The Stocksman's Shadow: An Ethnography of Ethics and Symbolism in the Yorkshire Dales
Now, then. A question: if a farmer has thirty sheep, and one escapes, how many sheep does that farmer have left? A clue: the answer is not as straightforward as you might think. For, dear examiner, sheep are not as straightforward as folk tend to imagine. On the contrary, they are wily and elusive creatures. And knowing the ways of these wily creatures, well now, that too is elusive and, as we shall soon learn, anything but straightforward. This dissertation is about hill farming in the Yorkshire Dales (shorthand, the Dales). It is, therefore, about those who most certainly do know their sheep. The Dales is an upland region of The Pennine Mountains in Northern England. A region characterised by deep-sloping river valleys and high- ascending hills, that have been shaped by the husbandry of sheep and, in a supplementary capacity, cattle. These sheep, however, are not just any sheep. They are sheep that have, over time and generations, been bred to endure the fell conditions of their hard, upland surrounds. Sheep that, in short, are reckoned to embody this uncommon landscape and local ‘way of life’. The study to come is grounded in three bodies of literature. The anthropology of Britain, where the study of ‘the countryside’ has long been a concern. This dissertation continues that tradition. On moving in hill farming circles, the moral dimension of sheep husbandry fast becomes apparent. In the light of this, I draw on the anthropology of ethics and the anthropology of animal symbolism. Combined, they provide the necessary tools with which to discuss both how sheep are here perceived and how that perception might shape the ways in which the Dalesman daily comports himself. The main ethnographic body of this dissertation is structured according to the rhythms of the pastoral round. The rationale for this approach is three stranded: first, to express the cyclical nature of pastoralism in the Dales; second, to communicate a sense of the culture and art of the Dales hill farmer; third, to show that, as he labours so diligently at home in the hills, he does so in the shadow of an unattainable ideal. This final strand is the true focus of this dissertation. It is a study of unrealised ambition. In the Dales, to be regarded as ‘a man who knows his sheep’ is to be regarded as a man of towering parts. Or, in anthropological parlance, a man of substance. The highest expression of which is ‘the Stocksman’. He is a figure with an unimpeachable ‘ken of sheep’, a mythologised figure and a figure who looms large over the Dales. In this dissertation, I describe the implications of the desire to meet this ideal. It is, therefore, a study of men who know their sheep, endeavouring to demonstrate to other men who also know their sheep, that they are, indeed, knowers of sheep. And, so, we return to the question: if a farmer has thirty sheep, and one escapes, how many sheep does he have left...
Anthropology, Anthropology of Animal Symbolism, Anthropology of Ethics, Hill farming, Human-Animal Relations, Yorkshire Dales
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