gay cowboys

[sagehen]

arnold writes:
 > ........but the issue about "cowboy" is interesting.  the
> dictionaries i have to hand all make the connection to cattle
> explicit, but i believe that in the world these guys come from,
> "cowboy" is a cover term for ranch workers, rodeo riders, and herders
> in general.  it might be that it covers only jobs done at least in
> part on horseback...   i'll see if anyone on ADS-L has some insight
> into this.
>
> [ok, ADS-Lers: anyone have any evidence of this extended sense of
> "cowboy"?]
>
> the image i get for "shepherd" *never* has the herders on horseback,
> but that just might be me.  now i'm wondering how the basque
> shepherds of nevada go about their job.
>
> [anyone know the answer to this question?]
>
> the perfect parallel to "cowboy" would be "sheepboy".  and it's
> attested, but is obviously not common or current; from OED2:
>
> 1842 S. C. HALL Ireland II. 81 The *sheep-boy saw him go in. 1859
> MEREDITH R. Feverel xix, Pipe, happy sheep-boy, Love!
>
> "sheep(-)boy" sounds irretrievably silly, i'm afraid.  "sheepherder"
> would be transparent and serviceable and would avoid the religious or
> somewhat cutesy connotations of "shepherd".
>
> [now that i think about it, i have the impression that the basque
> keepers of sheep are more often referred to as "sheepherders" rather
> than "shepherds".  but certainly not as "cowboys".]
> -----
 ~~~~~~~~
I turned this over to Martin, knowing he would have something to say on the
subject.  His reply:


Proulx called them "ranch kids." Correct, but that can cover any family
member of either a sheep ranch or a cattle ranch. (There is a faint
tinge of condescension in her description of those guys).
The interviewer has to cut to the issue: the two ranch kids are on a
summer job herding sheep;  therefore, they are definitely not cowboys;
they are sheep men or sheepers or herders, or just kids doing a summer
job. See Skip Rawlins for a non-fiction account of two kids herding
sheep one summer in the Wind Rivers of Wyoming.
I suppose cowboys sometimes use the term herder for working cattle, but
usually they are "driving" them or "cutting" single animals from the
herd for branding, shipping, vaccinating etc. or rounding them up from
summer range, or loading them into trucks, etc. There are other terms
for working cattle and probably for working sheep too, but one of the
interesting lacunas in western history is the dearth of writings about
sheepers, compared to the mountains of stuff re cowboys.
  For Northern Nevada cowboying see Owen Ulph's "The Fiddleback," or his
magnum opus, "The Leather Throne."
Sheep herders are also horsemen. My daugher and I met such a one in the
Jarbidge Mountains, northern Nevada. He happened to be from Peru, but I
would hazard a guess he was working for a sheep rancher.
An interesting confusion that might play into the language confusion is
that ranchers sometimes alternate between sheep and cattle, depending
on market prices.

A&M Murie
N. Bangor NY
sagehen at westelcom.com