Skamneli, Zagori: Shepherd; Sarakatsani; Transhumance Routes in Greece

A classic portrait of a Sarakatsan shepherd, Haralambos Theodoros Gogolos ('Thodorakis'), Skamneli, Zagori, 1955:

From Sarakatsanaioi, Poreia ston topo kai sto chrono, 2nd. edition, Athens, 2012

The photograph, by Greek photographer 'Dimitri', also appeared in J.K.Campbell's 'Honour, Family, and Patronage', Oxford, 1964.

Thodorakis' face is very much as how I had imagined Old Aristakis, the Mount Gamila Goatherd:

They call him Lord of the Gorge,

Alone with his goats

On vertical slopes.

See also:

CULTURE AND NATURE: THE EUROPEAN HERITAGE OF SHEEP FARMING AND PASTORAL LIFE

Transhumance Routes in Greece (CANEPAL) - download pdf report by AIKATERINI GKOLTSIOU

Or download attachments here:

Transhumance routes in Greece

The author's viewpoint (extract from report):

"Shepherds who owned more than 300 sheep, were called “smihtes”. Each tseligato had three and more “smihtes”. The other shephers who had 100 sheep were called “tsopanoi”. However, they all had equal rights and obligations. Each tseligato had the shepherds for the protection of the flock, the guide (αγωγιάτη) who was in charge of carrying the products and the equipments and the milkman. Sarakatsans had also a teacher for their children education and a priest. Tseligas was the owner of the tseligato and was responsible for all the commercial activities between the shepherds and the state. Therefore, he had to know listening and writing, to be honest, moderate and a good negotiator. According to Braudel (1985), shepherds were considered poor and outlaw people. People from the cities confronted them as barbarians or semi savages. Till today there is discrimination, but most of them are also owners of the flocks. The level of income from farming of livestock mainly depends on the size of the flock, irrespective of the animal’s productivity (Apostolopoulos and Rogdakis, 1996). The Greek government was giving subsidies mostly funded from the E.U., offering an important economical support. The accession in the EU in 1981 and the Common Market mechanisms resulted to an economical growth for shepherds. Farmers relied more on the increase of the flock size which results in increasing family income from subsidies and other compensations, rather than increasing production efficiency. On the other hand farmers are more interested in improving labour efficiency rather than making capital investments (Spathis et al., 1998). In most cases, the above subsidies were leading to circumstantional occupations and not to serious investing projects. Nowadays, this support is towards an extensification system of farming according to the Measure 214, action plan 1.3. The subsidies are more carefully spent, and more intellectual people are involved in sheep farming, giving a more serious business profile to pasturalism".  AIKATERINI GKOLTSIOU.


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Σκάρος Πετρολούκα Χαλκιά (Skaros)


"Σκάρος" και "Τ' αρμέξανε τα πρόβατα" (ΑΣΠΡΟΠΟΤΑΜΟΣ)