LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

The Social Being of the Aromâni... 237
un-acknowledged social being has contributed fundamentally to Greek
identity in particular, and the prosperity of Balkan society at large.
As pastoralists the Aromâni under the ottoman empire were able to
move freely where now there are frontiers, and they owned tens of thousands
of sheep. they were organised under chelnics [Gr. Tselingas], who were
the major owners of one or more flocks and were the employers of the
shepherds. Vlah society may appear superficially to be male-dominated,
but within the home it must be questioned whether things were quite so
obvious. the men drew wealth into the community from sheep, commerce
and manufacture. the women produced clothing, weaveries, and cloth
which could often be used to pay taxes. As in romania textiles were an
index of the functional health of the society. they required more than
simply a few looms. the whole expertise of pastoralism, the shepherds and
the sheep, along with the water-powered beetling mills and vîltoare 3 for
processing, and the craft of dyeing, were all necessary. As noted below, it
is highly significant that the technology of the cerga and flokati blankets
made by the women of the Maramureş in norther romania are exactly the
same as those of the Aromâni of Greece. Women are prime transmitters
of social values; and moreover the two-syllable name ending in -a is also
characteristic of these two regions. these facts cannot be ignored. they
probably refer to thracian antecedents sensu lato.
Apart from their role as pastoralists and muleteers, which carried them
widely across the landscape, the Aromâni fulfilled a host of other functions
in Balkan society. they continue to do so today; as lawyers, doctors, actors,
politicians, taxi drivers, &cc., occupying the not over-crowded niche in
that region of a professional middle class. their contribution to modern
Greek identity extends well beyond the fustanella, flokati and prasopitta.
Continental inland transport was in their hands in their roles as muleteers.
they were inn-keepers [handji] keeping the inns or caravanserais [hanuri]
along their own caravan routes. they made weapons, and operated in many
trades and professions. Samarina had several butchers. As guides [kiradji]
they did not simply transport goods or clients regardless of convenience, but
took complete charge of the welfare of the party, in short as true dragoman.
their relationship to their animals, the mules, sheep, horses and dogs of
their daily economy, was one of loving care which contrasts with other
attitudes sometimes found in the Greek peninsula.
3 the vîltoare is a slatted tub with a powerful jet of water directed into it, forming
a whirlpool in which to tumble, compress, and fluff out cerga and flokati. In effect there
was a water-powered industrial revolution in eastern europe independent of the steampowered
one of western europe.