THE UNAWARE SCULPTOR THE SARDINIAN PASTORE AS A SPINOZIAN PROPHET
LUCA VINCENZO PUZZONI
Dissertation
Contents
In Between
01
Conatus, For Preservation
11
Ingenium, The Knowledge of the Hand
14
Tears of milk
20
The Hard Path to Freedom
24
Ars Vivendi, Prophet ex Machina
29
Bibliography
32
Ortacesus
Cagliari
Fast rather than slow, more rather than less — this flashy “development” is linked directly to society’s impending collapse. It has only served to separate man from nature. Humanity must stop indulging the desire for material possessions and personal gain and move instead toward spiritual awareness. — Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution (1992)
Introduction: In Between Sardinia lies in the Mediterranean Sea like a block of clay. Its territory is not easily tamable or categorizable: at times open, at times inaccessible, flat and steep, sometimes dry, sometimes paludal, it is known and befriended by Il pastore Sardo (the Sardinian shepherd), who acts as its keeper.1 This land takes and gives, slowly presenting impressions of the Pastori and their herds. Vegetation stops growing on continuous sinuous lines, forming dry white void segments on tall grass. Dry stone and tree branches, assembled into tall cones, appear and disappear overnight. Streams of sound of different bells pinpoint the position and hierarchy of sheep.2 As Manlio Brigaglia (1929-2018), Sardinian historian and writer who devoted his life to the research on the history of the region and its perception, describes, the vast territory covered by this island, counting 24.090 km2, is nevertheless characterized by a compelling state of population scarcity, with a density of merely 68,39 people p/km.3 4 This ancient landscape, of inherent multiplicity, is one of the main characters of this story, perhaps responsible for the historical and political isolation of Su Pastori. The Unaware sculptor references the figure of the unaware gardener coined by Felice Floris, spokesman of the MPS, Movement of Shepherds (Movimento pastori, formed at the beginning of the ‘90s).5 Presented religiously within his passionately direct but precise representative political sermons, this notion depicts each of Floris’ co-workers as individuals manufacturing, preserving and liberating the landscape with an approach of complete unawareness but unique, persistent skill.6
1 Angioni, Giulio,I pascoli erranti, antropologia del pastore in Sardegna (1989), Naples. 2 Maxia, C., Sentieri di suoni, dialoghi ed estetiche della natura e della cultura (2015), Florence, pg. 189. 3 Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Sardegna in cifre, (2018), Cagliari. http://www.sardegnastatistiche.it/documenti/12_103_20181212133014.pdf 4 Le lannou, M., Pastori e condadini di sardegna, (2006) pg. 4-7 5. Pinna, G., Chi è Felice Floris, il leader storico del Movimento dei pastori sardi, (2019), https://www.corriere.it/cronache/19_febbraio_10/chi-felice-floris-leader-storico-movimento-pastori-sardi-c849f 1dc-2d2a-11e9-9137-8c3ab066961d.shtml?intcmp=googleamp 6. Tetrax, Chi è Felice Floris, il leader storico del Movimento dei pastori sardi, (2019), https://tetrax.altervista.org/wp/chi-e-felice-floris-il-leader-storico-del-movimento-dei-pastori-sardi/
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The Unaware Sculptor Embodying the value and pride of being an essential part of the Sardinian identity, this figure represents both the responsibility of constituting a considerable percentage of the industrial production of the region. The unaware gardener is presented in to promote the idea of a shepherd as the conveyor of fundamental human heritage against the phenomenon of de-pastoralisation and played an essential part for Felice Floris to officialise the role of each shepherd as part of a community.1 Taking into account the context where this craft unfolds, the Sardinian landscape, and the manner in which it physically absorbs and expresses these movements, the figure of the sculptor appears to be an appropriate alternative similitude due to the distinctive relationship with the shepherd, who has a comparable degree of skills and ability to work with the prophetic transformation of malleable materials. The Spinozian concept of the Prophet, described in the philosopher’s Tractatus Theologico Politicus as a propagator of natural knowledge, is brought in relation to the Sardinian Pastore arguing that the view of the philosopher, with regards to its transformative power, is pertinent to this everyday craft, evincing the importance of the latter in Sardinian reality. This thesis seeks to make this argument against the background of the recent revolt of milk (February 2019) and the stained popular misconception of this character, showing that the Pastore should be understood under the terms of his conatus, ingenium and ars vivendi.2
Conatus (from latin conamur, to endeavour), is a term describing a force of perseverance, an appetite or will of potentiality coming from within. Sharing the same semantic root, Conu is used in the Sardinian language to denote the act of regurgitating, highlighting the perception of this energy as a visceral, indomitable impulse originating from inside. The Ingenium refers to the ingenuous knowledge product of sensible perception, the infantile ability to gather notions through the everyday experience of Nature. These concepts are the driving forces behind the making of Ars, which represents the material concretisation both the above-cited desire and knowledge into a 1. Pitzalis, M., Il giardiniere inconsapevole. Pastori sardi, retoriche ambientaliste e strategie di riconversione (2013), pg. 14 2 Vardoulakis, D., Spinoza Now, Minnesota (2011) Jacobson, A., Prophecy without Prophets.
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet transformation of power. Ars Vivendi consequently indicates the prophetic way of living on a path towards freedom through this metamorphic activity and the dissemination of these abilities. In order to inform this argument I based my research not only on the rare-to-find but immensely useful few writings of local scholars — whose reference is built upon a foundation of personal participation through cultural or familiar links — but also a number of conversations and experiences had with a few Sardinian shepherds of Ortacesus, (in the Trexenta subregion) in order to avoid supporting this propositional thesis by giving a metaphysical perspective that risks to unfold within an approach that is out of touch from the everydayness of this landscape.
I just paid 1000 euros for electricity this morning, you (referring to Massimo, my father) tell me my sheep look
Natalia (61), shepherdess whosebut stable inhabits the fields next to healthy and beautiful, my family gets skinnier and skinnier. — Ninni Diana, 53, Ortacesus
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The Unaware Sculptor
This thesis seeks to ask the following guiding questions: - Does the assemblage of techniques of this figure have a prophetic character? - What can the role of the Sardinian shepherd within Animals, People, ...Landscape and Time endure in a modern industrialised society? - If so, how can the prophetic be part of the machine? Reflecting around these inquiries, rather than attempting to provide a definite answer, aspires to plant a seed of not only critical but further propositional thinking.
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet It was an old shepherd, very old, in very ragged dirty black-andwhite, who had been standing like a stone there in the open field-end for heaven knows how long, utterly motionless, leaning on his stick. — D. H. Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia (1921) Until the first half of the 20th century, most of the writing with regards to the Sardinian Pastori had been written from travellers following either a merely scientific approach or wrapping these in heavily romantic concepts.1 Before personalities such as the Sardinian researchers Carlo Maxia and Giulio Angioni made a point of describing the modus pastorali in a quantitative manner, the monopoly around the sources of propagation of information around this community was in the hands of strangers such as D. H. Lawrence. The English writer carried out a quick excursion from Sicily (where the author was forced in exile) to Sardinia and, without the support of any notes, he wrote his impressions around scenarios by him perceived as exotic, such as the Sardinian conviviality, by describing it as a ‘continuous melting of butter over parsnips’, the generosity of ‘peasants’ he found along the way and the wandering around unknown and dangerous landscapes.2 3 While works as such have gifted to those who in the area of Campidano are named Continentalisi (the inhabitants of the peninsula) a view on an otherwise rather enclosed sphere, the lack of an internal perspective might have acted as a catalyst for a misconception that up to today is of ongoing significance. The view of the pastore as a romantic poet is heavily impressed in the history of the region just as much as the one describing him as a ridiculous, entertaining, poor peasant.4 That is embodied in historical evidence, such as a number of documentaries carried out by the hands of the fascist regime through the national television program Luce. 1 Maxia, Carlo, Idee di identita (fare per essere, essere per rappresentare), (2007), Cagliari, pg.40 2 Maxia, Carlo, Idee di identita (fare per essere, essere per rappresentare), (2007), Cagliari, pg.41 3 Cohen, Robert, Lawrence of Sardinia (2014), New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/travel/lawrence-of-sardinia.html 4 Lawrence, D.H., Sea And Sardinia (1921), http://www.online-literature.com/dh_lawrence/sea-and-sardin ia/1/
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The Unaware Sculptor For instance, La bonifica del Tavoliere sets in the foreground of dramatic orchestral music the recording of the pastoral microcosm, described as one implying de-growth in the strength of the Italian spirit, remarking dirt on surfaces, lack of formal education and connecting it to the marshlands Benito Mussolini appropriated. Successively it proceeds to contrast it with the work of the farmer which fits within a more harmonious connection with the considerable construction of streets and infrastructures built by the national fascist party in the last five years of the 1930s, represented through short scenes of happy children and allegros.1 The fascist line of thought has been dismissed and repudiated by the people but these ideas seem to still survive at present. The same impression is conveyed in literature and filmography works such as Padre Padrone (My father, My Master, 1977), of which the film adaptation is directed by the Tuscan duo of directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, depicting the herd keeper and his ingenium under the stereotype of a barbaric patriarch who positions himself against education through sadistic parental methods..2
3
The perpetuation of these portraits resulted in the Sardinian shepherd not being identified as the carrier of a peculiar baggage of knowledge, abilities, or the consequent solid impressions on the ethnographic and socio-economic landscape of the island. Appearing in the popular imaginary somewhere in between two ideas — on one hand, a being with the transcendental responsibility to lead and look after a utopian bucolic microcosm and on the other, a primitive man who is merely a useful tool for a bigger industrial production — this figure finds itself not solely misconceived but consequently politically misrepresented. The arrogant discharge of the Sardinian shepherd, engined by this system of misperceptions, seems to manifest a bigger issue of the pace of Modern life to openly embrace slow and accurate practices as part of production.
1 Istituto Luce, La bonifica del tavoliere, (1934), Foggia, https://patrimonio.archivioluce.com/luce-web/detail/ IL3000084076/1/la-bonifica-del-tavoliere.html?startPage=0 2 IMDb, Padre Padrone Review, (2005), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076517/ 3 Rai, Club - Padre Padrone, (2014), https://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raiSport/media/Club—-Padre-Padrone1a399b9f-9be8-43cd-a0fe-401e595a4063.html
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet
Still from Luce, La Bonifica del Tavoliere, (1934)
Still from Paolo, Vittorio Taviani, Padre Padrone, (1977)
Movie Poster, from Paolo, Vittorio Taviani, Padre Padrone, (1977)
This boy is my property and I make use of him as I wish. The government wants to make school compulsory. Poverty! That is compulsory for us!
— Paolo Tavoni, Vittorio Tavoni, Padre Padrone (1977)
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The Unaware Sculptor
From The Gospel of John 10:11-18:1 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, 15 even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and they shall become one flock, one shepherd. 17 Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 18 No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from my Father. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 1 von Hügel, Friedrich (1911). “John, Gospel of St” . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/John,_Gospel_of_St
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet
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The Unaware Sculptor
When it was my own stable I was taking care of” He remembers nostalgically “I used to know each one of them by name, it was very different back then, We had a third of the sheep we have now.
— Gino Diana
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet
Conatus for Preservation I believe that the concept of Conatus — described by the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza as an impulsive force of strive, desire, the mechanisation of consciousness — is pertinent in order to understand the role of the pastore with a point of view allowing the romantic guide, the carrier of a craft and the activist to harmoniously coexist. Under his philosophical system, human beings, as part of the pantheistic substance of nature and to a degree allowed by its power, seek to act towards self — and consequentially nature’s — persistence.1 2 Although it is problematic to analyse both the pastoral ergology and its regional setting as static elements as they both are unstable, not only due to the substantial nomadic-ness implied in the modus pastorali, but rather due to the fluidity of the elements involved in the natural conditions of the logus (the notion of spaces, serving a dual function of background and resource), the following text will unfold the typical day of Gino Diana with regards to the pastoral techniques, preserving the shepherd and nature in a system of harmonization between cause and reason.3 Gino Diana, 78, still works with this craft in Ortacesus, a town counting 917 citizens in the subregion of Trexenta in South Sardinia, helping his sons whom he has handed over his herd and stable to. He wakes up at 4:30 for the first mullidura (milking) — one of two if it is during the fruitful months of spring or late winter (taking place at both the occurrence of sunrise and sunset), and the only one during the less profitable period (from May onwards) — He summons his sheep, encouraging them to walk towards him with the repetition of the “eh” sound (ˈī), starting with an energetic and firm sound that proceeds following an anti-climax that progresses to turn into a more reassuring and sweeter pattern of the same sound, calling his favourite ones by name.4
1 Critchley, P., 2007. Spinoza on Politics and Religion. In : P. Critchley, Spinoza and the Rule of Reason. [e-book] Available through: Academia website <http://mmu.academia.edu/PeterCritchley/Books 2 Younkins, E.W., Spinoza on Freedom, Ethics and Politics, (2006), Montreal 3 Antoon Cornelis Mientjes. Paesaggi Pastorali: Studio Ethnoarcheologico Sul Pastoralismo in Sardegna. (2008), pg.25
4 Link to sound, Gino Summoning his herd, https://soundcloud.com/luca-puzzoni/summoning-his-sheep00
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The Unaware Sculptor He thereafter leaves the herd to his son Ninni, 48, and his trusted dog in order for them to graze in their fields of flatland in between Ortacesus, Gomaggiore and Selegas, while he and his other son Giorgio, 45, take care of the newly born lambs and their mothers — separated in couples so they would be ready to recognise each other whereby otherwise they would get lost —, the sheep which are ready to breed — grouped ten by ten — and to clean the stable with the help of su tirofenu (a robust rake) for them to find a safer refuge when returning to the pasture. After the second milking, each sheep has produced 0.5 l of milk, which after being put in the apposite tamburlana (aluminium containers), to avoid it assuming bacterial load due to the sudden change of temperature it is exposed to, is placed outside at night. While a more industrialised agenda pushes towards a subdivision of tasks that once the shepherds took care of by themselves, the Diana family still conducts practices such as milk processing for the making of casu (cheese), shearing and slaughtering when the unit of production coincides with the unit of consumption and leaving the rest to the other crafters of the area for profit. In addition to the above-cited chores he supervises the spontaneous vegetation and plants the appropriate ones, — The Alfaalfa kind from June to September (trimmed once a month to produce hay bales), and clover the rest of the year — he supervises the reproductive cycles and weaning, takes care of the fodder — carob, corn, sunflower seeds, beetroot, beans — and shears the herd once/twice a year. Gino said it numerous times, ‘there is not a necessity to obscure our work with nothing that is unknown to nature. The less you do, the happier your herd would be’. Therefore, it seems appropriate to consider how The Conatus of this figure, does not merely express self-preservation, but rather it is an appetite that unfolds in precise space and time frames in a unique manner that perpetuates the other characters involved in the aforementioned daily chores of the Pastore. Thus manifests in a peculiar assemble of techniques that is indeed important for the local culture but moreover highly contributes to industrial production due to the number of natural elements and conditions the Shepherd carefully works with along with the knowledge coming from the repetition of these.1 1 Link to sound, Gino’s herd, https://soundcloud.com/luca-puzzoni/ginos-herdortacesus
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The Sardinian Pastore as a Spinozian Prophet
When I entered the stable, he, by clearing his throat and attempting a smile, manifested awareness of our presence, but did not interrupt his working. Bending towards one newly-born lamb in particular, feet on a sunlit golden carpet of straw, with the pride of ownership and the kindness of a guide, while laboriously working with thread and needle Gino explained: “Because this Sardinian lamb was not acknowledged by its mom and on the same day a French breed one gave birth to a dead one, we needed to flay the French one and put its skin around the Sardinian one so that he could be recognised and brought up by the French mother” “The way it works is that you cut a hole in the skin for the head, four where the paws are and stitch it around the chosen one, being the smell different, the other breed would recognise it as one of them after two days.”
— Stepping into the pastoral microcosm of Gino (02/01/2019)
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