Comunità di mestiere: percorso etnografico sulle cave di travertino di Rapolano Terme

Abstract

Building on ethnographic research, this article focuses on briefly presenting the history of social, economic and cultural changes of the sienese travertine extraction and transformation in the Rapolano Terme stoneworking district. The research is based on findings from interviews with quarrymen and stoneworkers, key photographs and documents contained in a variety of archives, which together provide an overall view of the narrative of this territorial identity. The aim of the text, as the author points out, is to look at how the craft continuity and transmission changes contribute to current processes of heritagisation built on the connections between economic potential, history, art, and skilled labour.