black to increase the temperature in their clothing, thereby inducing more sweating, thus causing more evaporation to occur, resulting in a cooler temp.
I understand what he's saying, but intentionally increasing sweating, rather than wearing a heat reflective colour sounds a little backwards by my logic.
 
beef said:
Ron Hood reckons they wear black to increase the temperature in their clothing, thereby inducing more sweating, thus causing more evaporation to occur, resulting in a cooler temp.
I understand what he's saying, but intentionally increasing sweating, rather than wearing a heat reflective colour sounds a little backwards by my logic.
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Yeh that sounds sorta screwy. I mean it looks ok as you go from point to point, but it basically comes down to saying that the way to beat the heat is to do something that makes you even hotter. That can't possibly be right.

By that logic if I'm cold in the winter I should take off my hat and coat. :confused:
 
Might just have been a symbol of status, with black or dark blue dyes being harder to obtain, and thus worn as symbol of wealth.

Hell, could be battle dress for easier Identification in a fracas.
 
beef said:
Ron Hood reckons they wear black to increase the temperature in their clothing, thereby inducing more sweating, thus causing more evaporation to occur, resulting in a cooler temp.
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There may be something to that. It works for cooling water in a canvas "desert water bag".


Kismet said:
Might just have been a symbol of status,
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Didn't they make a big deal about identifying tribes and rank based on robes in "Lawrence of Arabia"
 
I'll start by saying that Norway isn't know for it's heat, however. In older times, farmers and others were often known to wear quite a lot of clothes during summer. And what i've been told about this tradition, was that they "blocked" the heat. They'd wear mostly wool i think, which would wick up their sweat, and create an evaporative effect, in turn making them cooler. Doesn't sound logical, but that's what i've been told.
 
Ramm9 said:
Didn't they make a big deal about identifying tribes and rank based on robes in "Lawrence of Arabia"
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Not to nitpick and no offense intended but:

Lawrence of Arabia was set in Middle East.
The "real" "Blue people" are actually Tuaregs, not Bedouins.
They live in Sahara and are Berbers not Arabs.
 
aarya said:
I'll start by saying that Norway isn't know for it's heat, however. In older times, farmers and others were often known to wear quite a lot of clothes during summer. And what i've been told about this tradition, was that they "blocked" the heat. They'd wear mostly wool i think, which would wick up their sweat, and create an evaporative effect, in turn making them cooler. Doesn't sound logical, but that's what i've been told.
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I think this is more behind how desert peoples cool themselves than anything. I don't think the outer layer really matters. For westerners that wear one, or at most, two layers in the desert, you want a light color.

The way the middle easterner's robes work is by having many, thin layers, their constant motion stirs up the air and uses convective cooling, rather than radiative cooling. The outer layer doesn't matter, because the outer layer of air never reaches the person. The layers of air act as insulation, keeping the wearer at, or just slighly above body temperature. Which is still hot, but 98.6 or whatever the individual's body temp is, is a lot cooler than the outside 130 or so degrees.

IIRC they also take off/pull back the top of the robes and expose the head shoirtly after sundown, to allow cooling to take place, and then replace their head dress when temperatures start getting uncomfortably low, and then the layers of clothing insulate them from the cold air outside.
 
I recall an article from Scientific American, maybe 25, 30 years ago, that addressed this very question. IIRC they actually measured temps inside of both traditional dark, and experimental white robes, and found the temps to be the same. The dark clothes were preferred as they simply don't show the dirt.
 
Gentlemen,

As I understand it, from a bedouin I met last time I visited the holy land, the outer layer is there to allow the middle layer to trap air pockets to provide insulation, there's then an underlayer for wicking. The middle layer is loosely wrapped fabric, which is effectively like randomised corrugation, and the under layer is loose fitting cotton.

Hope that helps,

Dave
 
Heat flows from hotter areas to colder areas, so it may make sense to put on insulation when air temperatures gets significantly higher than skin temperature. Of course insulation will trap body heat but that might be an acceptable trade-off in very hot climate.
 
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