Transhumance is a type of mobile pastoralism in which grazing livestock are moved (droved) in herds seasonally between several fixed pastures, in contrast to sedentary pastoralism, where the livestock remain all year round on the same (typically a fenced) area of land, known as a ranch; and nomadic pastoralism, where the livestock are moved irregularly or randomly among different regions in search of any usable pastures. In montane regions, it implies livestock movement between the higher-altitude alpine steppes in summer and the alluvial grasslands in the lowland valleys in winter (i.e. vertical transhumance or alpine transhumance). In contrast, seasonal movement across the same plains or plateaus (i.e. horizontal transhumance) is typically done due to limited forage yield from a single patch of pasture and/or to avoid overgrazing, and is more susceptible to disruption by climatic, economic or political change as with any cross-region livelihoods. In transhumance, generally only the livestock participate in mass travel, while only a small number of human professionals who directly manage the herds (i.e. the herders) will accompany the livestock's movement and dwell in camps or seasonally used huts/lodges at the grazing sites. This is in contrast to nomadic pastoralists, whose entire pastoral community tend to migrate with their herds in portable shelters such as tents and yurt. Most of the human population involved with the transhumance economy will live in sedentary homes, typically in permanent settlements, and they only come out to visit the herds and help the herders when needs arise. With the rise of modern precision livestock farming technologies, even some herders can work from home using GPS tracking, virtual fencing and agricultural drones, and only need to perform routine (typically daily) or emergency field visits via motor vehicles to personally tend the herds and then return home after the work is done. Traditional or fixed transhumance has occurred throughout the inhabited world, particularly Europe and western Asia. It is often important to pastoralist societies, as the dairy products of transhumance flocks and herds (milk, butter, yogurt and cheese) may form much of the diet of such populations. In many languages there are words for the higher summer pastures, and frequently these words have been used as place names: e.g. hafod in Wales, shieling in Scotland, or alp in Germany, Austria and German-speaking regions of Switzerland.
Etymology and definition The word transhumance comes from French and derives from the Latin words trans "across" and humus "ground". Literally, it means crossing the land. 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 linguistically.
Khazanov categorizes nomadic forms of pastoralism into five groups as follows: "pure pastoral nomadism", "semi-nomadic pastoralism", "semi-sedentary pastoralism", "distant-pastures husbandry" and "seasonal transhumance". Eickelman does not make a distinction between transhumant pastoralism and seminomadism, but he clearly distinguishes between nomadic pastoralism and seminomadism.
In prehistory
There is evidence that transhumance was practised world-wide prior to recorded history: in Europe, isotope studies of livestock bones suggest that certain animals were moved seasonally. The prevalence of various groups of Hill people around the world suggests that indigenous knowledge regarding transhumance must have developed and survived over generations to allow for the acquisition of sufficient skills to thrive in mountainous regions. Most drovers are conversant with subsistence agriculture, pastoralism as well as forestry and frozen water and fast stream management.
Europe
Alps
Balkans
In the Balkans, Albanians, Greek Sarakatsani, Eastern Romance (Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians) and Turkish 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 Eastern Romance shepherds ("ancestors" of the Istro-Romanians) 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.
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