Domestic Slaughter in Southern Italy, with special reference to Campania Region

Authors

Keywords:

Slaughter – Livestock holding – Rural conservation

Abstract

The relationships between animals and humans date back thousands of years. Cultures around the world developed specific ways of interacting with the fauna over time, so that human communities accumulated a huge deposit of animal knowledge closely integrated with many other anthropological aspects focused on the human-animal relationship. Through the administration of a questionnaire-interview, in this work we studied ritual aspects related to animal slaughter, as well as the link between the slaughterhouse and the time of the year. Moreover, the apotropaic uses of Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 and Sus scrofa domesticus Erxleben, 1777, by local rural communities, were analyzed. The data we collected come with important witnesses, supported by old pictures and tools used during the slaughter that reinforced the story of the interviewee, allowing to draw a timeline after which the relationship between man and farm animals moves and gets modified. These almost forgotten rituals constitute an important ethnozoological knowledge to be integrated into our human cultural heritage. To the best of our data, this is the first study documenting the apotropaic uses of Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 and Sus scrofa domesticus Erxleben, 1777. All the questionnaires, administered in Campania, were analyzed and compared in the search of ritual customs, archaic beliefs and ancient legacies still present today and inherited from elder times. Rites surrounding animal slaughter aimed at communicating with the divine and at explaining all those processes that cannot be readily answered. Man, by making animals the protagonists of mythological tales and investing them with a sacred force, has linked to the slaughtering act a psychological component that has led the killing itself to being configured as a ritual. From the witnesses gathered, interesting parallelisms emerged stimulating thoughts on a serious and complex dichotomy of our present-day society: a meat-based diet versus the total rejection of it.

Integrating scientific knowledge with local ecological ones, the informations collected in this work can be used to design an effective and targeted conservation management strategy for these mammals as valid alternative to intensive farming.

References

Alves RRN, Souto WMS (2015) Ethnozoology: A Brief Introduction. Ethnobiology and conservation 4(1):1-13 doi:10.15451/ec2015-1-4.1-1-13.

Aristotle, (2002) Sulle Parti degli Animali. Carbone A (ed). Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, Milano.

Arditi M (1825) Il Fascino e l’Amuleto contro del Fascino presso gli Antichi. Stamperia Reale, Napoli.

Bailey KD (1978) Methods of Social Research. The Free Press, New York.

Basile GB (2013) Lo Cunto deli Cunti overo Lo Trattenemiento de’ Peccerille, Stromboli C (ed). vol. 2, Salerno Editrice, Roma.

Beekes R, van Beek L (2010) Daphne. In: Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill, Leiden-Boston, pp. 306–307.

Bible (2002) The Scofield Study Bible III: New King James Version. Scofield CI (ed), Oxford University Press, New York.

Bradburn NM, Sudman S (1979) Improving Interview Method and Questionnaire Design. Jossey–Bass, San Francisco.

Bradburn NM (1983) Response Effects. In: Rossi PH, Wright JD, Anderson AB (eds) Handbook of Survey Research. Academic Press, London–Orlando, pp. 289–328 doi:10.1016/C2013-0-11411-0.

Bremmer JN (2008) Modi di Comunicazione con il Divino: la Preghiera, la Divinazione e il Sacrificio nella Civiltà Greca. In: Settis S (ed) Storia Einaudi dei Greci e dei Romani. Vol. 1 (I Greci Nostri Antenati). Einaudi, Torino, pp. 239–283.

Carmina (2002) Carmina Priapea. Bianchini E (ed). Collana Classici greci e latini, BUR, Milano.

Cattabiani A (2008) Calendario. Le Feste, i Miti, le Leggende e i Riti dell’Anno. Mondadori, Milano.

Dautriat H (1970) Il Questionario. Franco Angeli, Milano.

De la Fuente MFC, Souto A, Caselli CB, Schiel N (2015) People’s perception on animal welfare: why does it matter? Ethnobiology and conservation 6(18):1-7 doi:10.15451/ec2017-10-6.18-1-7.

Frazer JG (1894) The Golden Bough: A Study in comparative Religion. Vol. 2, Macmillan and Co. and London, New York.

[https://archive.org/details/goldenboughstudy01fraz/page/n10] Accessed 14 September 2018.

Gherardini G (1854) Supplimento a’ Vocabolarj Italiani. Vol. 3 (F-K), Molina PA, Milano.

Goody J (1982) Cooking, Cuisine, and Class. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge doi:10.1017/CBO9780511607745.

Graves R (1987) New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Crescent books, New York.

Helworthy FT (1895) The Evil Eye. An Account of this Ancient & Widespread Superstition. John Murray, London.

Labarbe J (1984) Sacrifice en Grèce. In: Poupard P (ed) Dictionnaire des Religions. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, pp. 1500–1502.

Laum B (1924) Heiliges Geld: Eine Historische Untersuchung über den Sakralen Ursprung des Geldes. Mohr JCB, Tübingen.

Leguilloux M (1999) Sacrifices et Repas Publique dans le Sanctuaire de Poseidon à Tènos: les Analyses Aercheozoologiques. Bulletin de Corrispondence Hellenique 123:423–455.

Lienhardt G (1961) Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Lincoln B, Baiocchi M (1984) Sacrificio e Creazione, Macellai e Filosofi. Studi Storici 25:859–874.

[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20565257] Accessed 14 September 2018.

Lincoln B (1975) The Indo-European Myth of Creation. History of Religions 15:121–145.

Manganelli Rattazzi AM (1990) Il Questionario. Aspetti teorici e pratici. Cleup Editrice, Padova.

Moser C, Kalton G (1977) Survey Methods in Social Investigation. Or. ed. 1958. Heinemann, London.

Nadel SF (1970) Nupe Religion: Traditional Beliefs and the Influence of Islam in a West African Chiefdom. Schocken Books, New York.

Parise NF (1984) Sacrificio e Misura del Valore nella Grecia Antica. Studi Storici 25:913–923.

[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20565260] Accessed 3 April 2018.

Payne SL (1951) The art of Asking Questions. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Pliny G II (1983) Storia Naturale. Vol. 2: Antropologia e Zoologia (Libri 7-11). Borghini A, Giannarelli E, Marcone A, Ranucci G (eds), Einaudi, Torino.

Scarpi P (1993) Sacrificio Greco. In: Filoramo G (ed) Dizionario delle Religioni. Einaudi, Torino, pp. 659–660.

Scarpi P (1994) La Religione Greca. Vol. 1 (Le Religioni Antiche). In: Filoramo G (ed) Storia delle Religioni. Laterza, Roma-Bari, pp. 283–330.

Smith RW (1972) Lectures on the Religion of Semites. Or. ed. 1889. Schocken Books, New York.

Tommaseo N, Bellini B (1861,1879) Dizionario della Lingua Italiana nuovamente Compilato. Unione Tipografico Editrice, Torino.

Valletta N (1787) La Cicalata sul Fascino Volgarmente detto Jettatura. s.n., Napoli.

Van Straten F (1995) Hierà Kalà: Images of Animal Sacrifice in Archaic and Classical Greece. E.J. Brill, Leiden, New York, Koln.

Vernant JP (1981) Théorie Générale du Sacrifice et mise à Mort dans la Thysia Grecque. In: Rudhardt J, Reverdin O (eds) Le Sacrifice dans l’Antiquité. Fondation Hardt, Généve, pp. 1–39.

Vernant JP (1987) Greek Religion. Vol. 6. In: Mircea E (ed) The Encyclopedia of Religion. Macmillan, New York and London, pp. 99-118.

Walter A (1871) The Life and Death of the Sublime Society of Steaks. Bradbury, London.

Zammuner VL (1998) Tecniche dell’Intervista e del Questionario. Il Mulino, Bologna.

Zuidhof MJ, Schneider BL, Carney VL, Korver DR, and Robinson FE (2014) Growth, efficiency, and yield of commercial broilers from 1957, 1978, and 2005. Poultry Science 93:2970–2982 doi: 10.3382/ps.2014-04291.

Downloads

Published

05/19/2020

How to Cite

Soppelsa, O., & di Martino, C. (2020). Domestic Slaughter in Southern Italy, with special reference to Campania Region. Ethnobiology and Conservation, 9. Retrieved from http://www.ethnobioconservation.com/index.php/ebc/article/view/305

Issue

Section

Original research article