ITALY
THE SHEPHERDS
BY CHIARA, JENNI
All subsistence strategies imply a know-how, knowledge that are often a source of pride and that are learned and transformed through the experience.
Anthropologists Aime, Allovio and Viazzo have conducted research on the community of shepherds who move seasonally Roaschia in the province of Cuneo.
Even today, the former pastors are ready to proudly list their different knowledge: all diseases of sheep, the different types of grass, every road leading into the plain.
The shepherds prefer to remember their skills in daily sales of cottage cheese in the villages of the plain of Piedmont, in the market place the cheese. The knowledge of the pastor was linked in particular to the knowledge of the area, but it was also an ability to move within their own group. The shepherds are still a cohesive group, with a strong sense of belonging to a professional group.