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Together
they work the land, producing those products which enable them to eat
well, while spending less on the shopping.
From the interviews we conducted, a close link with the environment
emerges, of which the quarrymen have a profound knowledge, as well as a
strong sense of attachment to the territory, and a culture based on the
value of work. The identity of the men´s characterised by a sort of
‘titanism´, linked to their capacity to extract marble from the
mountain, often in dangerous and hard conditions, both due to the use of
explosives and to the close contact with blocks of marble weighing
several tonnes. The quarryman´s family only began to change in the
1970s, when salaries reflected the cost of living and children had
greater opportunities to study and thereby gain access to work that
differed from that of their fathers. In the same years the nature of the
quarrying itself changed, with the introduction of new technologies that
eased the burden on the workforce, which until that time had been
exclusively based on men´s physical labour as far as excavation was
concerned, and on the use of oxen to transport the marble down the
mountain. The new technologies, furthermore, served to improve working
conditions in terms of safety; this being backed up by legislation that
imposed more severe controls in the quarries. Despite these inprovements,
work in the quarries is still tough and risky. The quarriers often have
to work undeclared overtime, inasmuch as their basic salary is not
sufficient to maintain the family. What´s more, serious accidents still
take place, often costing the quarrymen their lives, given that their
excessive faith in their abilities sometimes causes them to
underestimate the risks involved and ignore safety measures, thus
exposing themselves to danger. |