Meat

Abstract

The essay reflects on the anthropology of everyday life in the socialist system, with particular reference to Poland between 1945 and 1989, using the example of meat – its acquisition, preparation and symbolic function. The treatment of meat under socialism is similar to that under Nazi occupation: shortages in meat supply pose a threat to the health, life and happiness of citizens. What is new in socialism is women’s specialization in home meat processing. Also, socialism produces “meat folklore” – the supply system, illegal circulation, queues, ration coupons, shopping as “hunting”. On the other hand, the authorities punish unofficial trade severely, which reinforces the popular conviction that meat is especially important. The opposition between past and the present lies in the different approach to meat and its consumption. The “meatness” of the past epoch can be treated from a contemporary ecofeminist perspective as an aberration, as abjectness and addiction. The text uses the generic tradition of Virginia Woolf’s essay-writing, where literary, anthropological and historical knowledge function alongside autobiographical micro-narrations.

Keywords:

• meat
• the abject
• autobiography
• personal memory
• socialism
• Poland

Notes

1. General Wojciech Jaruzelski proclaimed martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981. Under this law, the Solidarity trade union was abolished, and its leaders (including Lech Wałęsa) interned or imprisoned. Dissident activity went underground.

2. All titles and quotations in the text are provided by the translator of the article.

3. Władysław Gomułka was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party from 1956 to 1970.

4. US dollars-only and Deutschmarks-only shops with good supplies of either imported merchandise – branded jeans, alcohol, equipment – or goods for export hard to obtain in regular shops.