the one of trementinaire It was a profession, mainly female, that existed in the Catalan Pyrenees from the 19th century until the arrival of industrialization in rural areas, and which allowed these women to become the economic engine of their families and of the regions they inhabited.
In an article published in the Journal for the History of Knowledgethe teacher Elisa Garrido Moreno from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) proposes a review of what the individual experiences of these women with the natural world contributed to knowledge, female autonomy, and even to the maintenance of the ecosystem in which they lived.
The example of the ‘trementinaires’ in the Catalan Pyrenees helps to understand the role of rural women in the natural environment, whose voices have not been well represented
Starting from the hypothesis that all knowledge is “situated” —partial and dependent on the context—, the author offers a reflection on the turpentines as a case study to understand the role of knowledge outside, in this case, that of the rural women on the natural environment, whose voices have not been well represented in the construction of knowledge about nature and its resources.
The work starts from a documentation process carried out, above all, from the ethnographic study published by Joan Frigolé Women who traveled the world (2005) and the documentary collection of The Museu de les Trementinaires (Lleida) which preserves the oral and material memory of these women.
Recreation of a kitchen of a turpentine in the Museum of the turpentines and clothing of one of them. / Marta.uoc
The trade of turpentine
It was about a traveling trade. During the warm months, the most necessary species for the preparation of their formulas were collected, cataloged and stored. Precisely, the name by which they were known (trementinaire) comes from the turpentine essencea remedy for which they were especially in demand.
After the collection and with the arrival of the cold, they left the family nucleus, leaving the men to take care of the family in the home, to undertake long trips in order to market their products and supply their customers with the remedies they would need during the winter.
During the summer these women collected, cataloged and kept plants to make products that they later marketed in winter during long trips
Those trips could last for months, which highlights the challenge to gender roles that this entailed for the traditional functioning of the family, at a time when it was not frequent to see women traveling solo and, much less, trading and exercising their own trade.
The article highlights this fact and also reveals a series of their own technologies and practices, elaborated by themselves. For example, the bags used to transport and dry the herbs were made from bedding, woven from old cushion covers.
For the collection of mushrooms and mushrooms, they also developed a particular method, drying them and threading them like necklaces. Turpentine oil used to be carried in metal cans uniquely tied to the body during long journeys.
oral knowledge
The knowledge of the turpentines they were transmitted orally, between grandmothers, mothers and daughters, and were kept as family secrets. Precisely for this reason, these women have remained outside the history of knowledge, since it is extremely difficult to find written references to their contributions.
Thanks to her extensive knowledge of natural resources, generally inaccessible to women of her time, turpentines They managed to develop a trade that came to cover the medical needs of many of the families that lived in the surroundings of the valley and the nearby cities.
Sometimes they were called “witches”, an unfair accusation that was based on mistaken questions about morality and the prejudices of the feminine ideal of the time.
Sometimes they were branded as “witches” in the places they visited, an unfair accusation that was based on mistaken questions about morality and the prejudices of the feminine ideal of the time.
The study also reflects on this. “Witch” and scientific knowledge are often confused when it comes to women’s history. Are stereotypes that must be overcome. In the case of turpentineshis specialized knowledge included the identification of a multitude of species, where to find them, how to conserve them, when to collect them and how to apply them.
His knowledge about his natural environment was not just a matter of knowledge, but a way of survival; knowledge that is extremely topical, given the environmental situation that has been caused, in part, by the progressive separation between human beings and nature.
Rights: Creative Commons.