Yoke

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Yoke

A yoke is a wooden beam which is used between a pair of oxen to allow them to pull a load (oxen almost always work in pairs). There are several types, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen. A pair of oxen is also called a yoke of oxen, and yoke is also used as a verb: "to yoke a pair of oxen".

See Wiktionary appendix: *yugóm

The word "yoke" is believed to derive from Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European may refer to:*Proto-Indo-European language, the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages.*Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language....
*yugóm (yoke), from verb *yeug- (join, unite).

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Encyclopedia

Etymology

See Wiktionary appendix: *yugóm

The word "yoke" is believed to derive from Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
including German

German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
Joch, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
iugum, Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
????? (zygon), Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
??? (yugá), Hittite

Hittite language

Hittite or Nesili is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas in north-central Anatolia ....
?????? (iúkan), Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Solun dialect of the Thessaloniki region by the 9th century Byzantine Greeks missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and other Ancient Greek language ecclesiastica...
??? (igo), Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....
jungas, Old Irish cuing etc. (all meaning "yoke").

Bow or neck yoke

A bow yoke is a shaped wooden crosspiece bound to the necks of a pair of oxen, or occasionally horses. It is held on the animals' necks by an oxbow

Oxbow

An 'oxbow' is a U-shaped wooden frame that fits under and around the neck of an ox, with its upper ends attached to the bar of the yoke. When rivers meander and are sometimes cut off from their course, they form an oxbow lake which is so named because of the distinct "U" shape....
, from which it gets its name. The oxbow is usually U-shaped and also transmits force from the animals' shoulders. A swivel beneath the centre of the yoke, between the animals, attaches the pole of the vehicle (when the animals steer the vehicle) or chains (trace

Trace (tack)

In transport, a trace is one of two, or more, straps, ropes or chains by which a carriage or wagon, or the like, is drawn by a Driving or other Working animal....
s) that are used to drag a load.

Bow yokes are traditional in northern Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
.

Head yoke

A head yoke is a yoke that fits onto the head of the oxen. It usually fits behind the horns, and has carved-out sections into which the horns fit. The yoke is then strapped to the horns of the oxen with yoke straps. Some types fit instead onto the front of the head, and ox pads are then used for cushioning on the oxen's foreheads. A tug pole is held to the bottom of the yoke using yoke irons and chains. The tug pole can either be a short pole with a chain attached for hauling, or a long pole with a hook on the end that has no chain at all. Sometimes the pole is attached to a wagon and the oxen are simply backed over this pole, the pole is then raised between them and a backing bolt is dropped into the chains on the yoke irons in order to haul the wagon.

Head yokes are widely used in southern Europe, much of South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
and in Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
.

Withers yoke

]] A withers yoke is a yoke that fits just in front of the withers

Withers

The withers is the highest point on the back of a non-upright animal, on the ridge between its shoulder blades....
of the oxen. The yoke is held in position by straps and/or a pair of wooden staves either side of the ox's withers; the pull is however from the yoke itself, not from the staves. Withers yokes particularly suit zebu

Zebu

Zebus , sometimes known as 'humped cattle' or 'indicus' cattle. They are a type of cattle better-adapted to tropics environments than the other domestic cattle, the Bos primigenius taurus or 'taurine' types....
cattle, which have high humps on their withers.

Withers yokes are widely used in Africa

Africa

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, where zebu cattle are common.

Comparison

Although all three yoke types are effective, each has its advantages and disadvantages. Head yokes need to be constantly shaped to fit the animals' horns, while bow yokes do not. However a head yoke is better for teaching animals to stand quietly without fighting because they cannot move their heads around freely.

Other uses

"Yoke" can also mean a bar by which the end of the tongue of a wagon or carriage is suspended from the collars of a harness; a bar carried across the shoulders, by which a person can carry goods, such as two pails of milk, one at either end; or the shoulder piece of a shirt.

Symbolism

With its of connations of subservience, in ancient cultures it was traditional to force a defeated enemy to pass beneath an symbolic yoke of spears or swords. The last remenant of this tradition is the Saber Arch

Saber Arch

A Saber Arch is a UK and US military tradition sometimes performed at the weddings of service members, wherein the newly married bride and groom pass under an honorary arch of sabers....
seen at some military weddings.

External links

- ox training association