Page 98 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Matteo Di Tullio and Claudio Lorenzini

On the Mountain Pastures
Among the tasks required of women was transportation to and from the
mountain pastures during the summer months: salt, foodstuffs and wine
on the way up; cheese and cottage cheese on the way down.
When they arrived up there, for example in the Festa mountain in use
by the communities of Mena and Somplago, or in the Palâr mountain used
together by all the villages of the Pieve di Cavazzo, it is very likely that the
women had found foreigners to oversee the mountain pastures. Men spe-
cialized in animal husbandry and milk processing from the villages of the
piedmont area (the Asio valleys), the alpine area bordering Carnia from the
south, are attested in these productive roles as early as the late sixteenth
century and more prominently during the eighteenth century, when their
presence began to be massive and enduring beyond the summer season.
Evidence of this immigration process can be found in the decisions of com-
munity assemblies against foreigners during the second half of the eigh-
teenth century, by which they reaffirmed their exclusion from the enjoy-
mentofcommonresourcessuchasforestsandmountainpastures(Catalan
and Stebel 1987, 78–83).
The books of accounts of the Billiani constantly document men from the
communities of the valleys of Asio as workers or, better, as head of the
workers with animals. For example, in May 1705, the Billiani family agreed
with Tommaso del Maniutto of Clauzetto as ‘a familiar to serve and take
account of [...] animals,’ a task acknowledged with 60 lire peryear(asu,
ab,b.3, c, c. 296r).Fromthe second half of the eighteenthcentury, sever-
al men from these villages were employed as mowers and hired during the
month of June for at least three months. Some examples: Pietro Cecon of
Celant was employed for five years (1796–1799), arriving at the beginning
of or mid–June and returning to his village at the end of September (asu,
ab, b.6, n,c. 213). Previously, between 1788 and1790, he hadworked for
the Billiani family together with his brother Antonio, who instead had ex-
tended his seasons as a mower until at least 1794 (asu, ab, b. 6, n, c. 128).
Even earlier, in 1780 and until 1784, besides the summer seasons, Anto-
niohadmovedto Somplagoalsoduringthe winter (asu, ab, b. 6, n, c. 23).
Pietro Coledan mowed hay for the Billiani from 1790 to 1804, although not
continuously (asu, ab, b. 6, n, c. 161).
In summary, we can interpret the presence of these foreign mowers as
an indicator of the progressive expansion and intensification in the cattle
breeding sector.

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