The Sheepherder

A amazing scene along Lizard Head Pass Wilderness Area. A lone Sheep Herder and his two dogs graze Sheep as he paints the scene from a rock along the... more

by Janice Pariza

Title

The Sheepherder

Artist

Janice Pariza

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

A amazing scene along Lizard Head Pass Wilderness Area. A lone Sheep Herder and his two dogs graze Sheep as he paints the scene from a rock along the Wilderness Area found on Colorado's Western Slope.
A shepherd /ˈʃɛpərd/, or sheepherder, is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards herds of sheep. The word stems from an amalgam of sheep herder.
Sheepherding is among the oldest occupations, beginning some 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool. Over the next thousand years, sheep and shepherding spread throughout Eurasia. Henri Fleisch tentatively suggested the Shepherd Neolithic industry of Lebanon may date to the Epipaleolithic and that it may have been used by one of the first cultures of nomadic shepherds in the Beqaa Valley.[1][2]

Some sheep were integrated in the family farm along with other animals such as chickens and pigs. To maintain a large flock, however, the sheep must be able to move from pasture to pasture; this required the development of an occupation separate from that of the farmer. The duty of shepherds was to keep their flock intact, protect it from predators and guide it to market areas in time for shearing. In ancient times shepherds also commonly milked their sheep, and made cheese from this milk; few shepherds still do this today.

In many societies, shepherds were an important part of the economy. Unlike farmers, shepherds were often wage earners, being paid to watch the sheep of others. Shepherds also lived apart from society, being largely nomadic. It was mainly a job of solitary males without children, and new shepherds thus needed to be recruited externally. Shepherds were most often the younger sons of farming peasants who did not inherit any land. In other societies, each family would have a family member to shepherd its flock, often a child, youth or an elder who couldn't help much with harder work; these shepherds were fully integrated in society.

Shepherds would normally work in groups either looking after one large flock, or each bringing their own and merging their responsibilities. They would live in small cabins, often shared with their sheep, and would buy food from local communities. Less often shepherds lived in covered wagons that traveled with their flocks.

Shepherding developed only in certain areas. In the lowlands and river valleys, it was far more efficient to grow grain and cereals than to allow sheep to graze, thus the raising of sheep was confined to rugged and mountainous areas. In pre-modern times shepherding was thus centered on regions such as the Middle East, Greece, the Pyrenees, the Carpathian Mountains, and Scotland.

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Uploaded

October 14th, 2014