An important aspect of village communal life was collective milking, a cooperative activity especially during busy summer months when everyone was involved in cheese and butter-making. Each household would take turns in precessing the milk collected from all the neighbours’ cows, rotating from one home to the next, both to distribute the labour and the milk. This way, even if one family’s cow was dry for a period of time, they wouldn’t starve. This interdependence insured survival. Honesty was essential and cheating was heavily condemned.
