Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Other Publications
    • UWP

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Landscape Journal
  • Other Publications
    • UWP
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Landscape Journal

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Follow uwp on Twitter
  • Visit uwp on Facebook
Research ArticlePeer-Reviewed Articles

Protecting the Identity of Sheep-Farming Landscapes in the Outer Carpathians: A Typology, Delimitation, and Interpretation

Janusz Lach and Igor Bojko
Landscape Journal, January 2022, 41 (2) 39-58; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.41.2.39
Janusz Lach
Janusz Lach is a PhD lecturer at the University of Wrocław, Faculty of Earth Science and Environmental Management Department of Regional Geography and Tourism. Educated as a geomorphologist and geographer of physical geography, he specializes in regional geography, cultural geography, tourist geography, and landscape studies. His address is: University of Wrocław, street Z. Cybulskiego 32, room 156, 50-205 Wrocław. His e-mail is:
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Janusz Lach
  • For correspondence: [email protected]
Igor Bojko
Ihor Boyko is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in the Department of Social Anthropology. He is educated as an ethnographer and specializes in the ethnography of the Eastern and Western Carpathians, with a focus on the following ethnic groups: the Hutsuls, Boykos, Lemkos, and Slovak and Polish highlanders originating from the Wallachian culture. His address is The National Academy, Svobody Avenue 15, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine. His e-mail is:
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Igor Bojko
  • For correspondence: [email protected]
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The article sets out to identify, delimit, and interpret the sheep-farming landscapes of Wallachian origin that lie within the area of medium and low mountain ranges of the Outer Carpathians and that share a uniform geological and morphological structure (the Flysch Carpathians). The subjects of the research are the mid-forest clearings and the farm buildings erected on them, which form a specific type of landscape on which sheep farming has identifiable impacts. The article is an attempt to elaborate a typology of sheep farming and the mixed pastoral/agricultural, sheltering and sheep-farming (Polish: polaniarskie) landscapes of the subecumene zone based on the structure and function of the economic activity on those landscapes. Sheepfarming landscapes are those shaped by the pastoral-agricultural economy in the mountain regions of the Carpathians. The study responds to the need to interpret areas and forms of sheep farming with the aim of protecting not only the unique heritage of the Wallachian shepherds’ lifestyle and culture but also the landscapes resulting from the European Landscape Convention (October 20, 2000). These landscapes are disappearing rapidly due to the unprofitability of rearing livestock, and they are becoming relics and being absorbed through natural forest succession. Preserving the practices and unique history and culture of Carpathian sheep-farming landscapes, including those in the Outer Carpathians, will allow for the protection of not only the landscapes’ identity but also the heritage of the Wallachian highlanders and their biodiverse high alpine meadows.

In line with innovative ethnographic research methods, the study’s first stage consisted of taking stock of sheep-farming areas by combining cartographic materials supported by remote sensing with source materials collected through interviews with living witnesses of sheepfarming practices. Sheep-farming landscapes within the Outer Carpathians have a complex historical and cultural structure strongly linked to its current socioeconomic situation. Yet, the sheep-farming landscape of this mountain region has yet to be defined architecturally and physiognomically as a type of rural agricultural landscape. With the aim of promoting the preservation of the region’s sheep-farming landscapes, the article presents its complex structure and function, along with the conditions needed to maintain it. The abandonment of mid-forest clearings would have implications beyond sheep-farming landscapes: it would also result in a lack of viewing opportunities within the mountain landscape, resulting in a loss of beauty and visual value that would impact the status of the Carpathians as a priority landscape.

KEYWORDS
  • Outer Carpathians
  • sheep-farming landscape
  • Wallachian shepherds
  • sheep-farming economy
  • subecumene
  • © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Landscape Journal: 41 (2)
Landscape Journal
Vol. 41, Issue 2
1 Jan 2022
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Landscape Journal.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Protecting the Identity of Sheep-Farming Landscapes in the Outer Carpathians: A Typology, Delimitation, and Interpretation
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Landscape Journal
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Landscape Journal web site.
Citation Tools
Protecting the Identity of Sheep-Farming Landscapes in the Outer Carpathians: A Typology, Delimitation, and Interpretation
Janusz Lach, Igor Bojko
Landscape Journal Jan 2022, 41 (2) 39-58; DOI: 10.3368/lj.41.2.39

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Protecting the Identity of Sheep-Farming Landscapes in the Outer Carpathians: A Typology, Delimitation, and Interpretation
Janusz Lach, Igor Bojko
Landscape Journal Jan 2022, 41 (2) 39-58; DOI: 10.3368/lj.41.2.39
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • The Olmsteds and the Land-Grant Universities
  • The Vanishing Landscape of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields
Show more Peer-Reviewed Articles

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • Outer Carpathians
  • sheep-farming landscape
  • Wallachian shepherds
  • sheep-farming economy
  • subecumene
UWP

© 2023 Landscape Journal

Powered by HighWire