Encyclopedia
Transhumance is a term that has two accepted usages:
- Older sources use the term transhumance for vertical seasonal livestock movement, typically to higher pastures in summer and to the lower valleys in winter. The herders have a permanent home, typically in the valley. Only the herds and a subset of people necessary to tend them travel. This is termed fixed transhumance below.
- Some recent studies consider nomadism, where livestock move to follow grazing over considerable distances following set seasonal patterns a form of transhumance. This is termed nomadic transhumance below.
Traditional or fixed transhumance, the seasonal movement of livestock, ascending to mountain pastures in summer and descending to relatively warm areas in the valleys, foothills, plains or desert fringe in winter, occurs throughout the world, including
Scandinavia,
France,
Italy,
Romania,
Bulgaria,
Spain,
Turkey,
Switzerland and
Lesotho. It is also practiced amongst the more nomadic
Sami people of
Scandinavia. Transhumance is based on the difference of climate between the mountains and the lowlands . Its importance to pastoralist societies cannot be overstated.
Milk,
butter and
cheese — the products of transhumance — often form the basis of the local population's diet.
Fixed transhumance in Europe
In the past transhumance was widespread throughout Europe. In many areas — such as the Isle of
Lewis in
Scotland — it has faded out, but was practiced within living memory. Today much transhumance is carried out by
truck.
Scandinavia
In
Scandinavia, transhumance is practiced to this day, although the arrival of motorized vehicles has changed its character. The
seter is the term for a common mountain or forest pasture used in the summer for transhumance and the mountain cabin which was used as a summer residence. In the summer the
livestock is moved to the mountain farm, often quite distant from the home farm, preserving the meadows in the valleys for use as
hay. The livestock were typically tended for the summer by girls and younger women, who milked and made cheese. The bulls usually remain at the home farm. As fall approaches, once the grazing is no longer adequate, the livestock are returned to the home farm.
In
Sweden, this system was predominantly used in
Värmland,
Dalarna,
Härjedalen,
Jämtland,
Hälsingland,
Medelpad and
Ångermanland.
Due to Norway's highly mountainous nature, it was common to most regions in Norway. “The Gudbrandsdal area include lateral valleys such as
Gausdal, Heidal, Vinstradal, and Ottadal. The 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 the farms, but higher up the 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 share a modernized common seter . Most of the old seters have been left to rot or are used as cabins.
The name for the common mountain pasture in Scandinavia derives from the
old Norse term
setr. In the term
sæter or
seter are the modern descendents of the old Norse term. In the term
säter is used. The place name appears in
Sweden in several forms
Säter and
Sätra and as a suffix: -
säter, -
sätra, -
sätt and -
sättra. The names appear extensively over Sweden with a centre in the
Mälaren basin and in
Östergötland. In most of Sweden, it used to mean "forest pasture at a distance from the settlement", whereas it in western Sweden meant "mountain pasture".
Pyrenees
The transhumance in the
Pyrenees is relocation of livestock to the high mountains for the summer months, because farms in the lowland are too small to support a larger herd all year round. The mountain period starts in late May and early June, and ends in early October. Until the 1970s the transhumance concerned mainly milk cows, and cheesemaking was the important activity. In some regions up until this century, nearly all the members of a family decamped to the higher mountains with their cows, living in rudimentary stone cabins. This system, which evolved during the middle ages, lasted into the 20th century, but broke down under the pressure of industrialization with concomitant depopulation of the countryside.
Alps
The traditional economy of the Alps was based upon rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between the valley and the high pastures was critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population. The practice has shaped a lot of the landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas below 2000 m would be forests.
While tourism and industry contribute today much to the economy in the Alps, the seasonal migration to the high pastures is still practiced in Bavaria, Austria and Switzerland except in the most frequented tourist centers. In some places, the cattle are taken care of by the local farmer families who move to the higher places, in others, this is the job of herdsmen who are employees of 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 the high pastures. The milk from the cows is usually made into local
cheese specialities, handmade using traditional methods and tools. The alpine pastures amount to 35 percent of the farmland. Transhumance contributes a lot to traditional Swiss culture, e.g. Yodel,
Alphorn or
Schwingen are closely connected to the high pastures.
Maloti
The traditional economy of the Basotho in [Lesotho] is based upon rearing cattle. Seasonal migration between the valley and the high plateaus of the Maloti is critical in feeding an increased number of cattle and supporting a higher human population. The pressure on pasture land has increased due to the construction of large storage dams in the 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 the Highlands, the seasonal migration to the high pastures is still practiced. This is the job of herdsmen who are employees of the farmers who own the herds. The growing pressure on the pastures is contributing to the degradation of the sensitive grasslands and could contribute to the sedimentation of the man-made lakes.
Nomadic transhumance
Often traditional
nomadic groups settle into a regular seasonal pattern, which has been described by some
anthropologists as a form of transhumance. An example of a normal transhumance cycle follows:
- Spring — about 90 days .
- Summer — about 83 days .
- Autumn — about 71 days .
- Winter — some 121 days .
These movements in this example are about 180 to 200 km from the desert plains in the winter to the higher plateau of the summer pastures, with spring and fall spent in transition. The camps are established in the same place each year; often semi-permanent shelters are built in at least one place on the migration route.
These regular patterns are distinguished from those of pastoral nomads, who follow a seasonal migratory pattern which varies from year to year. The timing and destinations of migrations are determined primarily by the herds grazing needs. Such nomadic societies create no permanent settlements, but live in tents or other movable dwellings the year round. Pastoralist nomads are often self-sufficient, producing their own food, shelter and other needs.
Nomadic transhumance was historically widespread throughout the less fertile regions of the world. It is found in areas of low rainfall such as the middle eastern
Bedouins and the African
Somali people or in areas of harsh climate, such as the far northern
Sami people.
The
Mongols in what is now
Mongolia,
Russia, and
China and the
Tatars or
Turkic people of
Eastern Europe and
Central Asia were nomadic peoples who practiced nomadic transhumance on the harsh Asian
steppes. Some remnants of these populations are nomadic to this day.
The nomadic Sami people, practice a form of nomadic transhumance based on the
reindeer. In the 14th and 15th century, when the population was sufficiently reduced that the Sami could not subsist on hunting alone, some Sami, organized along family lines, became reindeer herders. Each family has traditional territories on which they herd, arriving at roughly the same time each season. Only a small fraction of the Sami have subsisted on reindeer herding over the past century; as the most colorful part of the population, they are well known. But as elsewhere in Europe, transhumance is dying out.
Worldwide transhumance patterns
Transhumance developed on every inhabited continent. Although there are substantial cultural and technological variations, the underlying practices for taking advantage of remote seasonal pastures are similar.
Africa
The
Berber people of northern Africa were traditional farmers, living in the mountains relatively close to the
Mediterranean coast, or oasis dwellers; however, the
Tuareg and Zenaga of the southern Sahara practice nomadic transhumance. Some groups, such as the Chaouis, practiced fixed transhumance.
The
Maasai and
Kikuyu, semi-nomadic peoples located primarily in
Kenya and northern
Tanzania, have pastoral transhumance cultures that revolve around their
cattle. The dependence was historically very strong, with even the 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.
North America
Transhumance, relying on the use of public land, continues to be an important source of livestock feed in the western United States. The American tradition was based around moving herds to higher ground with the improvement in highland pastures in the spring and summer. It was based on a semi-nomadic
cowboy or the nomadic
shepherd who often traveled with the herd. The Mexican
charro, is a continuation of this tradition to the south.
South America
South American transhumance relies on "cowboy" counterparts, the
gaucho of
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Paraguay and southern
Brazil, the
llanero of
Venezuela, the
huaso of
Chile.
Asia
Transhumance practices are found in temperate areas, above ~1000 m in the
Himalaya–
Hindu Kush area ; and the cold semi-arid zone north of the Himalaya, through the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau and northern
China to the Asian steppe.
Mongolia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan all have vestigial transhumance cultures. For regions of the
Himalaya transhumance still provides the mainstay of several near-subsistence economies — for example, that of
Zanskar in northwest
India.
Australia
In Australia, which has a large ranch culture,
stockmen provide the labor to move the herds to seasonal pastures.
Reference
Adventure Roads in Norway by Erling Welle-Strand, Nortrabooks, 1996. ISBN 82-90103-71-9
See also
External links
