Herder

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For the German publishers, see Herder publishers. For the German poet and philosopher, see Johann Gottfried Herder.

A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands.

Usually if the person is a minor, he is called herdboy, if adult sometimes by contrast herdsman.^[1] Because their work is necessarily mostly outdoors, they move around from place to place in the course of their labours. The possibility exists that the lands upon which their beasts graze are not claimed as any single person's property.

A number of romantic legends have sprung up around some aspects of their way of life. Some herders whose lifestyles have become mainstays of fiction include:

The shepherd, featured in pastoral literature;
Cowboys, heroes of Western movies and fiction, featured in romantic tales from the United States;
Gauchos, who play a similar role to the cowboy in Argentina.

[edit] See also

Look up Herder in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Cowboy
Herding
List of collective nouns for non-human mammals
Herdsman course at UC Davis (PDF)

[edit] References

^ Brooks, Alexandra. "26 farm workers to receive long service awards", FarmingUK, The Breezi Publishing Company Ltd, 19/06/2003. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.