Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
toral nomadism. The term originates from the Latin transhumer, from the terms trans
and humus, meaning land that sits beyond cultivated fields. Transhumance is common
in the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Caucasus, Himalaya, Andes, Atlas Mountains of
North Africa, New Zealand Alps, and Scandinavia. Within the tropics, transhumance
is common in Colombia, the Andes (below the 27th parallel), Kenya, Ethiopia, and
Rwanda, where migrations follow the onset of wet/dry cycles instead of temperature
differences. Cattle and pigs predominate. Most of China (except Yunnan) and Japan are
again notable exceptions. For specific examples around the globe, consult Uhlig (1995),
Kreutzmann (2006), Robinson et al. (2010), and O'Flanagan et al. (2011).
Transhumance was first described as a regional pastoral practice in southern France.
It evolved during the Middle Ages, only to wax and wane during periods of plague, war-
fare, and collapsing empires. Yet shepherds in the Pyrenees still lead stock to high est-
ives (pastures) on both the French and Spanish sides of this southern European range.
Until the 1960s, milk and cheese from cows were the primary outputs. Domestic cats
accompanied the herds to protect the finished cheese from mice and rodents. Sheep for-
aging on high-angle slopes too steep for cows completed the ensemble. Families accom-
panied the animals to the summer pastures. They divided the labor, living in circular
orri (mortarless stone huts with thatch roofing). This family-run strategy faded when the
nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution sparked a decline in small-scale agricultural
production. Livestock farms with hired pâtre (shepherds) now rule. In the last 40 years,
the primary outlets for Pyrenean herders come from urban demand for meat and milk.
Without human tending, secondary plant succession is rendering some high meadows
unsuitable for cattle. The future here appears uncertain, as the revenue for mountain
recreation (ski resorts, hiking trails, housing, etc.) may simply overwhelm the modest
proceeds from transhumance, although the charisma of seasonal herding is an attract-
ive cultural element popular with tourists. In addition, water projects in the Teno and
Gallego Valleys of Spain have flooded field and winter grazing sites essential to seasonal
transhumance (Garcia-Ruiz and Lasanta-Martinez 1993).
As with pastoral nomads, transhumant herders in China (since 1949) and the former
Soviet Union (since the 1940s) are undergoing significant challenges. In the Qilian
Mountains of northeastern Qinghai Province, China, the rights to land and livestock
have been transferred to individuals since decollectivization began in 1984. While rural
incomes have doubled in many areas, thanks to improved fenced winter grazing plots,
the annual increase in sheep (3.9 percent) and yaks (2.4 percent) on the summer pas-
tures above the Datong Valley degrades the rangelands (Cincotta et al. 1992). Thus her-
ders must curb their individual appetite for growth and profit if they are to protect the
collective “commons” upon which they all depend. Deregulation in the former Soviet
Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan had the opposite effect when transhumant herders
quickly sold off their livestock for needed cash. This temporary population crash im-
proved the rangeland, but it remains to be seen whether the herds can be reestablished
at a sustainable carrying capacity that in turn protects the commons.
In the major longitudinal valleys of the western Himalaya-Karakoram, several dis-
tinct cultural groups have individual strategies to exploit the vertical environmental
change. For example, in northern Pakistan, just east of the Khyber Pass, the Swat River
rises among 5,500 m (18,000 ft) peaks in the Hindu Kush and flows southward through
the Swat Valley, which gradually widens in its lower reaches until broadening into al-
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