Page 4 - MATTANZA_2010

1634-1813 and 1878-1960, the median annual catch was 1,958 the cannery, tuna fìshing continued to be of considerable local impor-
tuna, showing highs in the 1880 to 1930 period, when median per
year catches amounted to 5,200 tuna (Ravier and Fromentin
200 l: 1304, 1308).
Vincenzo Florio, who had made his wealth with the production
and export of Marsala wine and in the world of fìnance, leased severa!
tonnare as of 1827, including Favignana' s. 'Florio streamlined ma-
neuvers, redesigned the traps, and sometimes changed their place-
ment at sea' (Maggio 2000:60). His improvements led to growing
catches. Nonetheless, Florio did not renew his lease in 1859, but in
1874, his son Ignazio Florio bought the Egadi Islands, including the
tonnara ofFavignana. Under his entrepreneurial guidance, the ton-
nara continued to flourish. Its record catch of 1878 was 10,159 mna.
Ignazio Florio established a large tuna cannery (like the netted walls
called tonnara) on Favignana, providing work for the entire island
community. Florio had a famous Sicilian architect design the build-
ing and a new wharf, the Camparia, as well. The tonnara used to be
an integrai part of the fabric of locallife, calling on the enti re com-
munity, not just on the fìshermen. The fìshermen and many male
and female labourers worked for the canning factory. Tuna was bled,
cooked and preserved in olive oil, canned and exported. When i t was
no t mna season, the cannery processed and packed sardines and other
fìsh Sicilian fìshermen landed. Florio was an enlightened entrepre-
neur who established a nursery and a playground in his factory. The
Favignana islanders loved their wealthy patron and raised a stame for
him. The mna fìshery was the mainstay of the local economy, and the
money made with it would feed many fìshermen's families for over
half the year. But Ignazio's son, Vincenzo (named after his grandfa-
ther), had to sell the tonnara to their business partners, the Parodi
family, in the late 1930s.
Fora long rime in the twentieth century, many locals - women
included (they were involved in making and mending the nets)-
continued to depend on work in the runa factory, where the fìsh was
preserved in olive oil. The fìshermen worked for the tonnara factory,
but due to diminishing catches, it was closed in 1981 and conse-
quently many of the hundreds of workers became unemployed and
the mna killing tradition was endangered. The building still is tes-
timony to the tuna fìshery's important legacy. Despite the closure of
tance. The owner of the tuna trap, Luigi Parodi, leased i t to an entre-
preneur from nearby Trapani, Franco Castiglione, who transported
the tuna to his slaughterhouse there, where the fìsh,were weighed
an d cut up by] apanese specialists an d then flown t o the Tokyo fìsh
market.
The Ritual Slaughter ofTuna
The complex and rimai method of catching mna follows very
precise rules, timings and strictly disciplined practices. It requires a
highly specialised divisi o n of labour w h ere every crewmember carri es
out specifìc tasks. The mode of production has a hierarchical social
strucrure. The concluding act of trapping the tuna is known as la
mattanza, a term deriving from the Latin mactare, meaning to slaugh-
6
ter, immolate or honour. Working towards the catharsis of la mat-
tanza requires the team effort of scores of fìshermen over a peri od of
t h ree months un der the leadershi p of the rais, the head or chief fìsh-
7
erman. H e coordinates an d oversees the work of the gang or crew
(ciurma) of tonnaroti (the tuna fìshermen). The rais has two 'lieu-
tenants', capoguardia, with whom he may consult as regards certain
decisions. They act as his confìdants. Under them are the six boat
captains who direct their own crews. There is also a special position
for the SCUBA diver who inspects the chambers for holes that have
to be repaired. He also removes fish that are entangled in the nets
lest they rot.
The rais is the undisputed leader of the whole operation. He de-
cides when, where and how to set and manage the tuna trap, and co-
6 Mattanza has found its way into the Italian vernacular as a synonym for
'massacre'. The French term for mattanza- or, more precisely, the tuna trap-
is madrague, in Portuguese i t is marar;oes, in Spanish almadraba. Serge Collet
suggested to me that this is related to Arabic: al mazraba and zrb, meaning clo-
sure.
7 The term rais is Arabi c in origin. The mattanza tec:hnique became pop-
ular in the ninth century during the Arab domination ofSicily (although it is
possibly much older).