Calf, Cow, Ox, Horse and Buffalo

In the far south of Italy — Calabria, Basilicata, Apulia — where I first ventured with Irving Davis twenty five years ago, meat was rarely displayed, the butcher’s shop (macelleria) being identified by a pair of ox horns, which were also mounted on the roofs of isolated farms, to keep off the evil eye. The carcases were kept in large cold-storage cabinets: one entered an empty cell through a bead curtain to see nothing but a notice on the weighing machine saying ‘credit is not extended to-day’ and a bunch of tripe, an ox hoof or an oxtail, hanging from a hook. This was for reasons of hygiene, and has since changed with the installation of refrigerated display cabinets. But, until a few years ago, the purchase of meat was restricted to feast days — Sundays and Saint’s days. Now it is ostentatiously acquired on any day as solid proof of well-being.