Shepherd's hat
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{{Distinguish|Shepherd's hut}}File:Spyridon Sperantzas Saint Spyridon.png wearing a woven straw hat on his head – a traditional shepherd's hat in the shape of a skep, and a representation that he was a shepherd of God's people]]
A shepherd's hat is a head covering, used by a shepherd to ward off the sun and the elements. Along with a crook, it is an important tool for the shepherd.
Shepherding is ubiquitous across cultures, and is one of the world's oldest occupations, beginning some 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor. It has existed in agricultural communities around the world and is an important part of pastoralist animal husbandry. The image of the shepherd has been at the center of pastoral literature and art.{{sfn|Copeland|Wescombe|1966 | page = 49}}
The work keeps the shepherd outdoors, and every culture has developed different headgear to protect the worker.
Background
File:Oogstdag Korfvlechten.JPG
Given that most shepherds were poor, and lived in an agricultural setting, the shepherd's hat was usually simple and made from readily available materials. For example, wool is one of the oldest known textiles, and hats made from felt may have been known in ancient Sumer.{{sfn|Hagen|2005|page=8}}
Historically, the wool knit cap has been a common form of headgear for shepherds, seamen, hunters and others spending their working day outdoors.{{Cite web |last=Waters |first=Michael |date=2017-07-24 |title=What Do You Call This Hat? |website=Atlas Obscura |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/toboggan-tuque-knit-hat-regionalism}} Hats made from straw, both wide-brimmed and conical were also common. They have been worn throughout the world, with varying styles, all of them are woven using some form of plant fibre.{{sfn|Kula|1994|page=302}}{{Cite web |title=Natural Palm Fibre Hat From Failsworth Hats |url=https://www.woodsofshropshire.co.uk/natural-palm-fibre-hat-from-failsworth-hats |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603212302/https://www.woodsofshropshire.co.uk/natural-palm-fibre-hat-from-failsworth-hats |archive-date=June 3, 2020 |website=Woods of Shropshire}}
A chaperon is a utilitarian garment worn on the head in all parts of Western Europe in the Middle Ages.{{sfn|Reed|1992}}
The căciulă joasă is a cylindrical fur cap with the top larger than the base. It is worn by shepherds on both sides of the southern Carpathians (in Mărginimea Sibiului, Oltenia, Muntenia and Vrancea) and also in Bărăgan Plain and Dobruja due to this area being used for summer pastures by the Carpathian shepherds, and also in Maramureș.{{Cite web |title=Sheepskin hats – căciulă (pl. căciuli) |url=https://eliznik.org.uk/traditions-in-romania/traditional-clothing/mens-hats |access-date=2021-08-13 |website=Men’s hats |publisher=The Eliznik pages}}
The pakol is a soft round-topped men's cap, typically of wool from Pakistan, worn by shepherds in northwestern Pakistan southeast Afghanistan.{{sfn|Chohan|1989}}
In popular culture
File:Crop from September in The Shepheards Calender.jpg's The Shepheardes Calender]]
Cathy Shrank and Raphael Lyne discuss the headwear of farmers and shepherds in Elizabethan England in the poem, A Lover's Complaint.
{{quote|Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun|
A Lover's Complaint| William Shakespeare}}
According to Shrank and Lyne, a "plaited hive of straw" is a woven straw hat, the kind worn by country folk. An example can be seen in Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender.{{sfn|Shrank|Lyne|2017}} The scholars also note that "hive" is not a word generally used to describe headgear but may have been used because the hat resembles a beehive, which were conical and made of straw.{{sfn|Shrank|Lyne|2017}}
The image of the shepherd is a theme found throughout the Bible, and is a symbol that God acts as the Shepherd of His people.{{cite web |last1=Gladwell |first1=Mary Beth |title=The Shepherd Motif in the Old and New Testament |url=https://dwellcc.org/learning/essays/shepherd-motif-old-and-new-testament |website=DWELL COMMUNITY CHURCH}} This can be represented by the shepherd's hat.{{cite web |title=St. Spyridon |url=https://www.stspyridon.wv.goarch.org/patron-saint |website=St. Spyridon Orthodox Church |location=Clarksburg, WV |access-date=2022-05-08}}
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Gallery
File:Herder with Cows - Koh Paen Island - Kampong Cham - Cambodia (48335984691).jpg|Cambodian shepherd
File:Herdersjongen_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-1823.jpeg|Dutch shepherd
File:Shepherd Boy (7555843518).jpg| Ethiopian shepherd
File:BergerCrau1.JPG|French shepherd
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-T1021-0005, Rapshagen, Kreis Pritzwalk, Schäfer.jpg|German shepherd
File:Costume, fur coat, straw hat, moustache, shepherd's crook Fortepan 11870.jpg|Hungarian shepherd
File:Donegal-Shepherd%27s_demonstration-20-Schaefer-2017-gje.jpg|Irish shepherd
File:Shepherd of the Campagna, after Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg|Italian shepherd
File:Herding sheep, Inner Mongolia Oct 2001.jpg|Mongolian shepherd
File:American shepherd3 (cropped).jpg|Shepherd in Montana in 1942
File:Witty shepherd (15016253459).jpg|Shepherd in the Carpathian Mountains
File:Pastirska nošnja 02.jpg|Serbian shepherd clothing
File:PM DI 080.jpg| Spanish shepherd
File:Montagnard des Pyrénées d'Espagne.jpg| Spanish shepherd in the Pyrenees
File:A Turkish Kaleidoscope (1926)- Anatolia shepherd.png|Turkish shepherd circa 1926
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |last=Chohan |first=Amar Singh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZoH2oQFIhWIC&q=chitrali+cap&pg=PA33%7Ctitle=A%20History%20of%20Kafferistan:%20Socio-economicand%20Political%20Conditions%20of%20the%20Kaffers |title=A History of Kafferistan: Socio-economic and Political Conditions of the Kaffers |date=1989 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distri}}
- {{Cite book |last1=Copeland |first1=L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhPRQwAACAAJ |title=Inventory of Stone-Age Sites in Lebanon: North, South and East-Central Lebanon |last2=Wescombe |first2=P. |publisher=Impr. Catholique |year=1966}}
- {{Cite book |first=Chad Alice |last=Hagen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c5ysqGN5qv8C&pg=PT8 |title=Fabulous Felt Hats: Dazzling Designs from Handmade Felt |publisher=Lark Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-57990-542-2}}
- {{Cite book |title=Our Economic World: A Study of the World's Natural Resources and Industries |isbn=978-0-412-57640-9 |last1=Kula |first1=E. |date=1994-06-30}}
- {{cite thesis |first=SD |last=Reed |title=From Chaperones to Chaplets:Aspects of Men's Headdress 1400–1519 |degree=M.S. |year=1992 |publisher=University of Maryland |url=http://www.nachtanz.org/SReed/histcost.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110308031446/http://www.nachtanz.org/SReed/histcost.html |archive-date=March 8, 2011 |quote=NB Headgear Reed categorises as Hoods, Chaperones, & (some) Sack Hats are all covered by this article}}
- {{Cite book |last1=Shrank |first1=Cathy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GoY8DwAAQBAJ&dq=woven+straw+shepherd%27s+hat&pg=PT1415 |title=The Complete Poems of Shakespeare |last2=Lyne |first2=Raphael |date=2017-11-02 |isbn=9781317481362}}
External links
- [http://worldhat.net/en/exhibition/shepherds-hat Shepherd's hat at The World of Hat Ethnic Museum]
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