Popular Culture and Knowledge: A Case Study of Traditional Methods and Native Knowledge of Camel Husbandry

Anthropology has a special place as the science of culture and study of human interaction and accommodation with the environment. One of the most important discussion in the field of anthropology in knowing the culture of village and nomad societies is the study of their native knowledge and the method of their accommodation with the environment, nature and meeting their biological and non-biological needs in nature. Native knowledge refers to solutions that humans have achieved by experience in so many years for solving their problems based on the experience of their ancestors and which can be different in each region considering their specific conditions. Having recorded the native knowledge of the region, anthropologists make known the thoughts of animal farmers, shepherds and cameleers about their environment. The present paper studies the traditional method of camel husbandry and the native knowledge of cameleers in the grasslands of the North of Iran in Gomishan region. It also aims at knowing and detection of their common information and terminology about camel and camel husbandry. The region studied is the grasslands of Gomishan city o Golestan Province located 25 kilometers far away from the city. In this paper, the necessary information on camel husbandry method based on native knowledge is gathered through interview, observation, taking pictures and videos. The findings include the native knowledge about the cycle and calendar of the camel husbandry activities, camel herd grasslands, issues related to reproduction and delivery in camel, animals accompanying the herd, the status of camel herd, marking the animal and camel productions such as milk and its byproducts, wool and meat.