Fur clothing

Fur clothing is clothing made entirely of, or partially of, the fur of animals. Fur is one of the oldest forms of clothing, considered to have been widely used as hominids first expanded outside of Africa and encountered cold weather. The hunting of animals and use of their fur as clothing was already practiced by Homo neanderthalensis, before the apperance of Homo sapiens, the present type of human beings.

In more recent times, use of fur clothing shifted from being mainly a defence against cold weather to being primarily a status symbol indicating the affluence and lavish spending of those who could afford such clothing. Over the past several decades, animal rights activists have been campaigning strongly against fur clothing, arguing that it is immoral to cause suffering to animals solely in order to create such status symbols.

Fur clothing in Crosstime Traffic
Since the middle of the 21st Century, society in the Home timeline has developed a very strong taboo against the wearing of fur clothing, to the point that seeing a fur - and even more, touching one - aroused a strong instinctictive reaction of disgust and nausea. This was true also of people who were not vegetarians and had no aversion to eating meat. Wearing fur was not illegal, but the few people who still did it were considered "perverts" and had to practice their retrograde hobby in secret.

One of the significant problems faced by crosstimers was to blend into the normal daily life at alternate timelines where the wearing of fur clothing was still an acceptable social norm. For example, Jeremy Solters, when carrying out a delicate diplomatic mission on behalf of the besieged city of Polisso, was given a fur coat by the King of Lietuva - a generous royal gift by the King's norms, and he would have been higly offended had Jeremy refused the gift or shown openly his disgust. However, the young trader was able to express thanks in a credible way, pick up the coat and take it back into the city - one of the most difficult moments for him in the entire course of the siege.