Shepherd
The duty of shepherds was to keep their flock intact, protect it from predators and guide it to market areas in time for shearing.
In pre-modern times shepherding was thus centered on regions such as the Middle East, Greece, the Pyrenees, the Carpathian Mountains, Scotland and Northern England.
The enclosure of many common lands in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries shifted some shepherds from independent nomads to employees of massive estates.
Traditional Chinese shepherds played a vital role in the country's agrarian society, tending to flocks of sheep and goats in various regions.
These communities developed techniques and methods to graze their flocks in the vast and varied landscapes of China, from the high plateaus of Tibet to the fertile plains of the central and eastern regions.
The shepherds employed their knowledge of the land and the behavior of their animals to select optimal grazing grounds and water sources.
However, there are still regions, particularly in remote and mountainous areas, where shepherds continue to maintain their traditional way of life, preserving the ancient practices and knowledge that have been passed down through generations.
In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture in China, leading to efforts to preserve and revitalize traditional shepherding practices.
Some initiatives aim to support and empower local shepherds, recognizing the cultural and environmental importance of their role in maintaining China's pastoral landscapes.
European exploration led to the spread of sheep around the world, and shepherding became especially important in Australia and New Zealand where there was great pastoral expansion.
In Australia squatters spread beyond the Nineteen Counties of New South Wales to elsewhere, taking over vast holdings called properties and now stations.
The hut-keeper usually slept in a movable shepherd's watch box placed near the yard in order to deter attacks on the sheep.
[citation needed] During the 1850s many shepherds left to try their luck on the goldfields causing acute labour shortages in the pastoral industry.
Boundary riders and stockmen replaced shepherds working on foot, who have not been employed in Australia and New Zealand since the start of the 20th century.
[8] Dumuzid, later known as Tammuz, was an important rural deity in ancient Mesopotamian religion, who was revered as the patron god of shepherds.
[15] The same metaphor is also applied to priests, with Roman Catholic, Church of Sweden and other Lutheran, and Anglican bishops having the shepherd's crook among their insignia (see also Lycidas).
This is in part inspired by Jesus's injunctions to Peter, "Feed my sheep", which is the source of the pastoral image in Lycidas.
The tendency of humans to put themselves into danger's way and their inability to guide and take care of themselves apart from the direct power and leading of God is also reinforced with the metaphor of sheep in need of a shepherd.
[citation needed] According to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, every messenger of God had the occupation of being a shepherd at one point in their lives, as he himself was as a young man.
(Sahih Bukhari, Chapter 'Prophets', Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith 618) This includes Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and all other prophets according to Islam.
"[16] One of the gentle aspects of the Hindu deity Shiva is called Pashupati, translated as, "the lord of the animals", though more commonly associated with cattle.
The first surviving instances are the Idylls of Theocritus, and the Eclogues of Virgil, both of which inspired many imitators such as Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender.
