Transhumance

Romanian and Vlachs transhumance in Balkans

Vlach shepherd in Banat

In the Balkans, the Vlachs, Sarakatsani, Aromanian and Yörük peoples traditionally spent summer months in the mountains and returned to lower plains in the winter. When the area was part of the Austro-Hungary and Ottoman empires, borders between Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia were relatively unobstructed. In summer, some groups went as far north as the Balkan Mountains, and they would spend the winter on warmer plains in the vicinity of the Aegean Sea.

The Morlach or Karavlachs were a population of Vlach shepherds who lived in the Dinaric Alps (western Balkans in modern use), constantly migrating in search of better pastures for their sheep flocks. But as national states appeared in the area of the former Ottoman Empire, new state borders were developed that divided the summer and winter habitats of many of the pastoral groups. These prevented easy movement across borders, particularly at times of war, which have been frequent.

In most parts of Wales, farm workers and sometimes the farmer would spend the summer months at a hillside summer house, or hafod (pronounced [ˈhavɔd]), where the livestock would graze. During the late autumn the farm family and workers would drive the flocks down to the valleys, and stay at the main residence or hendref ([ˈhɛndrɛv]).[6]

This system of transhumance has generally not been practised for almost a century; it continued 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.[7] Both "Hafod" and "Hendref" survive in Wales as place names and house names and in one case as the name of a raw milk cow cheese (Hafod). Today, cattle and sheep that summer on many hill farms are still transported to lowland winter pastures, but by truck rather than being driven overland.

In many hilly and mountainous areas of Scotland, agricultural workers spent summer months in bothies[8] or shielings (airigh in Scottish Gaelic). 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 Scottish Highlands. Today much transhumance is carried out by truck, with upland flocks being transported under agistment to lower-lying pasture during winter.

Evidence exists of transhumance being practised in England since at least mediaeval times, from Cornwall in the south-west, through to the north of England.[9][10][11][12] In the Lake District, hill sheep breeds, such as the Herdwick and Swaledale are moved between moor and valley in summer and winter respectively. This led to a trait and system known as hefting whereby sheep and flock remain in the farmer's allotted area (heaf) of the commons, which is still practised today.[13] However, it is likely to have been undertaken on a much smaller scale than elsewhere in Europe.[5]^:8

In Ireland transhumance is known as "booleying".[14] Transhumance pastures were known as Booley, Boley, Bouley, Buaile and Boola. These names survive in many place names such as Buaile h'Anraoi in Kilcommon parish, Erris, North Mayo, where the landscape still clearly shows the layout of the rundale system of agriculture. The livestock, usually cattle, was moved from a permanent lowland village to summer pastures in the mountains. The appearance of "Summerhill" (Irish: Cnoc an tSamhraidh) in many place names also bears witness to the practice.[15] This transfer alleviated pressure on the growing crops and provided fresh pasture for the livestock. Mentioned in the Brehon Laws, booleying dates back to the Early Medieval period or even earlier. The practice was widespread in the west of Ireland up until the time of the Second World War. Seasonal migration of workers to Scotland and England for the winter months superseded this ancient system, together with more permanent emigration to the USA.

Transhumance in Toblach, South Tyrol

In Southern Italy, and especially in the regions of Molise, Apulia and Abruzzo, the practice of driving herds to upland pastures in summer dates from time immemorial and has enjoyed a long documented history until the 1950s and 1960s with the advent of alternative road transport. Drover's roads or tratturi, up to 100 m wide and more than 100 km long, permitted the passage and grazing of herds, principally sheep, and attracted regulation by law and the establishment of a mounted police force as far back as the 17th century. The tratturi remain public property and subject to conservation by the law protecting cultural heritage. The Molise region candidates the tratturi to the UNESCO as a world heritage.

Main Transhumance routes in Spain

Transhumance is historically widespread throughout much of Spain particularly in the regions of Castile, Leon and Extremadura, where nomadic cattle and sheep herders travel long distances in search of greener pastures in summer and warmer climatic conditions in winter. Spanish transhumance is the origin of numerous related cultures in the Americas such as the Cowboys of the United States and the Gauchos of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

A network of droveways or cañadas crosses the whole peninsula, running mostly south-west to north-east (see map beside this text). They have been charted since ancient times, and classified according to width; the standard cañada is between 37,5 and 75 metres wide, with some cañadas reales or royal droveways being 800 metres wide at certain points. The land within the droveways is publicly owned and protected by law.

In some high valleys of the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Mountains, transhumant herding has been the main, or only, economic activity. Regulated passes and pasturage have been distributed among different valleys and communities according to the seasonal range of use and community jurisdiction. Unique social groups associated with the transhumant lifestyle are sometimes identified as a remnant of an older ethnic culture now surviving in isolated minorities, such as the "Pasiegos" in Cantabria, "Agotes" in Navarre, and "Vaqueiros de alzada" in Asturias.

Herd of horses on summer mountain pasture in 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.[16] The mountain period starts in late May or early June,[17] and ends in early October. Until the 1970s, transhumance was used mainly for dairy cows, and cheese-making was an important activity in the summer months. In some regions, nearly all members of a family decamped to higher mountains with their cows, living in rudimentary stone cabins[16] for the summer grazing season. That system, which evolved during the Middle Ages, lasted into the 20th century. It declined and broke down under pressure from industrialization, as people left the countryside for jobs in cities. However, the importance of transhumance continues to be recognised through its celebration in popular festivals.[17][18][19]

The Mont Perdu / Monte Perdido region of the Pyrenees has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by virtue of its association with the transhumance system of agriculture.[20]

An old seter in Norway in wintertime

In Scandinavia, transhumance is still practised to a certain extent; however, livestock are transported between pastures by motorized vehicles, changing the character of the movement. The Sami people practise transhumance with reindeer by a different system than is described immediately below.

The common mountain or forest pasture used for transhumance in summer is called seter or bod / bua. The same term is used for a related 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, in order to preserve meadows in valleys for producing hay. Livestock were typically tended for summer by girls and younger women, who also milked and made cheese. Bulls usually remained at the home farm. As autumn approached and grazing became 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.

The practice was common throughout most of Norway, due to its highly mountainous nature and limited areas of lowland for cultivation.

"The Gudbrandsdal area includes lateral valleys such as Gausdal, Heidal, Vinstra, and Ottadalen. 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."[21]

While previously many farms had their own seters, today it is more usual for several farmers to share a modernized common seter (fellesseter). Most of the old seters have been left to decay or are used as recreational 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 as 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. The surname "Satter" is derived from these words.

In the heartland of the Swedish transhumance region, the most commonly used term is bod or bua (the word is also used for small storage houses and the like and has evolved in English as booth), in modern Standard Swedish fäbod.

The oldest mention of seter in Norway is in Heimskringla Olaf II of Norway's travel through Valldal to Lesja.[22]

The summer settlement of the Ğorğoras village in Çaykara district of Trabzon province, Turkey

In the heavily forested Caucasus and Pontic mountain ranges, various peoples still practice transhumance to varying degrees. During the relatively short summer, wind from the Black Sea brings moist air up the steep valleys to supports fertile grasslands at altitudes up to 2,500 meters and a rich tundra at altitudes up to 3,500 meters. Traditionally, villages were divided in two, three or even four distinct settlements (one for each season) at different heights of a mountain slope. Much of this rural life came to an end during the first half of the 20th century, as the Kemalist and later Soviet governments tried to modernize the societies and stress urban development, rather than maintaining rural traditions.

In the second half of the 20th century, migration for work from the Pontic mountains to cities in Turkey and western Europe, and from the northern Caucasus to Moscow, dramatically reduced the number of people living in transhumance. It is estimated, however, that tens of thousands of rural people still practice these traditions in villages on the northern and southwestern slopes of the Caucasus, in the lesser Caucasus in Armenia, and in the Turkish Black Sea region.

Some communities continue to play out ancient migration patterns. For example, the Pontic Greeks visit the area and the monastery Sumela in the summer. Turks from cities in Europe have built a summer retreat on the former yayla grazing land.

Transhumance related to sheep farming is still practised in Georgia. The shepherds with their flocks have to cross the 2,826-metre-high Abano Pass from the mountains of Tusheti to the plains of Kakheti.[23]

Transhumance is practiced in the Southern Hindu Kush valleys of Afghanistan known as Nuristan. The inhabitants live in permanent villages surrounded by arable fields on irrigated terraces. Most of the livestock are goats. They are taken up to a succession of summer pastures each spring by herdsmen while most of the villagers remain behind to irrigate the terraced fields and raise millet, maize, and wheat; work mostly done by the women. In the Autumn after the grain and fruit harvest livestock are brought back to spend the winter stall fed in stables.[24]

Not to be confused with Kochi or Kuchi nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Southern Afghanistan and Pakistan. They mostly keep sheep and goats. The produce of the animals (meat, dairy products, hair and wool) is exchanged or sold in order to purchase grain, vegetables, fruit and other products of settled life. Based on field experience, Kuchi camps are abandoned and reoccupied year after year, but not permanently settled.

Iranian shepherds moving their sheep

The Bakhtiari tribe of Iran still practised this way of life in the mid-20th century. All along the Zagros mountain range from Azerbaijan to the Arabian Sea, pastoral tribes move back and forth with their herds annually according to the seasons, between their permanent homes in the valley and one in the foothills.[25]

The Qashqai (Kashkai) are a Turkic tribe of southern Iran, who in the mid-20th century still practised transhumance. The tribe was said to have settled in ancient times in the Province of Fars, near the Persian Gulf, and by the mid-20th century lived beyond the Makran mountains. In their yearly migrations for fresh pastures, the Kashkai drove their livestock from south to north, where they lived in summer quarters, known as Yeilak, in the high mountains from April to October. They traditionally grazed their flocks on the slopes of the Kuh-è-Dinar; a group of mountains from 12,000 to 15,000 feet, part of the Zagros chain.

In autumn the Kashkai broke camp, leaving the highlands to winter in warmer regions near Firuzabad, Kazerun, Jerrè, Farashband, on the banks of the River Mound. Their winter quarters were known as Qishlaq. The migration was organised and controlled by the Kashkai Chief. The tribes avoided villages and towns, such as Shiraz and Isfahan, because their large flocks, numbering seven million head, could cause serious damage.

In the 1950s, the Kashkai tribes were estimated to number 400,000 people in total.[26] There have been many social changes since that time.

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.

Yurt in 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. The people use a wool felt tent, known as the yurt or jailoo, while living on these summer pastures. It is symbolised on their national flag. Those shepherds prize a fermented drink made from mare's milk, known as the kumis. A tool used in its production is the namesake for Bishkek, the country's capital city.

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[27] all have vestigial transhumance cultures. The Bamar people of Myanmar were transhumance prior to their arrival to the region. In Mongolia, transhumance is used to avoid livestock losses during harsh winters known as zuds. For regions of the Himalaya, transhumance still provides mainstay for several near-subsistence economies – for example, that of Zanskar in northwest India, Van Gujjars and Bakarwals of Jammu and Kashmir in India, Kham Magar in western Nepal and Gaddis of Bharmaur region of Himachal Pradesh. In some cases, the distances traveled by the people with their livestock may be great enough to qualify as nomadic pastoralism.

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. Colonists started using this region for summer grazing in the 1830s, when pasture lower down was poor. The practice continued during the 19th and 20th centuries, helping make Australia's pastoral industry viable. 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.[28]

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. Other groups, such as the Chaouis, practised fixed transhumance.

In rural areas, the Somali and Afar of Northeast Africa also traditionally practice nomadic transhumance. Their pastoralism is centered on camel husbandry, with additional sheep and goat herding.

The classic, "fixed" transhumance is practiced in the Ethiopian Highlands. During the cropping season the lands around the villages are not accessible for grazing. For instance, farmers with livestock in Dogu'a Tembien[29][30] organise annual transhumance, particularly towards remote and vast grazing grounds, deep in valleys (where the grass grows early due to temperature) or mountain tops. Livestock will stay there overnight (transhumance) with children and a few adults keeping them.[29]

The "red caves" or Kayeh Be’ati in Adigrat Sandstone, a preferred destination for transhumance

For instance, the cattle of Addi Geza'iti (2580 m) are brought every rainy season to the gorge of River Tsaliet (1930 m) that holds dense vegetation. The cattle keepers establish enclosures for the cattle and places for them to sleep, often in rock shelters. The cattle stay there until harvesting time, when they are needed for threshing, and when the stubble becomes available for grazing.[29] Many cattle of Haddinnet and also Ayninbirkekin in Dogu'a Tembien are brought to the foot of the escarpment at Ab'aro. Cattle stay on there on wide rangelands. Some cattle keepers move far down to open woodland and establish their camp in large caves in sandstone.

The Pokot community are semi-nomadic pastoralists who are predominantly found in northwestern Kenya and Amudat district of Uganda. The community practices nomadic transhumance, with seasonal movement occurring between grasslands of Kenya (North Pokot sub-county) and Uganda (Amudat, Nakapiripirit and Moroto districts) (George Magak Oguna, 2014).

The Maasai are semi-nomadic people located primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania who have transhumance cultures that revolve around their cattle.

Fulani is the Hausa word for the pastoral peoples of Nigeria belonging to the ‘Fulbe’ migratory ethnic group. The Fulani rear the majority of Nigeria’s cattle, traditionally estimated at 83% pastoral, 17% village cattle and 0.3% peri-urban).[31]

Cattle fulfil multiple roles in agro-pastoralist communities, providing meat, milk and draught power while sales of stock generate income and provide insurance against disasters. They also play a key role in status and prestige and for cementing social relationships such as kinship and marriage). For pastoralists, cattle represent the major household asset.[31]

Pastoralism, as a livelihood, is coming under increased pressure across Africa, due to changing social, economic, political and environmental conditions. Prior to the 1950s, a symbiotic relationship existed between pastoralists, crop farmers and their environment with pastoralists practising transhumance. During the dry season, pastoralists migrated to the southern parts of the Guinea savannah zone, where there was ample pasture and a lower density of crop farmers. In the wet season, these areas faced high challenge from African animal trypanosomiasis transmitted by tsetse flies, so pastoralists would migrate to visit farmlands within the northern Sudan savannah zone, supplying dairy products to the local farming community. Reciprocally, the farming community supplied pastoralists with grain, and after the harvest, cattle were permitted to graze on crop residues in fields leaving behind valuable manure.[31]

In Southern Angola, several peoples, chiefly the Ovambo and part of the Nyaneka-Khumbi, have cultures that are entirely organized according to the practice of transhumance.[32]

High-mountain shepherds in Lesotho

The traditional economy of the Basotho in Lesotho is based on rearing cattle. They practise a seasonal migration between valley and high plateaus of the Maloti (basalt mountains of Lesotho). Pressure on pasture land has increased due to increases in population, as well as construction of large storage dams in these mountains to provide water to South Africa's arid industrial heartland. Growing pressure on pastures is contributing to degradation of sensitive grasslands and could contribute to sedimentation in man-made lakes.

Haru Oms at Glybank near Kuboes in the Richtersveld

In South Africa the transhumance lifestyle of the Nama clan of the Khoikhoi continues in the Richtersveld, a montane-desert located close to the Atlantic coast in the northwestern area of the country. In this area people move seasonally (three or four times per annum) with their herds of sheep and goats. Transhumance is based on small family units, which use the same camps each year.

A portable, dome tent, called a Matjieshut (Afrikaans for 'mat house') or Haru Oms (meaning 'rush house' in Nama) is a feature of Khoikhoi culture. These dwellings are used in their seasonal camps in the Richtersveld. It consists of a frame traditionally covered with rush mats. In the 21st century, the people sometimes use a variety of manufactured materials. In recognition of its significance, the Richtersveld has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[33]