Abstract

The article investigates the role of the Romanian paid worker in the Sardinian countryside that replaces the traditional figure of the local «servo pastore» (Sardinian servant shepherd). The focus is on the symbolic and relational tension between Sardinian shepherds and Romanian salaried workers, starting from extensive ethnographic material based on participant observation and in-depth interviews. By analyzing their work practices and daily interactions as well as what the Sardinians said about the Romanians and vice versa, we will try to explain the tension Sardinian shepherd owners' need to hire productive subordinate workers and that of Romanian servant shepherds to find areas of freedom and autonomy for themselves. The relations between Sardinian shepherds and Romanian pastoral workers appear to be embedded in strategic situations in which power relations remain flexible, alternating between processes of subjugation and subjectivation.