Transhumance - Iboku

A form of seasonal migration of pastoralists and their livestock. It originated from the grazing style practiced by the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe. They had settled homes, engaged in farming, and kept cattle as their main livestock. In summer, they moved with their livestock in search of grass on the plateau to feed their cattle. They were a so-called semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral people. They were similar to the nomads of Central Asia in that they moved with their livestock, but they differed in that they settled and lived a farming life, and were accompanied by pigs, which nomads disliked because they are omnivorous and do not live in herds. This is a livestock rearing method seen in Mediterranean agricultural regions such as Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, and northern Africa. The climate of these regions is dry in the summer and rainy and humid in the winter. Therefore, since good quality pasture cannot be obtained in the dry summer, they graze on mountainsides where soft pasture grows due to the moisture of meltwater, and when winter comes and the mountains are covered with snow, they bring their livestock down to the lowlands where there is pasture grown by the warm rains and raise them there.

Transhumance can be divided into three types: forward transhumance, in which lowland residents send their livestock to the mountains in summer; reverse transhumance, in which mountain residents move their livestock to the lowlands in winter; and double transhumance, in which mountainside farmers move their livestock to higher mountains in summer and down to the lowlands in winter.

[Nishida Tomoko]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

牧畜民とその家畜の季節的移動の一形式。ヨーロッパの古代ゲルマン人が行っていた放牧形式がもとをなすもので、彼らには定住の住居があって農耕を営み、ウシを重要家畜として飼っていたが、夏季はウシに与える高原の草を求めて家畜とともに移動する、いわゆる半農半牧の民であった。家畜を伴って移動する点では中央アジアの遊牧と類似しているが、定住して農耕生活をし、雑食性で群れをつくらないために遊牧民が嫌うブタを随伴している点で異なっていた。地中海式農業地域であるスペイン、フランス、スイス、イタリア、バルカン半島や北部アフリカでみられる家畜飼育法で、これらの地方の気候は夏季は乾燥し、冬季は多雨で湿度が高い。したがって、夏は乾燥のため良質な牧草が得られないので、雪解け水で潤されて柔らかい牧草が生育する山腹で放牧し、冬になって山地が雪で覆われるころ、暖雨で育った牧草のある低地へ家畜を降ろして飼育する。

　移牧は3種に分けられ、平地の住民が夏に山地へ家畜を送る正移牧と、山地の住民が冬に家畜を平地へ移す逆移牧と、山の中腹で農耕を営む住民が、夏はさらに高い山地へ、冬は平地へ移す二重移牧がある。

［西田恂子］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例