The production relations of the countryside and the agricultural population

Various materials are used in the section to document another important aspect of the agro-pastoral reality of the past: the production relations in the countryside.

Alongside the explanatory tables, original archival documents and historic photographs—some from the late 19th century—are displayed, depicting farmers engaged in various agricultural tasks.

The numerous texts accompanying the exhibition, which present the most interesting outcomes of the research that contributed to the museum’s creation, illustrate the composition and dynamics of the agricultural population. These dynamics are closely connected and complementary to the land ownership structure, often mirroring its evolution and transforming along with it.

A clear insight that emerges from the research is how diverse and segmented the agricultural population was, and how often, behind the generic term “farmer,” there were actually distinct social figures of rural society: tenant farmers, sharecroppers, wage laborers, and small landowning farmers. The different characteristics of these figures are explored in specific explanatory texts.