Staying in
Fontecchio, Italy has revealed to me why Alessio Di Giulio,
our dear friend and tour guide, loves the Abruzzo
region. Before we set out on our daily adventure, Alessio told us about
the transhumance paths that we were going to see and
walk on that day. Transhumance is the practice of moving livestock
from one grazing ground to another in a seasonal cycle, typically to lowlands
in winter to take advantage of grasses growing in the cooler, wetter
climate and highlands in summer to avoid the droughts in the
lowlands, to graze the herds on grasses growing as a result of melting snow,
and to allow the grasses in the lowlands to recover.
Alessio told us that the use
of the transhumance paths has been slowly dying out.
He said that ancient people established the paths and practice. The paths
became such an important part of the economy that, during the Roman era, the
paths were regulated and protected. This
idea of recognizing and protecting these pathways was an early example of
common property regimes (CPR’s).
Transhumance goes hand in hand with
the need to establish CPRs because the existence of the 250-km path
relied on CPRs. Common property was created by “the State for
the balance of power in ensuring mutualism and cooperation in land use between
peasants and nomads, particularly” (Herders and common property in evolution:
an example from central Italy, Forni, 47).
This common property was crucial for herders’ sheep to get key nutrients
by moving them along the transhumance path down from the highlands in
October and then up the path in June when they left the low plains. The
sheep herder’s tradition of traveling via the transhumance path has
decreased rapidly since the late 1900’s. This tradition that has existed
for thousands of years has been replaced by a method that maximizes profit for
the individual.
Our adventure for the day allowed
us to walk a small part of these ancient paths in the Abruzzo region and
Rocca Classico. These paths are shown below. During the visit to Rocco Classico we
saw a sheep herd in the highlands that no longer participates in the tradition
of the transhumance paths. This prompted me to ask the class,
why they think farmers have moved away from using the traditional transhumance
paths? One answer was in order to maximize
profit for individuals. So, instead of having a whole
community working for one sheep herd, one family or an individual owns
and cares for the herd. This could have been done as agricultural
technologies improved, such as use of fertilizers,
making it so that the sheep can have food
year-round in one area. The Abruzzo region,
from what we saw today and what I and my classmates hypothesized,
is that the region is moving away from traditional
transcendence paths precisely because of
technological improvements.
Our adventure for the day with our
tour guide and dear friend Alessio was eye opening because of the connections I
was able to make with the article I read. We were able to see the
transhumance paths and could imagine how they
were used and why the idea and formation of common property was
imperative to the paths and the lifestyle that they
supported. During our visit to the sheep farm, we also were able
to see, first hand, how technology has changed
sheep farming and what it means to be a modern shepherd and
why these modern shepherds have moved away from using the
ancient transhumance paths. In sum Fontecchio, Italy has been
one of the best learning experiences I have had so far.
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