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Wheat growing and human life cycles

The traditional forms of agriculture were established in the nineteenth century. Pictures of work in the fields record changes in techniques, the transformation of the landscape and the collective imagination. Considered to be a gift of the gods, wheat imposes a duty of reciprocity. Knowledge related to the growing of wheat is paralleled by myths and rites in which the cereal symbolises the cycle of life, the need for death and the never-ending rhythm of the seasons.

Receiving and distributing

Before agriculture was practised on an industrial scale, the production of wheat spread over almost twelve months. The important stages in the peasant calendar related to sharing out and storing the harvest are evoked here through ancient and contemporary objects. We find the idea of reciprocity which governed the management of resources in those times, involving self-sufficiency and dependence between the various members of the community at each stage.

Bibliograpy

• Gros, Christophe. 1997. Faire don d'une clôture intime. Genève : Musée de la ville de Carouge, catalogue de l'exposition, MEG Carl-Vogt,