A Country Of Shepherds

This book draws on the life stories told by shepherds, farmers, and their families in the Andalusian region in Spain to sketch out the landscapes, actions, and challenges of people who work in pastoralism. Their narratives highlight how local practices interact with regional and European communities and policies, and they help us see a broader role for extensive grazing practices and sustainability. A Country of Shepherds is timely, reflecting the growing interest in ecological farming methods as well as the Spanish government’s recent work with UNESCO to recognise the seasonal movement of herd animals in the Iberian Peninsula as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Demonstrating the critical role of tradition, cultural geographies, and sustainability in the Mediterranean, this book will appeal to academicians but also to general readers who seek to understand, in very human terms, the impact of the world-wide environmental crisis we are now experiencing.

Cat Urbigkit journeys alone to spend a season on Wyoming’s open range tending to a herd of domestic sheep as they give birth amid the challenges of nature – from severe weather to a wealth of predators. Her only companions are the livestock guardian animals (BIG dogs and a pair of burros named Bill and Hillary!) that repeatedly prove their worth in devotion to protecting the herd. Cat Urbigkit journeys alone to spend a season on Wyoming’s open range tending to a herd of domestic sheep as they give birth amid the challenges of nature – from severe weather to a wealth of predators. Her only companions are the livestock guardian animals (BIG dogs and a pair of burros named Bill and Hillary!) that repeatedly prove their worth in devotion to protecting the herd. Urbigkit offers interesting reflections on the role of pastoralists around the globe and on the controversial issue in the Western US of private livestock herds being run on public lands. The intimate ways in which abstract public policy plays out on the open range is eye-opening. More than a tale of herding sheep, Shepherds of Coyote Rocks is an action-packed true story that reveals the broad spectrum of the human relationship with nature, from harmony to rugged adventure.

In this masterpiece of nature writing, Nan Shepherd describes her journeys into the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. There she encounters a world that can be breathtakingly beautiful at times and shockingly harsh at others. Her intense, poetic prose explores and records the rocks, rivers, creatures and hidden aspects of this remarkable landscape. Shepherd spent a lifetime in search of the 'essential nature' of the Cairngorms; her quest led her to write this classic meditation on the magnificence of mountains, and on our imaginative relationship with the wild world around us. Composed during the Second World War, the manuscript of The Living Mountain lay untouched for more than thirty years before it was finally published.

This book draws on the life stories told by shepherds, farmers, and their families in the Andalusian region in Spain to sketch out the landscapes, actions, and challenges of people who work in pastoralism. Their narratives highlight how local practices interact with regional and European communities and policies, and they help us see a broader role for extensive grazing practices and sustainability. A Country of Shepherds is timely, reflecting the growing interest in ecological farming methods as well as the Spanish government's recent work with UNESCO to recognise the seasonal movement of herd animals in the Iberian Peninsula as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Demonstrating the critical role of tradition, cultural geographies, and sustainability in the Mediterranean, this book will appeal to academicians but also to general readers who seek to understand, in very human terms, the impact of the world-wide environmental crisis we are now experiencing.