Yaylak (Turkish: yaylak; Azerbaijani: yaylaq; South Azerbaijani: یایلاق; Kazakh: жайлау; Kyrgyz: жайлоо; Persian: ییلاق; Russian: яйлаг) is a summer highland pasture associated with transhumance pastoralism in several Central and West Asian Turkic communities. There are different variants of yaylak pastoralism forms of alpine transhumance, some of which are similar to seminomadic pastoralism, although most are similar to herdsman husbandry (such as in mountainous areas of Europe and the Caucasus). However, in the Eurasian steppes, the Middle East and North Africa, yaylak pastoralism often coexists with seminomadic pastoralism and pastoral nomadism.[1] The term had been commonly used in Soviet anthropology.
The converse term is gishlag (from Turkic kyshlag), a winter pasture. The word gave rise to the usage of the term kishlak for rural settlements in Central Asia.
- ^ Anatoly Khazanov, Nomads and the Outside World, Second Edition, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, p. 24