Transhumance



Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (vertical transhumance) it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with the people necessary to tend them. In contrast, horizontal transhumance is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic or political change.

Traditional or fixed transhumance occurs or has occurred throughout the inhabited world, including Scandinavia, Scotland, England, Caucasus, Chad, Morocco, France, Italy, Ireland, Lebanon, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Iran, Turkey, the Republic of Macedonia, India, Switzerland, Georgia, the United States, and Lesotho. It is also practised among more nomadic Sami people of Scandinavia. It is often of high importance to pastoralist societies, the dairy products of transhumance flocks and herds (milk, butter, yogurt and cheese) often forming much of the diet of such populations.

The term "transhumance" is also occasionally used for nomadic pastoralism – migration of people and livestock over longer distances.

Etymology
The term derives from the Latin trans 'across' and humus 'ground'.

Worldwide transhumance patterns
Transhumance developed on every inhabited continent. Although there are substantial cultural and technological variations, underlying practices for taking advantage of remote seasonal pastures are similar.

The Alps


The traditional economy of the Alps was based on rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between valley and high pastures was critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population. That practice has shaped a lot of landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas below 2000 m would be forests.

While tourism and industry contribute today much to Alpine economy, seasonal migration to high pastures is still practised in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland, except in their most frequented tourist centers. In some places, cattle are taken care of by local farmer families who move to higher places. In others, this job is for herdsmen employed by the cooperative owning the pastures.

Austria has over 12 000 sites where 70 000 farmers take care of about 500 000 cattle. Alpine pastures amount to a quarter of the farmland.

Bavaria has about 1400 sites hosting 50 000 cattle, about half of them in Upper Bavaria and the other half in the Allgäu.

In Switzerland, about 380 000 cattle including 130 000 cows as well as 200 000 sheep are in summer on high pastures. Milk from cows here is usually made into local cheese specialities, handmade using traditional methods and tools. Alpine pastures amount to 35% of Swiss farmland. Transhumance contributes much to traditional Swiss culture, for example yodeling, alphorn and Schwingen (wrestling) are closely connected to Alpine pastures.

The Balkans
In the Balkans, the Sarakatsani, Aromanians and Yörüks traditionally spent summer months in the mountains and returned to lower plains in the winter. Until the mid-20th century, borders between Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were relatively unobstructed. In summer, some groups went as far north as the Balkan mountains while winter they would spend in warmer plains in vicinity of the Aegean sea. The Morlachs were a population of Vlach shepherds who lived in the Dinaric Alps (western Balkans in modern use), constantly migrating in search for better pastures for their sheep flocks. But as national states appeared in a former domain of the Ottoman empire, new state borders came to separate summer and winter habitats of many of the pastoral groups.

Wales
In most parts of Wales, farm workers and sometimes the farmer would spend the summer months at a hillside summer house or hafod where the livestock would graze. Then during the late autumn they would return down to the valleys with the farm workers staying at the main residence or hendre.

This system of transhumance has not been practised for almost a century although it did continue in Snowdonia after it died out elsewhere in Wales and remnants of the practice can still be found in rural farming communities in the region to this day. Both "Hafod" and "Hendre" commonly survive in Wales as place names and house names. Today, cattle and sheep on many hill farms are still often transported to lowland winter pastures, but now by truck.

Scotland
In many hilly and mountainous areas of Scotland agricultural workers spent summer months in bothies or shielings (airigh in Scottish Gaelic). Examples of major drovers' roads in the eastern part of Scotland include the Cairnamounth, Elsick Mounth and Causey Mounth. This practice has largely died out, but was practised within living memory in the Hebridean Islands and in the Highlands of Scotland. Today much transhumance is carried out by truck, with upland flocks being sent under agistment to lower-lying pasture during winter.

England
In southern England, where the climate is mild and the hills low, transhumance historically took the opposite form to that in Switzerland. Cattle grazed on dry, sandy heath on the hills in winter and rich, low-lying flood-meadows in summer once flood-water receded. The Weald, as another example, was utilised for the grazing of pigs; this type was known as pannage. While this form of pastoralism sees little use today, it has left its mark on English toponymy, as attested by nearby paired placenames such as Winterfold Heath and Somersbury Wood.

Ireland
In Ireland transhumance is known as booleying. Transhumance pastures were known as Booley, Boley, Bouley, Buaile and Boola and these names survive in many placenames, for example Buaile h'Anraoi in Kilcommon parish, Erris, North Mayo where the landscape still clearly shows the layout of the rundale system of agriculture. The practice of booleying was widespread in the west of Ireland up until around the time of the Second World War, when seasonal migration to Scotland and England superseded this ancient system together with more permanent emigration to the USA. Booleying alleviated pressure on the growing crops and provided fresh pasture for livestock.

The average holding on the small farms of County Mayo was only five acres, insufficient to maintain a family for more than part of the year. Booleying was the movement of livestock, usually cattle, from a permanent lowland village to summer pastures in the mountains. The practice would have dated back to the Early Medieval Period or even older. Booleying is mentioned in the Brehon Laws. Booleying is generally associated with the rundale system of agriculture where unenclosed arable fields necessitated the removal of livestock to the mountains so that the crops could grow undisturbed.

Transhumance was used by the British to justify their domination of the "savage" Celtics.

The Iberian Peninsula
There is an ancient tradition in the peninsula of raising livestock in open fields, as evidenced by classical Roman references and archaeological remains such as the Bulls of Guisando. (Free range horse and cattle herding would later be brought to the Americas and would especialize as Gaucho and Cowboy practices altogether with a rich social culture of their own with stockbreeding mainly for meat and leather rather than milk, though this may not be totally unexploited).

The exploitation of large herds of pigs and sheep in transhumant style was established by the early Middle Ages, if not earlier, as evidenced by highly-regulated laws in documents of the Mesta. It may have a longer history based in classical methods developed through an earlier politically and legally unified peninsula during the lower Roman Empire: some Visigothic records indicate continuity. Drovers' roads continue to exist, including a well-known one through Madrid. Some bee-keepers work in transhumant style in Spain.

In some high valleys of the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains, transhumant herding has been the basic or only support of the economy. Regulated passes and pasturage have been especialized between different valleys and communities, due to the seasonal range of exploitation and communities jurisdictions. Unique social groups are associated with the transhumant lifestyle, and are sometimes identified as a remnant of an older ethnic culture now left in isolated minorities such as the "Pasiegos" in Cantabria, "Agotes" in Navarre ,"Vaqueiros de alzada" in Asturias.

The Pyrenees
Transhumance in the Pyrenees involves relocation of livestock (cows, sheep, horses) to high mountains for summer months, because farms in the lowland are too small to support a larger herd all year round. Their mountain period starts in late May and early June, and ends in early October. Until the 1970s transhumance concerned mainly dairy cows, and cheesemaking was important activity. In some regions up until this century, nearly all members of a family decamped to higher mountains with their cows, living in rudimentary stone cabins. That system, which evolved during the Middle Ages, lasted into the 20th century, but broke down under pressure from industrialization with concomitant depopulation of countryside.

Scandinavia
In Scandinavia, transhumance is still practised, although arrival of motorized vehicles has changed its character. Common mountain or forest pasture used for transhumance in summer is called seter or bod / bua. The same term is used for a mountain cabin which was used as a summer residence. In summer (usually late June), livestock is moved to a mountain farm, often quite distant from a home farm, preserving meadows in valleys for use as hay. Livestock were typically tended for summer by girls and younger women, who milked and made cheese. Bulls usually remain at the home farm. As autumn approaches and grazing is in short supply, livestock are returned to a home farm.

In Sweden, this system was predominantly used in Värmland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Hälsingland, Medelpad and Ångermanland.

It was common to most regions in Norway due to its highly mountainous nature. "The Gudbrandsdal area includes lateral valleys such as Gausdal, Heidal, Vinstradal, and Ottadal. That area comprises lowland parishes 200 m above sea-level and mountain parishes 800 m above sea-level, fertile soil in the main valley and barren summits in Rondane and Dovrefjell. Forests surround those farms, but higher up, woods give way to a treeless mountain plateau. This is the seterfjell, or summer farm region, once of vital importance both as summer pastureland and for haymaking."

While previously many farms had their own seter, today it is more usual for several farmers to share a modernized common seter (fellesseter). Most of those old seters have been left to decay or are used as cabins.

The name for the common mountain pasture in most Scandinavian languages derives from the old Norse term setr. In (Norwegian) the term is sæter or seter, in (Swedish) säter. The place name appears in Sweden in several forms Säter and Sätra and as a suffix: -säter, -sätra, -sätt and -sättra. Those names appear extensively over Sweden with a centre in the Mälaren basin and in Östergötland.

In the heartland of the Swedish transhumance region the most used term is bod or bua (the word still existing in English as booth), nowadays standarized to fäbod.

Asia
Transhumance practices are found in temperate areas, above ~1000 m in the Himalaya–Hindu Kush area (referred to below as Himalaya); and the cold semi-arid zone north of the Himalaya, through the Tibetan Plateau and northern China to the Eurasian Steppe.

Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan all have vestigial transhumance cultures. For regions of the Himalaya transhumance still provides mainstay for several near-subsistence economies — for example, that of Zanskar in northwest India, Van Gujjars in Western Himalayas, and Kham Magar in western Nepal, although in some cases distances may be great enough to qualify as nomadic pastoralism.

Another example of this way of life is the Bakhtiari tribe of Iran. All along the Zagros mountain range from Azerbaijan to the Arabian Sea, pastoral tribes move back and forth with their herds every year between their home in the valley and one in the foothills."

Kyrgyzstan
In Kyrgyzstan, transhumance practices, which never died out during the Soviet period, have undergone a resurgence in the difficult economic times following independence in 1991. Transhumance is integral to Kyrgyz national culture. Felt tents used on these summer pastures (or jailoo) is known as the yurt and its main structural component is symbolised on their national flag. Those shepherds prize fermented mare's milk drink kumis; a tool used in its production lends its name to the country's capital city, Bishkek.

Lebanon
Examples of fixed transhumance are found in the North Governorate of Lebanon. Towns and villages located in the Qadisha valley are at an average altitude of 1,400 meters. Some settlements, like Ehden and Kfarsghab, are used during summer periods from beginning of June till mid-October. Inhabitants move in October to coastal towns situated at an average of 200 meters above sea level. The transhumance is motivated by agricultural activities ( historically by the mulberry silkworm culture). The main crops in the coastal towns are olive, grape and citrus. For the mountain towns, the crops are summer fruits, mainly apples and pears. Other examples of transhumance exist in Lebanon.

The Qashqai - the story of a Turkic tribe of southern Iran
"To survive, nomads have always been obliged to fight. They lead a wandering life and do not accumulate documents and archives.

But in the evenings, around fires that are burning low, the elders will relate striking events, deeds of valour in which the tribes pride themselves. Thus the epic tale is told from father to son, down through the ages.

The tribes of Central Asia were forced by wars, strife, upheavals, to abandon their steppes and seek new pasture grounds. . . so the Huns, the Visigoths, and before them the Aryans, had invaded India, Iran, Europe. The Turks, forsaking the regions where they had dwelt for centuries, started moving down through the Turan and Caspian depressions, establishing themselves eventually on the frontiers of the Iranian Empire and in Asia Minor. We are of Turkish language and race; some say that we are descendants of the Turkish Ghuzz Tribe (Oğuz Turks), known for its cruelty and fierceness, and that our name is derived from the Turkish "Kashka" meaning "a horse with a white star on its forehead". Others think this name indicates that we came from Kashgar in the wake of Hulagu. Others still that it means "fugitive".

Though these versions differ, we believe that the arrival of our Tribes in Iran coincided with the conquests of Jengis Khan, in the thirteenth century. Soon after, our ancestors established themselves on the slopes of the Caucasus. We are descendants of the "Tribe of the Ak Koyunlu" the "Tribe of the White Sheep" famed for being the only tribe in history capable of inflicting a defeat on Tamerlane. For centuries we dwelt on the lands surrounding Ardebil, but, in the first half of the sixteenth century we settled in southern Persia, Shah Ismail having asked our warriors to defend this part of the country against the intrusions of the Portuguese. Thus, our Tribes came to the Province of Fars, near the Persian Gulf, and are still only separated from it by a ridge of mountains, the Makran.

The yearly migrations of the Kashkai, seeking fresh pastures, drive them from the south to the north, where they move to their summer quarters "Yeilak" in the high mountains; and from the north to the south, to their winter quarters, "Qishlaq". In summer, the Kashkai flocks graze on the slopes of the Kuh-è-Dinar; a group of mountains from 12,000 to 15,000 feet, that are part of the Zagros chain.

In autumn the Kashkai break camp, and by stages leave the highlands. They winter in the warmer regions near Firuzabad, Kazerun, Jerrè, Farashband, on the banks of the river Mound, till, in April, they start once more on their yearly trek. The migration is organised and controlled by the Kashkai Chief. The Tribes carefully avoid villages and towns such as Shiraz and Isfahan, lest their flocks, estimated at seven million head, might cause serious damage. The annual migration is the largest of any Persian tribe.

It is difficult to give exact statistics, but we believe that the Tribes now number 400,000 men, women and children." &mdash; Told to Marie-Tèrése Ullens de Schooten by the 'Il Begh' Malek Mansur, brother of the 'Il Khan', Nasser Khan, chief of the Kashkai Tribes, in 1953.

Australia
In Australia, which has a large station (i.e., ranch) culture, stockmen provide the labor to move the herds to seasonal pastures.

Transhumant grazing is an important aspect of the cultural heritage of the Australian Alps, an area of which has been included on the Australian National Heritage List. It started in this region in the 1830s when the alpine plains were used to graze stock during the summer months when pasture lower down was poor. The practice continued during the 19th and 20th centuries and made a considerable contribution to Australia's pastoral industry. Transhumant grazing created a distinctive way of life that is an important part of Australia's pioneering history and culture. There are features in the area that are reminders of transhumant grazing including abandoned stockman's huts, stock yards and stock routes.

North and northeast Africa
The Berber people of North Africa were traditionally farmers, living in mountains relatively close to the Mediterranean coast, or oasis dwellers. However, the Tuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara practice nomadic transhumance, whereas some groups, such as the Chaouis, practiced fixed transhumance. The Somalis and the Afars of Northeast Africa likewise traditionally practice nomadic transhumance.

Sub-Saharan Africa
Maasai are semi-nomadic people located primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania who have pastoral transhumance cultures that revolve around their cattle. That dependence was historically very strong, with even huts of the Maasai built from dried cattle dung. They are related to the Zulu, a people who live mainly in South Africa who were also formerly semi-nomadic. In Southern Angola, several peoples - chiefly the Ovambo and part of the Nyaneka-Khumbi - are entirely organized around the practice of transhumance.

Lesotho
Traditional economy of the Basotho in Lesotho is based on rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between valley and high plateaus of the Maloti (basalt mountains of Lesotho) is critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population. Pressure on pasture land has increased due to construction of large storage dams in these mountains to provide water to South Africa's arid industrial heartland.

While tourism is starting to contribute to the economy of Lesotho, and more people are moving permanently into Highlands there, seasonal migration still augments this trend. Seasonal migration is part of the job of herdsmen who are employees of farmers who own herds in Lesotho. Growing pressure on pastures is contributing to degradation of sensitive grasslands and could contribute to sedimentation in man-made lakes.

North America
Transhumance, in most cases relying on use of public land, continues to be an important ranching practice in the western United States. The American tradition is based on moving herds to higher ground with the greening of highland pastures in spring and summer, and these uplands are often under the jurisdiction of the United States Forest Service. In the winter, herds use lowland steppe or desert, also often government land under the jurisdiction of the BLM. In California and Texas, a greater proportion of the range is private land. The general pattern is that in summer, ranch families, hired shepherds, or hired cowboys travel to the mountains and stay in a line camp during the summer, or visit the upland ranch regularly using trailers to transport horses to the high country. Traditionally, in the American west shepherds spent most of the year with a herd, searching for the best forage in each season, an activity that peaked in the late nineteenth century. Today, cattle and sheep herds have at least a home base on private land, though this is often a small part of their range. There is a long tradition of Basque shepherds being imported into the U.S. to herd sheep on the public domain. That role has now been supplanted by Peruvian, Chilean, and Mongolian workers. Shepherds take sheep herds into the mountains in the summer and out on the desert in the winter, at times using crop stubble and pasture on private land when it is available. The motion picture Brokeback Mountain portrays this lifestyle in the first act of the story, in which the shepherds take their sheep into BLM lands. There are a number of different forms of transhumance in the United States:

The Navajo people began practicing transhumance in the 1850s, as they were forced out of their traditional homeland in the San Juan River (Colorado River) valley.

In the southern Appalachians, livestock, especially sheep, were often pastured on grassy bald mountain tops where wild oats predominate. There is some speculation that these balds are remnants of ancient bison grazing lands (possibly maintained to some extent by early Amerindians). In the absence of transhumance, these balds have been receding in recent decades and may require some form of transhumance to conserve these unique ecosystems.

In California, the home ranch tends to have more private land, largely because of the legacy of the Spanish land grant system. For this reason extensive acreages of Mediterranean oak woodlands and grasslands are stewarded by ranches whose economy depends on summer range on government land under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service.

South America
South American transhumance partially relies on "cowboy" counterparts, the gaucho of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and (with the spelling "gaúcho") southern Brazil, the llanero of Venezuela, the huaso of Chile.

Transhumance is currently practiced at least in Argentina, Chile, Perú and Bolivia, as well as in the Brazilian Pantanal. It mainly involves movement of cattle in the Pantanal and in parts of Argentina, while camelids are rather used at the Altiplano. Goats constitute a big chunk of the transhumance that takes place in North Neuquén and South Mendoza, while sheep are more used in the Patagonian plains. Criollos as well as indigenous people are involved in transhumant practices in South America.