Herder - Definition and Overview

For the a German literary figure see Johann Gottfried Herder

A herder is a worker who lives a semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, especially in places where these animals wander unfenced pasture lands. Because their work is necessarily mostly outdoors, they move around from place to place in the course of their labours, and the lands upon which their beasts graze are seldom claimed as any single person's property, a number of romantic legends have sprung up around 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.