Continuities and Disruptions in Transhumance Practices in the Silesian Beskids (Poland): The Case of Koniaków Village

Abstract

"Transhumance is a phenomenon difficult to define, covering many different practices, which are shaped by ecology and culture. It is a variety of pastoralism, which is supplemented by land cultivation and trade. According to Schuyler Jones (2005), it includes: rural settlement, land cultivation, and periodic migration of people and animals between mountain pastures. In 2004, Piotr Kohut, a resident of Koniaków, managed to bring back to life a seemingly completely extinct institution of the pastoral community in the area of the Silesian Beskids—the so-called sałasz. Sałasz is a type of farming specific to the Carpathian area, which consists in setting up shepherding companies in which a few or more sheep owners join their flocks, placing them under the supervision of a baca (chief shepherd) who is responsible for grazing of animals and shares proportionally the benefits obtained from the milk. This communal grazing, which was associated with certain cultural behaviors and the way of life, was a key determinant of Carpathian pastoralism for many centuries, but economic and political factors disturbed its functioning. After many years of interruption, the sheep of local gazdas (owners, breeders) were merged together into one flock again, which was tended by a collectively elected baca—a head of the shepherding team—until the end of the pastoral season. This event can be considered as the actual beginning of shepherding restitution in the Cieszyn Silesia region." (fragm.)