Transhumance

by

Mark Moritz

• LAST MODIFIED: 20 August 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0301

Introduction

Transhumance is the seasonal movement of livestock that is commonly used by pastoralists to exploit spatiotemporal variability in forage availability in arid and semi-arid climates. Pastoralists are people for whom keeping herd animals is a way of making a living and a way of life. Pastoralists across the world use transhumance to ensure that their livestock have access to forage. The animals taken on transhumance include cattle, camels, sheep, goats, horses, llama, alpaca, yak, reindeer, and even ducks. Sometimes a distinction is made between vertical and horizontal transhumance, in which the former refers to seasonal movements between summer pastures in the mountains and winter pastures in the valleys, and the latter refers to seasonal movements between rainy season and dry season pastures, for example, among cattle pastoralists in the West African Sahel, or winter and summer pastures among reindeer pastoralists in the Siberian tundra. The terms transhumance comes originally from French and is derived from the Latin terms trans (across) and humus (ground). A more general term that is frequently used to describe transhumance is pastoral mobility. Transhumance can take many forms. In some cases, pastoralists move both their herd and household, while in other cases, the household stays in the settlement, while herders take the herd on a seasonal transhumance. Most transhumance movements are made on foot or hoof, but in some wealthier nations, animals are also transported by truck. Transhumance is an adaptive strategy that mimics the principles of animal migrations, like that of wildebeest in East Africa and bighorn sheep in North America. The seasonal movement of livestock is a sustainable strategy that increases the productivity of animals and rangelands, particularly in drylands, which are characterized by spatiotemporal variability in forage availability. Transhumance is not just an economic activity that is ecologically sustainable. It is also imbued with social and cultural values. It brings households and communities together (and it can drive them apart). The movements themselves have been described as rituals and that is also how they are celebrated in some parts of the world. The movements of humans and animals also have political consequences. States and sedentary communities are often wary of people on the move, and because many pastoralists move year-round, it is at times hard for them to claim or maintain rights and access to pastures. When pastoralists are forced to settle and can no longer go on transhumance, it often has disastrous consequences for humans, animals, and rangelands.

General Overviews

There are several good overviews of pastoralism, including a few textbooks (Barfield 1993, Spooner 1973) and several Annual Review articles (Dyson-Hudson and Dyson-Hudson 1980; Fratkin 1997; Galvin 2009; Reid, et al. 2013). The earlier overviews Dyson-Hudson and Dyson-Hudson 1980 and Spooner 1973 use the framework of cultural ecology to describe and explain the variation in forms of pastoralism across the world. Irons and Dyson-Hudson 1972 uses that framework to develop general theoretical models of pastoralism. The later books Khazanov 1994 and Salzman 2004 focus on the relationship between nomadic pastoralists and the outside or sedentary world. The later Annual Review articles focus on the challenges that pastoralists face in the era of globalization, including development and governance (Fratkin 1997), land fragmentation and climate change (Galvin 2009), and the resilience of rangelands (Reid, et al. 2013). Over time, there has been a shift from a narrower focus on nomadic pastoralists to the broader concept of pastoralists, including those who are engaged in other economic activities in addition to keeping livestock, including agriculture, commerce, and conservation.

• Barfield, Thomas J. 1993. The nomadic alternative. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

  This is one of two textbooks about pastoralism (see also Spooner 1973). It offers a comprehensive discussion of the ecology, economy, and social and political organization of pastoralists in different culture areas across the world. It explains how the variation in pastoral systems can be explained in terms of ecological adaptation and adaptation to the outside world.

• Dyson-Hudson, Neville, and Rada Dyson-Hudson. 1980. Nomadic pastoralism. Annual Review of Anthropology 9:15–61.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.an.09.100180.000311

  This annual review article provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on nomadic pastoralists across the world, with a focus on gender, ecology, and society, relations with the outside world, and a discussion about pure versus multi-resource pastoralism.

• Fratkin, Elliot. 1997. Pastoralism: Governance and development issues. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:235–261.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.235

  This annual review article focuses on the threats to pastoralists and their way of life, and in particular the governance of rangelands and the tragedy of the commons, using cases from East Africa and Mongolia.

• Galvin, Kathleen A. 2009. Transitions: Pastoralists living with change. Annual Review of Anthropology 38:185–198.

  DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164442

  This annual review article examines how land fragmentation and climate change affect pastoralists using the conceptual framework of adaptive capacity and cases from East Africa and Mongolia.

• Irons, William, and Neville Dyson-Hudson, eds. 1972. Perspectives on nomadism. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

  One of the earliest edited volumes on nomadic pastoralism is concerned with developing general theoretical models to describe and explain the variation in nomadic pastoralism in southwest Asia, eastern Africa, and northern Scandinavia. It builds on and synthesizes the classic ethnographies on pastoralists that were published in the 1950s and 1960s. All the chapters touch upon different forms of pastoral mobility.

• Khazanov, Anatoly M. 1994. Nomads and the outside world. 2d ed. Madison: The Univ. of Wisconsin Press.

  The book focuses on nomadic pastoralists, defined as those pastoralists that move both herd and household, and their relationship with the sedentary world, referred to as the outside world. The book was first published in Russian and covers a large body of literature on nomads in the former Soviet Union.

• Reid, Robin S., Maria E. Fernández-Giménez, and Kathleen A. Galvin. 2013. Dynamics and resilience of rangelands and pastoral peoples around the globe. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 39:3.1–3.26.

  This annual review article focuses on rangelands, ranchers, and pastoralists, and in particular the threats to rangelands in the form of fragmentation and degradation, as well as possible solutions to develop resilient social-ecological systems.

• Salzman, Phillip C. 2004. Pastoralists: Equality, hierarchy, and the state. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

  This textbook synthesizes earlier work from the author about pastoralists. One of the chapters compares the transhumance patterns of four pastoral groups in Iran—Baluch, Komachi, Basseri, and Turkmen—and how they have been affected by efforts of the state to settle them.

• Spooner, Brian. 1973. The cultural ecology of pastoral nomads. Vol. 45. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

  This earliest textbook provides an excellent introduction to the cultural ecology of pastoralism as it explains how raising particular animals in a particular environment shapes the lives of its keepers.