Animal Husbandry in Greece

Animal husbandry, a foundational activity of traditional rural societies, is an inseparable part of the history of the Greek landscape and the daily life of its inhabitants. Domesticated animals were not merely sources of food or labor; they were integral to lived experience, intertwined with the cycle of time, agricultural rituals, and local worldviews.

This thematic exhibition sheds light on aspects of Greek pastoral tradition through photographic and archival material from museums, archives, and private collections. Images and video recordings of daily rural labor—milking, grazing, sheep shearing—alongside worn objects such as wooden troughs, shepherd’s staffs, bells, saddles, and tools used in cheese or yogurt making, illuminate the material culture of animal husbandry as well as the human ingenuity and adaptability it required.

Manuals, letters, and agricultural records reveal how livestock was organized and managed in the past, while proverbs and sayings highlight the ritual and religious dimensions of the human-animal bond. From the early censuses of the Greek state and communal sheepfolds to postwar agricultural cooperatives, animals functioned as indicators of productivity, social status, and collective survival. Within this multifaceted coexistence, we discern a balance between utilitarian need and respect for animal life.

Ethnic groups such as the Vlachs and especially the Sarakatsani have woven their identity into pastoral life. These self-sufficient herding communities, though often isolated, maintained remarkable cultural homogeneity in language, customs, and way of life. Their livelihood depended on livestock products—wool, milk, and cheese—while meat was reserved for major festivals or significant social occasions. Their free-ranging life in the mountains, far from urban centers and institutional control, gave rise to a distinct cultural identity rooted in a close relationship with nature and animals, devotion to ancestral traditions, and strong social cohesion.

Through the cultural heritage objects in this exhibition, we come to understand that animal husbandry is not merely an occupation; it is a bearer of cultural identities, knowledge systems, and emotional ties that continue to shape us, even amid the often violent transformations of the natural world.

The exhibition also includes works of art—painting, engraving, and photography—that reflect how the urban gaze fell upon the countryside, often through a lens of nostalgia and romanticism. Agricultural and pastoral life, with its aura of authenticity and closeness to nature, fascinated 19th- and 20th-century artists.

Through paintings and photographs, rural Greece emerges as a place of simplicity and honesty, as seen in the work of renowned photographers such as Herbert List, Nelly’s (Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari), and Fred Boissonnas, who were inspired by and sensitively captured the stoic beauty of shepherds in the mountainous Greek landscape of the 20th century.