L’Abruzzo terra di pastori: tra realtà e immaginazione la costruzione di una identità regionale

The Aragonese domination marked a turning point in the history of the pastoral activity being practiced for millenia, in that it allowed for a reorganizational process that turned it into one of Italy’s most prosperous activities in the Central-Southern regions for at least the three and a half centuries (1447-1806) that framed it in the historical event of La Dogana della Mena delle Pecore in Apulia. This resulted in a territorialisation process backed-up by the issuing of a set of rules that, being – de facto – aimed at imposing space control and soil use conditioning, contributed to shape the pastoral identity of the region. Literature and art have weighed heavily on the latter by marking the territory with geosymbols and contributing to spreading the pastoral image of Abruzzo beyond its regional borders. Leaving aside artistic production, the present contribution seeks to demonstrate that pastoral identity is a misrepresentation, being the result of a literature that while denouncing the field backwardness has strengthened its identity or intentionally emphasized it for artistic purposes, against the economic importance of the herding industry and the relevance of three regions (Abruzzo, Molise and Apulia) in the southern trajectory as well as Lazio in the western one.