New book is first look at N.M.’s livestock heritage

Dunmire, a Placitas author, will discuss his new book on the subject, “New Mexico’s Spanish Livestock Heritage: Four Centuries of Animals, Land, and People,” at 3 p.m. Sunday at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW.

	“New Mexico’s Spanish Livestock Heritage: Four Centuries of Animals, Land, and People” by William W. Dunmire; UNM Press

The book, a survey of domestic livestock in New Mexico, is the first of its kind, Dunmire wrote in an email.

Published by UNM Press, the book reaches beyond the so-called “cowboy culture” to examine the ways in which Spaniards, American Indians and Anglos used that livestock and how those uses affected the region’s landscapes and cultures, Dunmire said.

The book covers a history of livestock in New Mexico from 1540 to the present and includes a general background on animal domestication in the Old World and the New World.

In addition, the author has incorporated the observations of travelers and the research of scholars.

The introduction of domestic animals added the meat of cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and chickens to the diets of Native people, and the wool from the sheep would play a significant role in Native weaving, Dunmire said in the email.

The power of these animals augmented human power for transportation, hauling, tilling and other kinds of work, and grazing on the open range gradually transformed the grasslands of New Mexico’s central and southern plains, he said, but the grazing led to soil erosion and lowered water tables.

Dunmire is an associate in biology at UNM. He retired as a naturalist from the National Park Service.

Dunmire announced these other upcoming events for his new book: 2 p.m. March 30 at the Placitas Community Library; 1-3 p.m. April 6 at Treasure House Books, 2012 S. Plaza NW, Old Town; and 2 p.m. April 14 at the Sandoval County Historical Society, Bernalillo.
— This article appeared on page 09 of the Albuquerque Journal