<\/p>\n
T<\/span>he farms were characteristic structures of the South Italy where agricultural and zootechnical activities were carried out.<\/p>\n The farms had an autonomous organization and their management was provided by several people among which was in force a rigid hierarchy.<\/p>\n At the top there was the massaro<\/em> of the sheep and the one of the fields. Then there were the capo morra<\/em> (a morra<\/em> consisted in a flock of 200-250 sheeps), the casiere<\/em> employed in the wrapping of the cheeses, and the shepherd who had to guard a morra<\/em> of sheeps.<\/p>\n The last step of this hierarchical staircase were the boys which were often object of maltreatments and violences from the adult shepherds.<\/p>\n The shepherds conducted a life not-unlike that of the animals that they brought to the pasture; forced to live in the sheepfolds, they could reach the family only every fifteen days for food and clean garments supply.<\/p>\n They received a small salary, food and some times the privilege to conduct to the pasture their own sheep together with those of their master.<\/p>\n Two events characterized during the year the shepherds’ life: the transumanza<\/em> (seasonal migration of the flocks from plain pastures to mountain ones and vice-versa) and the shearing.<\/p>\n The life of the shepherds in the pastures had endless times of silence and loneliness almost always filled by wood-carving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n