The oral method applied to research with transhumant shepherds

Abstract

Oral communication seems nowadays to be a very appropriate way to carry out research on the world of transhumance. What anthropologists search for is an understanding of the vision that the people under study have of their own existence and the expression of this in the social field, that is to say, culture. For this reason, and stemming from the conviction that being a transhumant has as an identity that demands its study, and animated by the urgency that generates the loss or transformation of a lifestyle, we consider that the best way to discover the shepherd’s universe is collecting oral stories. The shepherd is no longer a study object – he becomes the protagonist of a life that is unique and unrepeatable, and, simultaneously, he is the voice of the social and cultural group which he belongs to.