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St. Anthony, animals and mutual aid groups

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Posted on 2023-01-20 in
Errematerako jatekoen bedeinkazioa. Garai (Bizkaia), 2013. Labayru Fundazioaren Argazki Artxiboa.

Blessing of edibles for auction. Garai (Bizkaia), 2013. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

St. Anthony the Abbot or St. Anthony the Great (17 January) is known for living as a hermit, for his strength shown in the face of repeated temptation by the devil, and for protecting the swine with which he is traditionally depicted in the iconography. Cattle and livestock in general were usually given a day of rest on the saint’s feast day. In turn, they were blessed by driving them over the smoking remains of the yule log, passing under a protective charm placed on the lintel of the animal pens and feeding them blessed bread and water. If that were not possible, the animals were driven around a chapel or church dedicated to their patron saint.
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Industrial farming and social control

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Posted on 2018-10-26 in
Tagged sheep. Luis Manuel Peña

Tagged sheep. Luis Manuel Peña. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Urban, modern and extremely high-tech society tends to proudly look down on the rural world. It belongs in the past, you might think, where outdated and obsolete traditional values are still upheld. Yet, very few ever stop to consider the productive activity of farms today, specifically the realities of modern industrial farming methods on the front line of society, as it were, where ‘experiments’ are conducted with a focus on the control of individuals and maximization of production, which sooner or later are suspiciously applied to human societies. (more…)

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