Figure 1.-- This photograph was taken in Carcoforo, a village in the mountains of north Italy, about 150 km north of Turin. The village is 1,300 meters over sea level. The photo of these little shepherds was taken in 1912. In those rocky pastures they went barefoot because they were so poor. Her we have a boy and girl. It is very likely that if one of the childrebn were left alone to look after the goats, it would hsave been a boy. The woman and girl seems to be wearing some kind of footless hosiery.

Boys in Italy and many other countries worked as shepherds. Sheep husbandry is a traditional activity in many places through Italy, especially in the mountains and in the waterless regions of South and Islands. Once the activity involved the whole family. In some cases the children only helped the adults, in other cases children didn't attend the school and worked as shepherds. The children primarily involved were usually boys, especially when the sheep or other livestock were being look after at any distance from the home. Quite young boys could be involved. We think that many of the boys were worked on landed estates rather than family farms. This occupation dates from time immemorial, peobably as soon as sheep were raised in Italy. I am not sure when this was, but certain predates the Roman Empire. Working as a shepherd may in fact be the ealies typoe of work associated with boys. We have little information about the boys working as shepherds in modern times. We note a well known painting of a 19th century shephered boy by American artist, Washington Allston (1799-1843). But this seems more of an artistic than a relaistic depiction. Being a shephered meant long hours by yourself in a rural setting looking after the animals. This made it virtually impossible to atend school. A famous Italian movie, "Padre Padrone" (1977) deals with the subject. We are not sure when the Italian Government began limiting the use of children and insisting they attend school. We suspect it may have been during the Fascist era, but we think Italian children continued to work as shepherds until after World War II.

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Created: 11:07 PM 8/13/2009
Last updated: 2:14 AM 8/14/2009