The making of the Pecora Sambucana

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of ‘bio-heritage’. It does so by drawing on developments in the Valle Stura, an alpine valley near Cuneo, in north-western Italy. It proposes that the construction of the Sambucana, as a local and genetically distinct breed of sheep, integrates otherwise centrifugal relations between the markets for the meat, cheese and wool derived from sheep of the Valle Stura over the past three centuries. Such integration not only increases the economic value of these products, but also sustains novel forms of consumption. This conjunction of bodies, memory and consumption illustrates the distinctiveness of bio-heritage and contributes to understanding of wider bio-economic and bio-political processes.