Updating Natureculture Practices in Abruzzo: Towards the Prototyping of New Ecological Relationtionships between Sheperds, Farmers, Animals and Plants

Abstract

This paper is about an ethnographic journey into traditional agropastoral practices in the region of central Italy called Abruzzo, which brought the researcher close to human and non humans inhabitants and their natureculture entanglements, and informed a participatory design process on how to nurture socio-ecological relationships in order to support local biodiversity. Two ethnographic accounts relating to the new rural generation are unfolded, showing how traditional agropastoral practices have been taken up by young farmers and shepherds, as well as the challenges and opportunities that arise. The paper suggests two different ideas of updating natureculture practices: one leading to the creation of a co-existence relationship among the shepherd, the sheeps and the newts, all revolving around the drinking trough as a common; one leading to the (re)activation of people care for wild plants as potential crop wild relatives (CWR), a source of genetic resources for food and agriculture.