Letizia Bindi, ed. 2022. Grazing Communities. Pastoralism on the Move and Biocultural Heritage Frictions. New York – Oxford: Berghahn Books. Studies in Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology. Vol. 29, 314 p.

Abstract

The collective volume stands as pivotal research in recent pastoralism studies. Using a multisituated and pluridisciplinary perspective, it addresses the need to understand integratively the dynamic responses of grazing communities across Europe in the context of the new “heritage turn,” in conjunction with environmental stresses, social transformations, global institutions and their policies. Providing in-depth descriptions of the numerous challenges that transhumance in Europe faces today—security of land holding, new market relations, the growing pressures of governments, processes of social change and modernization—it reveals the complex interplay of these drivers of change and analyzes numerous examples of loss and adaptations of grazing practices to the new heritage scenario. In its attempt to ground a more holistic view on mobile pastoralism under global frictions, it proposes reframing it as biocultural heritage.

Keywords

• biocultural heritage
• transhumance
• heritage turn
• frictions
• pastoral arenas