Seals and coastal fishermen face identical threats, more than just the rapid depletion of fish resources by exploitive trawlers...
...weiterlesen "Seals and fishermen united in one boat"
Kategorie: European Dilemma – Greek Tragedy
Both the Greek government and private forces work towards an extermination of the country’s remaining rural heritage – with tremendous success
The dilemma of rural architecture – part III (Greece)
- with emphasis on Kazaviti village, Thassos Island
Note also articles/parts I (Introduction/general); II (New Guinea - Melanesia) and IV (Bavaria)
All pictures and captions on page 5
The schizofrenic situation in Greece is characterized by the overwhelming power of urban life style on the one hand side, and close affinity of town people to the village where their forefathers lived, on the other. “Tradition” is on everybody's lips, but hardly anyone really understands what it means. And praxis shows the opposite of preserving the old. Pseudo-rustic design is in vogue as fulfilment of nostalgia – without that people have maintained any meaningful comprehension of village heritage. ...weiterlesen "The dilemma of rural architecture – part III (Greece)"
Skyros – pastoral traditions
Land cultivation and pastoral traditions have ancient roots on Skyros.
The indigenous breed of cattle was still maintained in 1958. The photographs were taken in the coastal area adjoining Kalamítza Bay, east of Linarià.
The ponies were kept in one herd during the winter inland from Linarià (pictures taken in 1976).
The eastern part of Skyros, owned by the I.M. Megisti Lavra on Agion Oros, was leased for extensive goat browsing: The crippled oak "trees" (Quercus coccifera) cannot grow up to any hight, because again and again all young shoots and leaves are nibbled off (pictures taken in 1976). The subsequent erosion is progressing from higher altitudes downwards, moving the soil towards flat depressions or the sea respectively. So the carrying capacity of the land for pasture (mostly for browsing oak) is getting less year by year. A barren skeleton of rock with some marginal plant growth remains. And the annnual EU subsidies shoot up like rockets. We pay for this ecological mis-management - for another human distaster. ...weiterlesen "Skyros – pastoral traditions"
Skantzoura – anybody out there?
The archipelago of Skantzoura, Northern Sporades sank into oblivion, got lost in the people's consciousness - since the Monastery of Evangelistria was abandoned by the monks of the mother monastery, the I.M. Megisti Lavra on Agion Oros. ...weiterlesen "Skantzoura – anybody out there?"
Kyra Panagia – goats
On Kyra Panagia Island the traditional pastoral system as illustrated by my photographs of 1976 (and the 16 mm footage shot at the same time) has been abandoned since the conservation area Northern Sporades was established. The goats are not herded and milked anymore.
Already earlier cattle grazing was discontinued (cf. my article: Endemic cattle of the Northern Sporades archipelago).
Athanasios the Athonite had aquired Kyra Panagia for producing there cheese for the monks in the Megisti Lavra, because on Athos no female animals were allowed. ...weiterlesen "Kyra Panagia – goats"