C o w, Ko, Ku
Bos taurus
—Feral
Boss Cow / Samarbeidspartner
There is a special place for the boss cow.
Long, echoing calls ring through the trees, over the lakes, and across the open mountain tops, interspersed with bird song, the drone of the wind, and the distant ringing of cow bells. The cows too, raise their voices, lowing in the cool spring air. Kulning, the music that is used to communicate in the landscape of the Swedish summer farm, or fäbod, is a melodic conversation.
A vocal technique originating in Scandinavian herding practices, Kulning is used to communicate over long distances, to call in stray herd animals, and to frighten away predators. It is sung almost exclusively by women since it is they who tended summer herds, traveling in small groups into the forests and mountains to live in relative isolation for the summer months while the cows roamed to find fertile fodder. Women’s roles as the main laborers on these farms were a result of a curious piece of medieval legislation from 687 dictating that only women were permitted to work with milk producing animals, transforming the fäbod into the women’s domain. Later, after the 30 Year War and Karl X Gustaf’s War in the 1650s, war casualties left a nation of widows and young boys, necessitating a shift in the gender roles of Swedish agriculture. What was born out of superstition and necessity became an annual pilgrimage of sorts, as the cows were released from their winter home and led into the mountains and forests, followed by their companions, the women of the town.
There is a special place for the boss cow in the fäbod.
Kulning is a far cry from an order passed from superior to subordinate; you call with the understanding that the communication only works because of the relation you have with the other creature. You don’t rely on your own ability to communicate. There is no herd. They are individuals, each with their own peculiarities and quirks. The boss cow knows each of them, and the shepherdess must rely on her knowledge to engage them in movement.
Far from the picture of a docile, domestic animal, the boss cow is very much in charge, engaging her power in subtle ways. She leads and translates for the herd. She is the most experienced and the one who has been there for many years—she has the bell around her neck to prove it. She holds an important role, that of samarbeidspartner—literally, a collaborating partner. All of the other cows follow her, and to be able to communicate with the rest of the herd, one must first communicate with her. Often, the boss cow is busy. She and her fellows, far into the forest, indulge in the delicacies of the land: mushrooms, young grass, delicate shoots. The call is then a plaintive cry: “please come back, my dear cow!” “My sweet cows, come!” The relationship between shepherdess and cow is dependent upon relinquishing control and extending an invitation to listen and respond— or not. Sometimes, the shepherdess must first follow the cow in order for the cow to come to her.
The source of the music hides among trees and rocks and can’t easily be put into words. Even those that have sung this music and worked alongside fäbod animals their whole lives have difficulty expressing where the music originates. The composition weaves together the voice of the caller, the response and inspiration of the landscape, and the complex relationship between the caller, the boss cow, and the other animals in the herd. The music consists of care. Of worry. Of impatience. Of homesickness. Kulning puts into song the experiences of all beings present in the fäbod.
“It is not a song that you learn;
It is the song that you receive of the forest”
Karin Edvardson-Johansson, 1981
The shepherdesses are alone in the mountains and the forest, at least at first glance. But they are never alone. Their partners—the cows, the trees, and landscape itself—converse together in an acoustic symphony. To be able to fully communicate, they must set themselves into the landscape, into the herd. There exists an understanding, a shared world, that of the fäbod.
Kulning is a song, given of the forest and passed between beings until it reaches its final destination, at the discretion of the boss cow of course.
Caitlin Vitale-Sullivan
University of Wisconsin–Madison
—Madison, Wisconsin, USA