transhumance, form of pastoralism or nomadism organized around the migration of livestock between mountain pastures in warm seasons and lower altitudes the rest of the year. The seasonal migration may also occur between lower and upper latitudes (as in the movement of Siberian reindeer between the subarctic taiga and the Arctic tundra). Most peoples who practice transhumance also engage in some form of crop cultivation, and there is usually some kind of permanent settlement.
Transhumance is practiced in those parts of the world where there are mountains, highlands, or other areas that are too cold to be inhabited and utilized for grazing except in summer. An extreme form of transhumance is that of the Kohistanis of the Swāt area of Pakistan, who range between altitudes of 2,000 and 14,000 feet (600 and 4,300 m). Most Kohistani families possess houses in four or five different settlements, and at any one time of the year nearly the whole population is concentrated in the altitude belt appropriate to the season. Their economy is based on a combination of the cultivation of grain on terraced fields—mostly irrigated and plowed with bullocks—and the breeding of oxen, buffalo, sheep, goats, and donkeys.