Paper short abstract:

The route of Eastern Alps penetrations is a prehistoric track of hunting that became pastoral way on which probably Oetzi walked and currently is used for the transhumance. The nomadic people have left signs of their passage that show their ecological relation with the living landscape.

Paper long abstract:

The abstract document years of filed research during it was identified by me a route of ancient Palaeolitich hunters that from the Veneto plain ascended during the summer season for the ibex and chamois hunting in the altitude grasslands on the Eastern Alps (Monte Baldo-Oetztal). This way was the main direction for the process of colonization in the central area of Trentino - Alto Adige/Südtirol. This Palaeolitich track is durability: prehistoric pastoral transhumance, the probable route path from Oetzi, the Iceman, the itineraries of current transit with same animals (sheets and goats). The nomadic men, that have crossed this territory, have changed it only slightly, allowing so the discovery of their labile tracks (archeological and cultural), that allow to understand the ideology in relation to landscape and nature around them: they were ecologist and cultivated the biodiversity. The prehistoric nomads, hunters and shepherd, have diffused an idea of landscape that currently we found in the people hunter-gatherers through the root of placenames and the religious assignment to the nature conceived ad Mother Goodness.

Paper short abstract:

The fight between sedentary farmers and nomadic people is showed with a social drama in the fertility ritual in Eastern Alps. The good (farmers) fights the evil (nomadic), the identities and the modes of the conceiving the relation with the living landscape collide and they never reconciled.

Paper long abstract:

It is presented an unpublished study about the fight as social drama according to the Turner's definition between farmers sedentary and nomadic people (shepherds, wanderers, hunters, hawkers) during the celebration of the fertility ritual in the specific area of Eastern Alps: the Vinschgau. In Stilfs at the spring the male agricultural rite shows the war between the farmers in the traditional clothes while they pull the plow and sow along the village streets and the nomadic people that try to hinder the route. The nomadic people is presented as negative and diabolic figures that duty be removed from farmer living landscape. He systems his environment and don't allow space for other modality of the transition. This fight shows the good (farmer culture) versus the evil (nomadic culture) and it ends with the Canaderli's robbery: this moment is very dramatic and ultimate. The nomadic people try to steal symbolic identity foods of sedentary, product of the work of the land, and the farmers defend it. More food will be stolen, more agricultural year will be disastrous. The landscape of this area is living poster of the farmer identity: the nomadic people is dangerous and irreconcilable in this ideology. It is presented with ritual forme the eternal fight between this two characters and meantime between two different modality to the live the landscape and the natural environment, presenting two different ecologies.

Paper short abstract:

The work examines the contents of three rounds of interviews conducted from year 2007 to year 2010 to groups of nomadic herders and sedentary farmers. The purpose is to identify if there are different perceptions and evaluations of landscape experienced by the respondents nomadic and sedentary groups.

Paper long abstract:

the work examines the contents of three rounds of interviews conducted from year 2007 to year 2010 to groups of nomadic herders and sedentary farmers using as well the photographic images as "not written texts " captured on those occasions. The purpose is to identify, through such evidences, whether there are different perceptions and evaluations of landscape experienced by the respondents nomadic and sedentary groups. Nomadic groups are represented in two different contexts: the steppes of Mongolia, where they are the majority of the population and the local economy is based almost entirely on nomadic pastoralism, and Alpine and Sub-Alpine areas where nomadic shepherds are today very few, residual units of a broader phenomenon of time gone by, forced to move continuously within a scenario strongly altered and increasingly difficult. The groups are as follows: 12 transhumant shepherds in the North-East of the Alps (year 2007), 6 nomadic pastoralists of the area North-West of Mongolia (year 2010) and 7 farmers of the Val di Cembra (Trentino-Italy, year 2009). The information and images collected are read and commented from different perspectives of perception of the landscape: scenario, resource, construction, degradation, interiority.

Paper short abstract:

The research paper examines pastoralism and agriculture among the two endogamous groups,namely,Marchha and Jadh,of nomadic Bhotia scheduled tribe of Garhwal Himalaya.

Paper long abstract:

The Bhotia scheduled tribe inhabits the Uttarakhand state of India.The present research paper examines pastoralism and agriculture among the two endogamous groups,namely,Marchha and Jadh,of this nomadic tribe living in Garhwal Himalaya of this state.Both these groups were in trade with Tibet till the Indo-China war of 1962.After closure of the Indo-China border since then,they now move according to new ecological conditions to do pastoralism and agriculture.The Marchhas move from Chhinka valley village to Mana high-altitude village during the summer and come back during the winter.In the same way,the Jadhs move from Dunda valley village to Harshil high-altitude village during the summer and come back during the winter.In modern times,due to technological advancement and culture contact,both these groups are also opting for other means of livelihood,such as,labour,tourist guide,etc.The Bhotia tribe represents the classic example of 'continuity and change' as envisaged by David G.Mandelbaum.

Paper short abstract:

This report discusses the practices which are dedicated to preservation of vegetable cultures in traditions of settled agriculture. How local traditions can protect a landscape from social and economic changes.

Paper long abstract:

The modern Russian Northwest rural people are engaged in agriculture; they live sedentary lives. Social and economic changes lead to transformations of natural landscapes of these territories. The movement does change and undermine traditions of sedentary agriculture.

Rural people often regret for the loss of old plant varieties which their ancestors used to grow in this territory. The losses were connected with giving up the traditional practices of vegetable crop cultivation: self-produced seeds have been substituted by those which have been purchased in shops for the XX cent. Onions represent an exception (Allium ascalonicum). Old varieties of rustic onion hold pride of place on vegetable gardens. Seed material isn't bought in shops; it is kept in houses.

Field research which was carried out in the Northwest region of Russia has allowed to reveal some aspects of cultural practices which are associated with preservation of onion traditional varieties. Elements of practices ritualization connected with cultivation of this plant (magic texts during the planting and tendance of onions; local knowledge, family legends) points to a specific attitude to onions in olericulture of East Slavs. They're stored in cultural memory's archives of the group.

The ban on onions usage in practices of reciprocal gifts refers to the social factors aimed on protection of this plant. Dwellers follow the taboo which prohibits to pass onions to the stranger. The taboo has connection with mythological beliefs of farmers: "stranger hands/eyes", can exert negative influence on reproductive properties of a plant: onions will cease to grow.

Paper short abstract:

This study aims at understanding resource-use conflicts between herders and farmers from changes in the governance of agro-pastoral areas. Furthermore, this study is to shed light on the adaptive mechanisms performed by transhumant pastoralists and local farmers for facing these changes.

Paper long abstract:

Increasing climate variability in the Sahel provokes an earlier arrival of transhumant pastoralists in their host areas located in further south in West Africa's coastal countries. These areas witnessed an extremely rapid growth of their population due to the introduction of perennial and cash crops. In Côte d'Ivoire, this precarious situation has deteriorated substantially due to the sociopolitical crisis that rocked the country from 2002 through 2011. As the rebellion of the Forces Nouvelles (FN) led to a retreat of the state and its administration in the area, the crisis also accelerated the transformation of institutions of natural resource management in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Indeed, the FN rebels established new rules for resource management, especially by regulating access to pastoral resources for transhumant pastoralists from the Sahel. These institutional dynamics caused a change in interactions between various actors in the governance of resources, aggravating conflicts between transhumant pastoralists and local farmers.

This study aims at understanding resource-use conflicts between herders and farmers from changes in the governance of agro-pastoral areas. Furthermore, this study is to shed light on the adaptive mechanisms performed by transhumant pastoralists and local farmers for facing these changes.