engleski

Thinking about social mutualism in transhumant farming in Croatia

When thinking about transhumance through the lens of mutualism, it is initially quite possible to describe this form of farming as bringing ‘shared benefits’ to the actors involved. Indeed, the European Union has designated transhumance as a form of High Nature Value farming precisely because of the benefits it brings not only to the partner species but also to the larger environment. However, one effect of taking such a perspective is that it fixes human/animal relations into a particular form and downplays the shifts that occur within them. For instance, transhumant farmer-sheep relations could be determined as predatory, since the farmers take the ewes’ milk to make cheese for other humans, but they could also be described as mutualistic since the farmers keep the ewes safe by sleeping alongside them to protect them from bears and wolves. In this essay, I suggest that the way the biological sciences’ approach mutualism is useful when trying to account for such shifts. Biologists place a concerted focus on the type of exchange that unfolds in the relations they are considering, thereby opening up an analytical perspective where these relations can shift in and out of mutuality.

Mutualism, transhumant farming, milk

nije evidentirano