Transhumance in the Alps - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Transhumance
Transhumance
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...

in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, or seasonal migration between valley and high pastures (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

from the term for "seasonal mountain pasture", ) is a traditional practice that has shaped much of the landscape in the Alps, as without it, most areas below 2000 m would be forests.
While tourism and industry contribute today much to Alpine economy, seasonal migration to high pastures is still practiced in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, except in their most frequented tourist centers. In some places, cattle are taken care of by local farmer families who move to higher places. In others, this job is for herdsmen who are employees of the cooperative owning the pastures.

Most Alpine pastures are below 2,400 m, all are below 2,800 m. The higher regions not suitable for transhumance are known as the High Alps

High Alps

The High Alps are those parts of the Alps unsuitable for habitation or seasonal transhumance. This includes all regions higher than 3,000 m above sea level, as well as most regions between 2,500 m and 3,000 m The High Alps are those parts of the Alps unsuitable for habitation or seasonal...

History

German Alm "seasonal mountain pasture" is a reduced form of Alben, the original dative singular of Albe. In Alemannic German

Alemannic German

Alemannic is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. It is spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy...

, Alp remains current. The word is originally identical to the name of the Alps itself, probably a pre-Roman (and possibly pre-Indo-European) term for "mountain". In French, the word "Alpage" shares the same meaning and etymology. Other words such as "Alpe", "Arpe", "Arpette", "Aulp", etc. are disused, but are still found in toponymy

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

.

There is evidence of transhumance economy in the Alps dating to the 4th millennium BC (Neolithic Europe

Neolithic Europe

Neolithic Europe refers to a prehistoric period in which Neolithic technology was present in Europe. This corresponds roughly to a time between 7000 BC and c. 1700 BC...

). Research found evidence for transhumance in the Northern Limestone Alps

Northern Limestone Alps

The Northern Limestone Alps are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the latter group, where the higher peaks are located, is based on differences in geological composition...

dating to the Late Bronze Age Halstatt culture (17th to 10th centuries BC), with pastures above the treeline at 1500 to 2100 m.

The transhumance system in the alps has remained virtually unchanged since at least the High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

, with a document referring to a summer pasture from 1204.

Along the edge of the alps, starting around 1300 AD in west and central Switzerland and a bit later in eastern Switzerland, cattle production became the primary agricultural activity. A number of specialized cattle markets grew up in Arona

Arona

-Places:Italy*Arona, Piedmont, a town in the Province of NovaraSpain*Arona, Tenerife, a municipality in the Canary IslandsUnited States*Arona, Pennsylvania-Persons:*Danilo Arona, Italian writer* Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist...

, Bellinzona

Bellinzona

Bellinzona is the administrative capital of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The city is famous for its three castles that have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000....

, Como

Como

Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....

and Varese

Varese

Varese is a town and comune in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 55 km north of Milan.It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or urban part of the city is called Varesotto.- Geography :...

in the south and Villeneuve

Villeneuve

-People:*Andrew Villeneuve, founder and executive director the Northwest Progressive Institute in the U.S.*Annie Villeneuve , Singer from Quebec, Canada*Denis Villeneuve , film director...

in the west. In these communities on the edge of the Alps, transhumance included both the vertical movement of cattle to the alpine pastures as well as horizontal movement to the cattle markets. In the communities located in the central alps, the herds were more diverse. Generally there were large herds of sheep with much smaller cattle herds and other animals such as pigs and goats.

While transhumance had been practiced in the Alps for thousands of years, during the Late Middle Ages

Late Middle Ages

The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....

it became increasingly important as the population decreased following the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

and the wars of this era. Cattle production was much less manpower intensive than farming, which was ideal with the reduced population. However, cattle production is much more capital and especially land intensive. Cattle production became an investment opportunity for monasteries and citizens of nearby cities. The investors would purchase the cattle and then rent the cattle out to small farmers or herders for the summer. The smaller alpine communities generally did not want "foreign" cattle pastured in their alpine pastures, which led to conflicts between the alpine farming communities and the neighboring cities and monasteries. Conflicts over grazing rights

Grazing rights

Grazing rights is a legal term referring to the right of a user to allow their livestock to feed in a given area.- United States :...

and ownership of the alpine meadows led to several wars within what is now Switzerland, including the pivotal Battle of Morgarten

Battle of Morgarten

The Battle of Morgarten occurred on November 15, 1315, when a Swiss Confederation force of 1,500 infantry archers ambushed a group of Austrian soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire near the Morgarten Pass...

, which started due to a long simmering feud between Schwyz

Canton of Schwyz

Schwyz is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne in the east and Lake Zurich in the north, centered around and named after the town of Schwyz....

and Einsiedeln Abbey

Einsiedeln Abbey

Einsiedeln Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Einsiedeln in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, the title being derived from the circumstances of its foundation, from which the name Einsiedeln is also said to have originated...

Agriculture near the Alps

In the valleys along the edge of the Alps cattle production with associated transhumance was generally the rule. However, in the inner alpine valleys the climate was drier which allowed farming even at higher elevations. These areas tended to be mixed between farming and animal husbandry, with the animals being kept mainly for fertilizer and plowing rather than food.

However, in both regions the yearly movement was generally similar. Throughout the year, most of the population of the village remained on the valley floor and farmed the surrounding land for grains and hay. In the spring the herdsmen took the animals up to the middle pastures on the mountain slopes. In the summer, pigs were left in the middle pastures while the rest of the animals were moved to the high alpine pasture. At the end of September the animals were moved back to the lower pastures and cattle were stabled in the following month. Sheep and goats were stabled in December, unless the winter was mild, then they remained at the middle pastures with the pigs.

In the regions where breeding dominated, the farms were relatively large and isolated from each other. Where both breeding and farming were mixed, the plots were generally smaller and common fields were shared between the community. During the Middle Ages many fields were converted into meadows, because of the prevalence of the breeding. In the north the fields were rotated

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...

without a fallow period. They were cultivated for 2 to 5 years, then used as a meadow (and fertilized by the animals) for 3 to 10 years before going back under cultivation. However, in the mountain valleys, the fields near the communities were cultivated every year (sometimes producing two crops a year in Ticino

Ticino

Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...

) while the outer fields and alpine pastures were more often allowed to lie fallow or used as a meadow.

Culture and folklore

The chief shepherd in charge of the Alp and responsible for the cheese

Bergkäse

' names a group of cheeses produced in the Alps, including:* Battelmatt* Fontina* Piora* Gruyère* Montasio* Vacherin Fribourgeois* Walliser...

production is known as the Senn.

Some people spent the winters isolated in the high pastures. In Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri was an author of children's stories, and is best known for her book Heidi. Born Johanna Louise Heusser in the rural area of Hirzel, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers in the area around Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.-Biography:In...

's novel Heidi
Heidi
Heidi is a Swiss work of fiction, published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel and Heidi makes use of what she has learned.It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps...

, the "Alm-Öhi ("high-pasture grandfather") is such a person, despising and despised by the villagers.

Transhumance contributes a lot to traditional Alpine culture, such as Yodel, Alphorn

Alphorn

The alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a natural wooden horn of conical bore, having a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece, used by mountain dwellers in Switzerland and elsewhere...

or Schwingen

Schwingen

' , also known as Swiss wrestling and natively as , is a style of folk wrestling native to Switzerland, more specifically the pre-alpine parts of German-speaking Switzerland.Wrestlers wear with belts that are used for taking holds...

.
Swiss folklore also records many traditional tales about mythological creatures such as dwarves (Barbegazi

Barbegazi

Barbegazi are mythical creatures from Swiss mythology. A variety of dwarf or gnome, a barbegazi resembles a small white-furred man with a long beard and enormous feet. They travel in the mountains that are their home by skiing with their massive feet, or using them as snowshoes. In the summer they...

, etc.) inhabiting the Alpine pastures, either helpful or causing mischief, in particular in order to punish the cruelty or discourtesy of a bad Senn. In many cases, the stories tell about curses on specific Alps, appearances of the devil or spirits of earlier Sennen, etc.

Statistics

In 1997, Austria

Austria

had over 12,000 sites where 70,000 farmers take care of about 500,000 cattle. Alpine pastures amount to a quarter of the farmland.

Bavaria

Bavaria

had 1,384 sites hosting 48,000 cattle, about half of them in Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...

and the other half in the Allgäu

Allgäu

The Allgäu is a southern German region in Swabia. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia and southeastern Baden-Württemberg. The region stretches from the prealpine lands up to the Alps...

.

In Switzerland, about 380,000 cattle including 130,000 milk cows as well as 200,000 sheep are in summer on high pastures. Milk from cows here is usually made into local cheese

Cheeses of Switzerland

Switzerland is home to about 450 varieties of cheese. Cows milk is used in about 99 percent of the cheeses produced. The remaining share is made up of sheep milk and goat milk.- Hard :*Emmentaler*Gruyère/Greyerzer...

specialities, handmade using traditional methods and tools. Alpine pastures amount to 35 percent of Swiss farmland and 13 percent of the entire country. The total population of mountain farmers has decreased to about 43,000 (in 1980) from 160,000 (in 1910). The farmers that are involved in mountain farming only make up about 15% of the total farming population in Switzerland.

External links

AINSA - Verein für alpine Forschung
Swiss Federal Statistics Office map showing the extent of alpine pastures in Switzerland

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Agriculture near the Alps

Culture and folklore

Statistics

See also

External links