Buijs, Cunera C.M., 2004 Furs and Fabrics. Transformations, Clothing and Identity in East Greenland, Leiden, Leiden University, CNSW, 269 pages.

Studies on clothing, its significance and role in Inuit society have burgeoned over the past two decades. The publication now of a Ph.D. dissertation on East Greenland (Greenland is now known as Kalaallit Nunaat) clothing is a most welcome and exciting addition to the literature in an area little known to scholars, both Inuit and non-Inuit, and the general public alike. The author is eminently qualified to enlighten readers on the subject. Netherlander Cunera Buijs has degrees in cultural anthropology from Leiden University and from the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Research of Social Systems. In 1990 she was appointed Curator for Circumpolar Cultures at the National Museum of Ethnology (Rijksmuseum voor volkenkunde). As well, the School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University, appointed her as a research associate in 1996. Since 1982 she has made many visits to East Greenland to continue her research including a stay of six months. The appointments at the Rijksmuseum and as CNSW research associate are ongoing. The book’s focus is on the meanings of the transformations in Tunumiit (East Greenland Inuit) clothing as seen in the social, cultural, economic, and political changes in that society. After the Introduction, it is divided into three chapters that discuss East Greenland dress during the main historical periods: the end of the 19th century, the first half of the 20th century, and the second half of the twentieth century into the 21st century. The final chapter presents results and conclusions of the research. Throughout the book the author uses Inuit terms and in one of the indices lists East and West Greenlandic terms with a corresponding English translation. The author intertwines Greenland history with a meticulous exposition of men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel. Surprisingly, East Greenland was only “discovered” in 1884—by Gustav Holm, a Danish Lieutenant—as compared to western contact with West Greenland, for example, during the Norse Period AD 1000 to 1400 or the Danish-Norwegian government expeditions 1605 to 1608. East Greenland then had a self-sufficient economy. But it began to be seriously affected by European fishermen, especially the Norse, who reduced the whale population and devastated the large seal herds, resulting in periods of starvation for the Tunumiit. Norse fishermen took four million seals from 1851 to 1926 (p. 110). The trading post established in 1894 provided East Greenlanders with European goods—rifles, textiles, tobacco, food. During the Danish colonization period and the 1960s, the population was centralized into eight permanent settlements to provide services: prefabricated housing, electricity, a water supply in winter, schools, churches, trading and medical posts, shops, modern transportation that brought tourism. Another development in the 19th century was the establishment of relations between East and West Greenland that began to overcome the relative isolation of East Greenland from the Western part. During the World War of 1939 to 1945, Americans took over the organization and administration of the country and after 1945 development programs from Denmark began. Greenland achieved the status of Province of Denmark in 1953 and thereby was no longer, at least legally, a colony. In 1957 the thirteen-member District Council of East Greenland was elected by the local population in cooperation with the Council of Hunters. Self-government for Greenland (Hjemmestyre) was proclaimed in 1979. Of course inequalities persisted, particularly seen in wage differences between the salaries of East Greenland Inuit and of Danes and West Greenlanders. Later the government leveled the salaries by giving subsidies. The many ways in which these changes—political, economic, educational, religious, social—affected and transformed East Greenland clothing is at the core of this work. The author examines these changes to Tunumiit clothing from the …