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The balance of work

There was little machinery in preindustrial Europe and the societies shared the same work ethic based on individual responsibility and community solidarity. In these agricultural and artisanal communities, the body – human and animal – was the first and sometimes the only tool available: its skill and dependability were key assets in a precarious economy. Knowing how to economise and use its strength led to a sense of well being.

Working with the seasons

Along the Mediterranean and in the Alps, the livestock is not kept indoors during the summer. To take advantage of the natural pastures, the animals were regularly taken from the plains to the mountains. The practice of moving the stock up to summer pastures and bringing them down again in the autumn, still found in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Balkans and even in Kurdistan, is known as transhumance. In Switzerland, this moment in pastoral life was often depicted in the nineteenth century. The pictures show how practices were changing and helped crystallise a certain image of rural life.