Historia rural - History Lab

Lumberjacks or Winter

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:38 +0000

The scene depicted by Fiammingo in the second half of the 16th century represents one of the typical tasks of the European peasantry of the time. Winter, a season characterised by cold weather, requires wood to be obtained in order to light a fire and keep the family’s outbuildings warm.

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Country tasks or Spring

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

The scene depicted by Fiammingo shows the typical labours of the European peasantry in the second half of the 16th century at a particular time of the year. Various actions can be seen, ranging from gathering and making butter in the foreground, to milking cows for milk in the background, and in the distance, hunting for meat and skins to make coats and grazing. All of this is set in an idealised bucolic environment.

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Mowing and shearing or The Summer

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

Fiammingo’s composition depicts two of the typical scenes of 16th-century European peasantry, reflecting, through a vertical division in the composition, the activities of harvesting and shearing. After the winter and the subsequent spring, the rains have taken effect in the plantations for the subsequent harvesting of foodstuffs with which to subsist during the coming winter. With the same eagerness, the shearers collect the wool that has protected their animals from the cold to shelter them from the harsh climate that awaits them in a few months’ time.

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Population distribution in Europe (1500-1750)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

During the European Modern Age, the distribution of population among the different countries of the continent diverged according to their size, population characteristics, demography and socio-economic system. In general terms, the urban world grew quantitatively between 1500 and 1750 in most Western countries, although with varying intensity. England was the most developed in this respect; a development, however, that was already present in some Mediterranean countries, such as Spain and Italy, and others in the north, such as Belgium and the Netherlands. Despite urban growth, the great evolution that the author identifies in relation to population is the exponential development of the non-agricultural rural world. In fact, if in 1500 there were 152 rural nuclei of this type, in 1750 they rose to 236, in contrast to the decrease in the agricultural sphere, from 612 in 1500 to 505 in the middle of the 18th century. The transformation of the rural world was, once again, uneven across the continent. While England, Germany, France, Austria/Hungary and Poland were the communities that most experienced this process, Italy and Spain experienced it with less incidence. In short, the distribution of population in modern Europe meant that the countries where the agricultural revolution developed the earliest grew at the quantitative levels that were already present in the Mediterranean areas.

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Office of the owners of transhumant livestock in La Rioja (18th century)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

Transhumance has been a very relevant activity in the Spanish rural environment in pre-industrial times. Nowadays, knowledge about the work of shepherds is scarce due to a lack of documentation, as the phenomenon of pluriactivity must be taken into account. Had this not existed in the Rioja sierras – mainly through textile activity – the labour relations between stockbreeders and shepherds would have been very different. In socio-economic terms, it is understood that shepherds enjoyed transhumance in three ways: as owners, wage earners and enjoying exemptions granted by the monarchy (free of council offices, quintas and levies). However, it is necessary to clarify which type of shepherds we are referring to, as the hierarchies are not comparable in any field. The “mayorales” included management capacity and initiative, knowledge of the environment, administrators of goods and proxies for the herdsmen. As far as livestock owners were concerned, the ownership of livestock was the least evenly distributed of all. While two thirds of the inhabitants owned land and three quarters of them owned some kind of livestock, the owners of transhumant sheep accounted for only 27% of the inhabitants, being the most exclusive and concentrated asset in the hands of large livestock farmers and shepherds. The table shows the distribution of the flocks in various socio-professional groups. The stockbreeders, who were a handful of neighbours, accumulated 86% of the cattle; the shepherds, almost two thirds of the owners, owned 10% of the cattle in herds of less than 100 head. The rest, which did not exceed 20%, absorbed 3.2% of the livestock.

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Working life of the transhumant shepherds of La Rioja (Viniegra de Abajo, ca. 1740-1800).

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

Transhumance was a very important activity in the Spanish countryside in pre-industrial times. Nowadays, knowledge about the work of shepherds is scarce due to a lack of documentation, as the phenomenon of pluriactivity must be taken into account. Had this not existed in the Rioja sierras – mainly through textile activity – the labour relations between stockbreeders and shepherds would have been very different. In socio-economic terms, it is understood that shepherds enjoyed transhumance in three ways: as owners, wage earners and enjoying exemptions granted by the monarchy (free of council offices, quintas and levies). However, it is necessary to clarify which type of shepherds we are referring to, as the hierarchies are not comparable in any field. The majorales encompassed management capacity and initiative, knowledge of the environment, administrators of goods and proxies for the herdsmen. Moreover, the mayoral contracts required a power of attorney that enabled them to make decisions on the spot. However, the transhumant shepherds in La Rioja numbered around 2,150, at a rate of five for every thousand people. Of the total number of inhabitants in the La Demanda and Cameros mountain ranges, they accounted for around 30%. These shepherds had an average grazing period of 5.4 years, with 68.3% of those who worked in transhumance for less than five years, which does not allow them to be identified as shepherds. Even less with the 39 who did it for less than one year of service, people who were dismissed or expelled before the time of the first contract was up. In this sense, the herds suffered a significant labour turnover where the labour market of the transhumant herds was a particularly open environment where labour came and went very easily.

The post Working life of the transhumant shepherds of La Rioja (Viniegra de Abajo, ca. 1740-1800). first appeared on History Lab.