«Mi chiamo Serban e non sono il romeno di nessuno, sono il romeno di me stesso». Pratiche di assoggettamento e soggettivazione tra pastori sardi e servi pastori romeni

Abstract

«I am Serban, a Romanian who does not belong to anybody, I belong to my- self». Subjugation and subjectification practices between Sardinian she- pherds and Romanian servant shepherds The article investigates the role of the Romanian paid worker in the Sardinian countryside that replaces the traditional figure of the local «servo pastore» (Sardinian servant shepherd). The focus is on the symbolic and relational ten- sion between Sardinian shepherds and Romanian salaried workers, starting from extensive ethnographic material based on participant observation and in-depth interviews. By analyzing their work practices and daily interactions as well as what the Sardinians said about the Romanians and vice versa, we will try to explain the tension Sardinian shepherd owners’ need to hire productive subordinate workers and that of Romanian servant shepherds to find areas of freedom and autonomy for themselves. The relations between Sardinian shepherds and Romanian pastoral workers appear to be embedded in strategic situations in which power relations remain flexible, alternating between processes of subjugation and subjectivation.