Transhumance

Note transhumanism is a different concept with a similar name.

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 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 (with the whole family of herders living in temporary shelters which move with the herds all the year round) 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, Spain, Turkey, Switzerland. It is also practiced amongst the more nomadic Sami people of Scandinavia. Transhumance is based on the difference of climate between the mountains (where the herds stay during the summer) and the lowlands (where they remain the winter). 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 (usually late-June) 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 is 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” (Reference: Welle-Strand).

While previously many farms had their own seter, today it is more usual for several farmers share a modernized common seter (fellesseter). 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 (Norwegian) the term sæter or seter are the modern descendents of the old Norse term. In (Swedish) 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 (cows, sheep, horses) 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. This practice has mainly been supplanted today by tourism & industry.

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 (early April to the end of June).
Summer - about 83 days (end of June to late September).
Autumn - about 71 days (mid-September to end of November).
Winter - some 121 days (from December to the end of March).

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, (an indigenous people of northern Finland, Sweden, Norway, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia) 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 Kĩkũyũ, 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 (with the spelling "gaúcho") 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 (referred to below as Himalaya); 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 (station) 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

External links

Livestock | Human migration

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