PASTORALISM
Intro
This lecture provides an overview of pastoralism, covering following topics:
1. Definition: What exactly is pastoralism?
2. Origins: When & why did it arise?
3. Environmental/geographical distribution: Where does it occur?
4. Subsistence strategies: How does it work?
5. Social organization: What are its social correlates?
Definition
Various definitions & classifications, but simplest are these:
1) Pastoralism = subsistence system based primarily on domesticated
animal production (meat, milk, hides, blood) (Note that this definition
excludes groups specializing on wild herd animals, such as Plains Indian
bison hunters)
2) Pastoralists = any population or segment of population subsisting
primarily via pastoralism (if also practice significant amount of agriculture,
termed "agropastoralists")
The term "subsisting" is intended to exclude those who raise animals strictly for
exchange value rather than direct consumption (e.g., commercial ranchers and
dairy farmers), though as we'll see, most subsistence pastoralists rely on trade to
some extent, even if large-scale impersonal markets & monetary currency are
absent
Pastoralists can be categorized in terms of frequency of movement (nomadism):
1) Settled pastoralism = keeping animals in one place most or all of year,
provisioning them with fodder (e.g., hay), which is the typical pattern for
many traditional European pastoralists (or agropastoralists); this system is
relatively capital-intensive (need substantial barns, means to transport
hay, etc.)
2) Transhumance = regular round-trip from home base to pasture (e.g.,
move herds up into mountain pastures in summer, back to lowlands in
winter), without any major dwellings or barns in any location
3) Nomadic pastoralism = moving herds to any avail. pasture, often on
opportunistic basis over long distances and with no fixed pattern;
characteristic of populations most dependent on pastoralism, and hence
primary focus of this course
Origins
Under what conditions did pastoralism arise? What favors this specialization?
Nineteenth-cent. social evolutionists (e.g., Morgan, Engels) believed nomadic
pastoralism was an evolutionary stage between foraging and settled agriculture
This seemed plausible, since foragers exercise relatively little control over natural
environment and are often highly nomadic; agricultural populations greatly modify
environment. and are very sedentary; and nomadic pastoralists are generally
intermediate in both regards
On average, nomadic pastoralists also intermediate in population density, degree
of socio-political complexity, etc. -- hence seem to fit transitional stage of social
evolution (between foraging & settled agriculture) quite nicely
However, anthropologists no longer believe that pastoralism = widespread
intermediate stage between foraging and agriculture, and doubt that pastoralism
& animal domestication preceded agriculture and plant domestication
Three main reasons for doubting that pure pastoralism precedes agriculture:
1) Difficulty of domesticating animals without some sedentary base and a
localized staple food source (though foraging economies sometimes
provide both of these)
2) Archaeological record of domestication suggests it occurred in settled
communities that also had domesticated plants (though there is some
difficulty in clearly detecting initial animal domestication in archaeological
record)
3) Virtually no examples in ethnographic record of pastoralist societies that
don't depend directly or indirectly (via trade) on agricultural products
Main exception to these rules seems to be reindeer herders of No. Eurasia,
especially Siberia, where agriculture was absent until very recent (industrial)
times; but here it seems that sedentary fishing communities predate reindeer
herding, and herders historically depended on trade with these peoples; in
addition, reindeer are only slightly domesticated (interbreed freely with wild
caribou)
Current consensus is that in most cases pastoralists probably arose from
"marginalized surplus population" of agriculturalists who for one reason or
another lost their land base or abandoned farming, and turned to full-time herding
In fact, ethnographers have often observed this process occurring in many areas,
where poorer farming strata lose crops in bad year and switch to nomadism,
while successful herders often cash in herds to buy land & become settled
farmers (though the dynamic can sometimes go the other way: farmers who do
well may choose to switch to pastoralism)
Environmental/Geographic Distribution of Nomadic Pastoralism
What about the geographical and environmental distribution of pastoralism?
For nomadic pastoralism, summarized in following table:
Geographical
Region
Ethnic Groups
Primary Stock
Habitat Type
Mid-East/E.
Mediterranean (oldest
pastoral zone)
Turkoman, Baluch,
Pathan, Basseri
Sheep, goats
Hilly, semiarid
East Africa & Sahel
Maasai, Turkana,
Karimojong, Nuer
Cattle, goats
Dry
savannah
North Africa & Arabia
Bedouin
Camels, goats
Very arid
desert
Central Asian steppes
Mongols, Kazaks
Horses, sheep,
camels
Rich
grassland,
severe
winters (hay
for fodder)
Tibetan Plateau
Ethnic Tibetans
Yaks, horses
Arid, low
temperature,
high altitude
No. Eurasian herders
Sami (Lapps), Tungus,
Chukchi
Reindeer
Taiga (tundra
& boreal
forest)
Note that these are all areas where agriculture is either not viable, or is very
chancy; can conclude from these and other data that pastoralists are generally
found in areas where agriculture is unproductive (due to low or patchy rainfall,
low temperatures, etc.)
Pastoralists use herd animals as "energy converters" to utilize areas outside the
margins of agriculture (e.g., camels eat thorny plants of Sahara, llamas eat
grasses of altiplano in areas above agricultural zone); thermodynamic
consequence of this is that amount of energy produced per unit area is low, since
1) occupying unproductive environments, and 2) subsisting at higher trophic level
than agriculturalists
In any case, high-density, sedentary populations of pastoralists simply don't
occur; it appears that any land capable of supporting this is instead devoted to
agriculture
This supports inference that in long run, agriculture out-competes pastoralism
(either by subsistence choice or by population displacement) in all but most
marginal environments
In many cases, environments intermediate in productivity seem to favor mixed
economy that combines some agriculture with nomadic or transhumant
pastoralism (e.g., Karimojong and many other E. African cattle-herders)
Subsistence Strategies
Pastoralists face complex set of interlocking decisions, concerning:
1) herd species (single or mixed?)
2) herd size & composition (controlled via breeding, culling, exchange,
etc.)
3) allocation of available labor force (household or larger kin group)
4) herd movement and pasture utilization (both normal and extreme
climatic conditions)
5) mix of pastoralism with other subsistence options (trade, agriculture)
Each of these can be studied in great depth; evidence indicates that a wealth of
knowledge goes into pastoralist decision making, and understanding these
systems has sometimes been hampered by ignorance of researchers, who didn't
understand enough about these systems and their determinants to ask herders
intelligent questions
As a consequence, economic rationality of pastoralists has all too often been
misunderstood or overlooked by bureaucrats and aid workers
In particular, they have questioned pastoralists herd management, claiming they
let herds get too large, causing overgrazing
Countering this, ecological anthropologists have argued that pastoralist
subsistence rationality differs from commercial-ranching rationality, as follows:
a) Pastoralists keep large herds (above economic "optimum") because:
1) storage and marketing not major possibilities
2) they seek to maximize number of people supported on day-to-day
basis, not profit or seasonal yield (subsistence logic vs. market logic)
3) usually subsist on dairy products & blood, not meat; this minimizes
storage costs and food-income fluctuations
4) large herds = hedge against catastrophic losses (disease, drought), as
well as wealth that can be converted into variety of goods (particularly
bride-price = gift groom's family must make to bride's family in many
pastoralist economies)
b) Lack of overt "conservation ethic" regarding pasture land makes sense
because:
1) pasture productivity has low spatiotemporal predictability
2) tribal control over grazing lands is often temporary or unstable
3) large fluctuations in human & stock populations due to disease or
climate allow pastures to recover periodically
Because adequate grazing areas are highly unpredictable in time & space,
expected form of land tenure = communal rather than individual or family
ownership [further discussion of this in session on land tenure]
Social Organization
Pastoralist societies must solve 2 interrelated problems:
1) articulate herds with their sustaining resources (nutritionally-adequate
pasture, water), which requires mobility and intensive informationgathering
2) articulate management and utilization of herds by different members of
society, which requires social mechanisms (division of labor, economic
transactions, rules of transfer & inheritance, etc.)
Resulting organization of labor and social institutions is complex and variable, but
as a general rule can say that these represent a compromise, an attempt to
balance conflicting needs for flexibility & control:
1) flexibility needed to manage herd movements, information-sharing, riskpooling, and aggregation & dispersal of herders across landscape
2) formal institutions needed to control ownership & transfer of wealth
(stock, any agricultural land, other wealth goods) as well as adjudicate
conflicts
Social mechanisms for achieving flexibility are varied, but usually include:
1) sodalities (age-sets, associations, ritual groups, etc. which cross-cut
kinship & residence units);
2) well-developed means of information-sharing (visiting networks,
meeting places, festivals, etc.);
3) co-operative work units (e.g., "camp clusters" of E. African cattle
herders -- temporary associations)
Formal social institutions focus on inheritance (kinship/descent systems, usually
patrilineal) and marriage (bride-price, transfer of stock between spouses, &
between lineages, rules of marriage & residence)
Combination of flexibility (to allow herd mobility, deal with unpredictable pasture
resources) and formal systems of inheritance and alliance (to control use &
transfer of stock) give pastoralist societies their special qualities (though of
course each society has unique characteristics depending on local ecological &
socioeconomic conditions)
East African cattle herders
These = best-studied pastoralists in ecological anthropology
In E. Africa, altitude & rainfall correlate almost perfectly, with rainfall increasing at
higher elevation
Another factor is temperature, as this affects water evaporation; in tropics, even
areas that have more rainfall than Seattle may have such high evapotranspiration
rates that they are quite arid
These two factors interact to determine available water and hence plant
productivity (e.g., in Kenya, 4500 feet = elevation at which rainfall exceeds
potential evaporation rate, and where pastoralism fades out and agriculture takes
over)
Given altitude/rainfall correlation, pastoralists adjust their annual cycle to put
herds in lowest (driest) part of range in rainy season, gradually moving to higher
elevations so as to end up at highest elevation at end of dry season
Movement decisions are very complex -- must plan for whole year but have many
contingency plans, take many variables in to account; hence pastoralists have
great need for up-to-date information
Information flow is channeled via kinship ties & sodalities (age-sets)
Each household has large variety of stock, with minimal # of each (in traditional
subsistence regime) being 25-30 cattle, 10 camels, 100 small stock (goats &
sheep), & 10-12 donkeys (Note: household = women + children associated with
a single adult male; homestead = group of related men + families)
Each species has to be handled in certain way: e.g., cattle can be watered every
other day, small stock need water every day, camels every 3 days
Hence, in dry season, must have several herds & herding parties -- very labor
intensive system
Altitudinal zonation keeps camps apart for most of year [see Diagram]
Hence, nuclear families cannot be economically independent -- simply do not
provide enough labor
Instead, E. African pastoralists generally organize labor via patrilineal extended
family (with polygyny)
Daughters married out at young age (patrilocal/virilocal residence), but sons stay
with father's homestead until they are 30-40 years old, when 1) father dies and
son inherits cattle allocated to his mother at time of her marriage, or 2) father
grants son an "advance" on his inheritance, letting him marry and set up his own
homestead
(This last option only happens if father is very successful, has lots of wives &
cattle, and therefore can afford to let oldest sons "bud off" and leave father's
labor force as well as reduce his herds)