3 Review(s)

Siobhan Magee explores essential questions relating to the relationship between fur and culture in Poland. Magee looks into detailed analyses of conversations held relating to fur, including why fur is an apt inheritance for a grandmother to pass on to her granddaughter, what it was like trading fur on `black markets' during socialism, and why some anti-fur activists link fur to patriarchal power and the Roman Catholic Church. In so doing, it becomes clear how fur is an evocative textile with an uncommonly rich symbolic and historical significance. Written with reference to extensive fieldwork, Magee's ethnography becomes a means for understanding generational difference in Poland. She shows how the classification of generation can be a much more accessible indicator and measure of difference than other categories, including sexuality, class and faith. Thus, `generation' and `inheritance' are shown to be uniquely powerful idioms with which to discuss power and social change in Poland.