The Sheep from the Future

A research project on transhumant pastoralism in the highlands of Lebanon.

[Today Years Old @todayyearsold]

Just found out about donkey nannies, which are donkeys used to carry newborn lambs down the mountains for seasonal grazing.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is an experiment in montage of goats. I tried to interdigitate footage of Khaled (red shirt) and Abou Khaled (no relation, green sweater) doing exactly the same thing, i.e. ... 1/n
https://t.co/eL4TCfhNGT

[Rana Tabbara @Rana_Tbb]

Since yesterday, 3 shepherds have been trapped in the snow in al-Qatr above Mishmish, Akkar. 60 out of 200 goats have reportedly died from the cold and lack of food. Medicine and milk is being delivered to them #lebanon

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Here Abu Ali, the wisest shepherd in the Jurd, is speaking deep words about the spiritual (he says that) relation and reciprocal understanding that he has with his goats. Like always the filming and editing are the work of @senorfunes and @aya_nauseam for @future_sheep.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

And finally here the milking itself, you can see how the goats present themselves, and also the endearment that one expresses for Khaled (well, it's how I interpret it).

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

And here receptioning the big ones, the mothers of the previous ones, from the daylong grazing circuit, making them drink, and putting them in line for milking. Around 1:48 you can see how he calls out the karrazs. Then he makes the whole flock sing like a choir.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Arts of shepherding in the Jurd/mountains of Lebanon: here Khaled, from Irsal, training/playing with 200 baby goats to teach them to be interested in and respond to his commands.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

One moves in Beirut this morning like one moves through a stiff fog of gloom, indifference, and spite. So here are the meria3s being fed in their section of the tent on July 14, 2021 around 11am (now that they graduated from milk).1/n

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is Saksouka, Saksouksa is a tiny goat meria'a living mostly in & near the tent & fed by human hands so as to be human- rather than flock-oriented, one consequence is that at milking time Saksouka goes into al-sijin, in jail, in an old tank, lest she is tempted to drink milk.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

There is nervousness and even dread amongst the semi-nomadic herders of Lebanon now, although they're not people who let such affects come across easily, with the emergence of the horizon of a catastrophe in the making for their animals and them. 1/n

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is a bit of a camera on one of the (6) meria3s. You can see how he enjoys the sun setting on the jurd & how he tends to stay close to other meria3s including one with a mark hanging from his rear. The most interesting thing took place offscreen which tends to be the rule.1/n

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is the tashbiq, the mesh, the weaving or beading of the ewes for milking. It is a pattern that connects Bateson would say, a respiration where the relation between humans & animals becomes ephemerally closer & tighter through a sort of choreography to which all contribute...

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Some meria3 head rubbing. Of head rubbing, Thelma Rowell says "a submissive or deference gesture by the individual doing the rubbing...which we have interpreted as an affiliative gesture" (1993), here I think also negotiating who gets to be closest to Ahmad (the shepherd).

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

That's my teacher right here going through some sheep calls.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Look at the first steps of this 20-minute old 'Awassi gal (born right there in the mountains in the middle of a grazing circuit).

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Meria3at.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Little meria3s (born this year) raised in the tent to grow into the charismatic leaders and attractors and pacifiers of the flock, and how to feed them, there is one struggling to graduate from the bottle to the tray.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

Here you can sense that 1. the jurd is absolutely not a desert, 2. in fact it contains an astonishing (bio)diversity especially if you're a sheep and you have to stay away from inedible or indigestible plants, 3. it's a dry year, last year at the same time it was greener.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is my friend @senorfunes filming a marching flock from the trunk of the car for kilometers while we ride with the engine off because gas is scarce and the car sounds like an old sailing boat. Now he has to show us the shot.

[Sylvain Perdigon @sylvain_anthro]

This is the same maneuver we saw on June 11, see below, but this time the shepherd, M., who's from Qalamoun in Syria, explained what it's for: goats spread a lot & far, he uses it to catch the attention of the flock, startle and stop them in their tracks, & make them return. 1/n