Local Knowledge as the Foundation of the Craftsmen Culture

An indicative description of aspects of the lives of the Mastorochoria master craftsmen is of great importance. The narratives of the people that were interviewed, combined with previous ethnographic researches, untangle the web of life of the eminent craftsmen to the present day. The necessity to capture a comprehensive image of the territory led this analysis to focus initially on those aspects that were crucial for forming this specific culture. In this approach the notions of space and time are at the coreof the life and culture of Craftsmen⁹ (Nitsiakos 2003:13-14).

The ‘odyssey’ phenomenon of travelling and communicating with other cultures peaked during Modernity, as demographic and economic difficulties forced people to search for complementary alternatives that could pull them out of the impasse. The landscape’s limited resources from agro-pastoral activity were not viable. However, the same Mastorochoria landscape could provide ample amounts of stone and wood suitable for constructions. People efficiently exploited these alternative resources and developed their skills in the construction industry of the time, serving the needs of the wealthy castes. As an activity that could not be carried out during the cold winter months, this restriction linked their life with cyclical time¹⁰. Spring and winter were milestones: the former symbolized the departure of the male population for places where new constructions were in demand, the latter stood for the return and the serenity of the home. At a symbolic level the two equestrian saints, Saint George and Saint Demetrius respectively represented these cyclical milestones. These cycles established a sense of stability and balance, while communities formed their culture within a context of slow time, in accordance with reproduction in nature (Petronotis & Papageorgiou 2008:646; Nitsiakos 2008:123; 2003:123; 1998:70; Makris 1981:13). This specific combination of stability and mobility, which was harmonious with nature and its appropriation, transformed the social life and the hierarchy of the former agro-pastoral communities. Organized in guilds¹¹ the craftsmen managed to protect their interests and at the same time to gain important privileges from the Ottoman governance system. Those privileges enhanced their economic and consequently their social status. However, being closely tied with their communities, they used their resources to guard their traditions and to protect their historical values, their extended families and the kinship networks in general. The guilds (‘Bouloukia’) established a strict hierarchy and division of labour. The ‘Bouloukia’ comprised specialized craftsmen, unskilled assistants and apprentices, mainly based on kinship networks¹². However, the participants were obliged to follow a set of unwritten customary laws and a certain code of values. The Masters (‘Protomastores’) were in charge of every aspect of collective life and work, since tangible and intangible¹³ capital, as well as sociopolitical connections were in their hands. Thus they decided upon the synthesis of the ‘Bouloukia’, the projects they were going to work for and the money they were going to be paid. The masonry guilds, the ‘Koudarei’, were so tightly-knit that they even developed gradually a code language, called ‘koudaritika’, to protect their interests from their employers and their competitors. This coherent organizational framework functioned as a model for the social structure of the Mastorochoria communities and their social hierarchy, reflecting the productivity hierarchy. The craftsmen guilds adjusted their strict hierarchies and structures incrementally according to the needs of each historical context, but the ‘Protomastores’ always enjoyed the respect of the people and were on the highest professional and social level. Beyond kinship networks that ensured trust and confidence among its members, the guild model of the ‘Bouloukia’ organization also involved practices such as contractual relationships and monetary exchange. This signalled the transition from the embedded economy of self-sufficiency to a disembedded economy of capitalism, ushering in the era of Modernity for the communities. Therefore, the social values¹⁴ of the Mastorochoria communities contribute ‘to processes of cultural affiliation’ (Ziogas 2010:13; Papaioannou 2008:211; Petronotis & Papageorgiou 2008: LIV,677; Nitsiakos 2004:38-40; 1998:45,72-75,103-104,123-125; 1995:174-177; Tore 2002:11). The division of labour was a trait of the ‘Bouloukia’ organizational model. Moreover, the division of labour according to gender was one of the distinguishable traits of these mountainous societies. As the ethnographic research of the craftsmen culture progressed, the traces of their existence led us to the crucial role of the women. While the ‘Bouloukia’ appropriated the capitalist economic system and enriched their experiences and their knowledge with cultural capital from the places they visited, the female population of Mastorochoria was dedicated to serving the demarcated land of their homelands and became depositaries of local customs and traditional ways of life, expressing the notions of stability and conservatism. Women were bound up with the land, the houses, the children and the elderly. The survival of the communities depended on them. They alone had to take care of the livestock, as well as the fields and production, so that their families had food and heating throughout the year. In these remote slopes, where winters were harsh and long, cutting wood, sowing and harvesting, managing food supplies, the art of the loom, raising children and countless more duties of extreme difficulty were aspects of the everyday life of the heroic Mastorochoria women. Hence, as most people admitted, the real economy of these communities was managed by women in a self-sufficiency framework. Their life as an ‘exceptional testimony’ to a civilization which is now under the threat of extinction has significant cultural¹⁵ and economic value (Katharios 2012:39-41; UNESCO 2005; Nitsiakos 2004:37; 1998:70; Liatsi 2000:26-29;).

All the aforementioned traits are still imprinted in all the local communities’ customs. ‘[M]yths and rituals, which are vital for social reproduction’, are proof that ‘the appropriation of nature presents material as well as spiritual dimensions’. Moreover, they are ‘cultural processes that articulate experience’. In this light, the life around the craftsmen activity and their periodic mobility created a body of specific customs, which, with minor differentiations, were common in the whole Mastorochoria area. The most directly related to the crafts of masonry and carpentry were the customs of foundation laying and roof construction. Both had a ritualistic character and both were linked with the sanctification of space and the protection of the building. Animal sacrifice in the building foundations or at a village inauguration was related to ancient rituals that represented the creation of life out of death. Despite the intangible aspect of these customs, the craftsmen often claimed that rituals also had a tangible and very material nature. At times when resources were extremely limited, offerings, in food and clothing, were vital for the livelihood of the ‘Bouloukia’. In this context, various superstitions were reflected in similar customs and enriched the folklore tradition. There was also a differentiation in terms of importance for the social life of the communities among common customs and festivities in the Mastorochoria. All the important events, like engagements, weddings and celebrations took place during the winter, when all craftsmen had returned to their villages. They would even attach importance to minor saints in order to honour important saints by the same name. The symbolic and spiritual value¹⁶ of their traditions was present in the cycles in the lives of the craftsmen. As winter receded and nature awoke, the ‘Bouloukia’ began preparing for their departure. The routes of the craftsmen were accompanied by the sounds of migration songs and blesses from valediction customs. Women and children saw the craftsmen out of their villages or came forward to meet them at a certain liminal location, a ritual that was colored with ambiguous feelings of separations and welcoming, and named accordingly¹⁷. The rich musical tradition of Mastorochoria is a reflection of the events and feelings connected to the migration procedures of these communities. A variety of them describe the feelings of those who left as well as of those that stayed behind. These melancholic songs were so popular that they were even sung at wedding ceremonies and big festivals. Songs and traditional dances, as a mechanism that manages time and reproduces continuity, as well as the liminal milestone of space and time of valediction signaled the starting point of the craftsmen’s routes. (Rapoport 2010:240; Skourtis 2009:25-30; 2007:43-49; Petronotis & Papageorgiou 2008:646; Nitsiakos 2008:14,122,141; 2003:168; 1998:77-78; Ganiatsas 1996:103-104; Makris 1981:13; n.d.:2-3).