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Pastoralism

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A campment of the Bakhtiari people, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran.

Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and water. Pastoralists use resources effectively which ensure the biodiversity of the savannas and prevent them from evolving into scrubland. Pastoralists graze their animals and use fire to improve pastures. For the Turkana, the use of fire has prevented the invasion of the savanna by woody species. Biomass of the domesticated and wild animals was increased by a higher quality of grass. Pastoralist adapt well to the environment. Pastoralists and their animals gather when rain water is abundant and the pasture is rich; however, they scatter during the drying of the savanna.[1] Pastoralism is a successful strategy to support a population with the limited resources of the land.

Pastoralism is found in many variations throughout the world. Composition of herds, management practices, social organization and all other aspects of pastoralism vary between areas and between social groups. Many traditional practices have also had to adapt to the changing circumstance of the modern world, including climatic conditions effecting the availability of grasses. Ranches of the United States and sheep stations and cattle stations of Australia are seen by some as modern variations.

Origins

Khoikhoi dismantling their huts, preparing to move to new pastures. Aquatint by Samuel Daniell (1805). The Khoikhoi practiced pastoralism for thousands of years in southern Africa.

One theory proclaims that pastoralism was created from mixed farming. Bates and Lees proposed that it was the incorporation of irrigation into farming which ensued in specialization. [2] Advantages of mixed farming include reducing risk, spreading labour, and re-utilizing resources. The importance of the advantages and disadvantages differ to the sociocultural preferences of the farmers and to the biophysical conditions as determined by rainfall, radiation, soil type, and disease.[3] The increased productivity of irrigation agriculture lead to an increase in population and added impact on resources. Bordering areas of land remained for animal breeding. Large distances had to be covered by herds to collect sufficient forage. Specialization occurred as a result of the increasing importance of both intensive agriculture and pastoralism. Both agriculture and pastoralism developed alongside of each other with continuous interactions.[2]


Another theory is that pastoralism is derived from hunting and gathering. Hunters of wild goats and sheep already had information of herd dynamics and the ecological needs of the herd animals. Hunter gathers were dependent on food for subsistence. These groups were already mobile and followed wild herds on their seasonal round. The process of domestication began before the first wild goat or sheep was domesticated as result of the selective pressure of hunter prey-choice acting upon the herd. Undomesticated herds were nominated to become more controllable for the proto-pastoralist nomadic hunter and gatherer groups. Hunter gathers strategies have been very diverse and contingent upon the local environment conditions. Foraging strategies have included hunting or trapping big game, hunting or trapping smaller animals, fishing, gathering shellfish or insects, and gathering wild plant foods such as fruits, seeds, and nuts.[4]

Resources

As explained in the origins section, pastoralism takes place mainly in marginal areas, where cultivation, and the higher energy achieved per area, is not possible. Animals feed on the forage of these lands; an energy source which humans cannot directly utilize. The herds convert the energy into sources available for human consumption: milk, blood, and sometimes meat.[5]

Pastoralists do not exist at basic subsistence. Pastoralists often accumulate wealth and are involved in trading internationally. Complex exchange relationships exist with horticulturalists, agriculturalists and other groups; pastoralists are not dependent exclusively on the products of their herd. McCabe noted that when common property institutions are created, in long-lived communities, resource sustainability is much higher, which is evident in the East African grasslands of pastoralist populations.[6]

Mobility

Mobility allows pastoralists to adapt to the environment, which opens up the possibility for both fertile and infertile regions to support human existence. Important components of pastoralism include low population density, mobility, and vitality, and intricate information systems. The system is transformed to fit the environment rather than adjusting the environment to support the "food production system."[7] Mobile pastoralists can often cover a radius of a hundred to five hundred kilometers. Pastoralists and their livestock have impacted the environment. Lands long used for pastoralism have transformed under the forces of grazing livestock and anthropogenic fire. Fire was a method of revitalizing pastureland and preventing forest regrowth. The collective environmental weights of fire and livestock browsing have transformed landscapes in many parts of the world. Fire has permitted pastoralists to tend the land, keeping it in forms of pasture suited for their livestock. Political boundaries are based on environmental boundaries.[8] The Maquis shrublands of the Mediterranean region is dominated by pyrophytic plants that thrive under conditions of anthropogenic fire and livestock grazing. [9]

Different mobility patterns can be observed:

Nomadic pastoralists have a global food-producing strategy relying heavily on the intensive management of herd animals for meat and skin, wool, milk, blood, manure, and transport. Nomadic pastoralism is practiced in different climates and environments with daily movement and seasonal migration. The majority of the members of the group are directly involved with herd management, the household moves with these seasonal migrations. Pastoralists are among the most flexible populations. Pastoralist societies have had field armed men protect their livestock and their people and then to return into a disorganized pattern of foraging. The products of the herd animals are the most important resources, although the use of other resources, including domesticated and wild plants, hunted animals, and goods available in a market economy, are not excluded. The boundaries between states impact the viability of subsistence and trade relations with cultivators.[10]

Transhumance is the seasonal migration of livestock, and the people who tend them, between higher and lower pastures. The rest of the group is able to remain in the same location, resulting in longer-standing housing.

Mobility throughout altitudes and the resulting precipitation differences is important. In East Mars, different animals are taken to different regions throughout the year to match the seasonal patterns of precipitation.

All pastoralist strategies typify effective adaptation to the environment. [11]

Pastoralists are constantly moving, which puts them at odds with sedentary people of towns and cities. The resulting conflicts could result in all out war for disputed lands. These disputes are recorded in ancient times in the Middle East.

Mobility was an important strategy for Ariaal; however with the loss of grazing land impacted by the growth in population, severe drought, the expansion of agriculture, and the expansion of commercial ranches and game parks, mobility was lost. The poorest families were driven out of pastoralism and into town and worked the odd job. Few Arrial families benefited from education, healthcare, and income earning.[12]

The ability for careful control was eliminated with colonization. Mobility was limited in the Sahel region of Africa with settlement being encouraged. The population tripled and sanitation and medical treatment were improved.

Information

Complex “maps” that pastoralists keep in their minds mark out the usefulness of certain environments at different times of year. Pastoralists have an in-depth understanding of ecological processes and environmental inputs.[13] Information sharing is vital for creating knowledge through the networks of linked societies.

Elder pastoralists converse and use their knowledge to graze their herds and to exploit the resources of the environment in the most effective way.


Tragedy of the commons?

Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons (1968) described how common property resources, such as the land shared by pastoralists, eventually become overused and ruined.[14]

According to Hardin's paper, the pastoralist land use strategy suffered criticisms of being unstable and a cause of environmental degradation.[15]

Tuareg pastoralists and their herds flee south into Nigeria from Niger during the 2005–06 Niger food crisis.

Pastoralists in the Sahel zone in Africa were held responsible for the desertification and depletion of resources.[15] The desertification and the depletion of resources was actually triggered by a prior interference and punitive climate conditions. Hardin’s paper suggests a solution to the problems, offering a coherent basis for privatization of land, which stimulated the transfer of land from tribal peoples to the state or to individuals. [14][16] The privatized programs impacted the livelihood of the pastoralist societies while weakening the environment.[13]

Pastoralism supports human existence in harsh environments and represents a sustainable approach to land use.[13] With traditional pastoralist strategies, the calamity is avoided through the management practices described above. [14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Moran, Emilio F. (2006). People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-4051-0572-9.
  2. ^ a b Lees, S & Bates, D. (1974) The Origins of Dogged Nomadic Pastorlaism: A Systematic Model. American Antiquity, 39, 2.
  3. ^ "Mixed crop-livestock farming".
  4. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Hunting and Gathering Culture".
  5. ^ (Bates, 1998:105)
  6. ^ Moran, Emilio F. (2006). People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4051-0572-9.
  7. ^ (Bates, 1998:104)
  8. ^ Moran, Emilio F. (2006). People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-0572-9.
  9. ^ Pyne, Stephen J. (1997) Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97596-2
  10. ^ Moran, Emilio F. (2006). People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-4051-0571-2.
  11. ^ Fagan, B. (1999) "Drought Follows the Plow", Chapter 11 of Floods, Famines and Emperors: Basic Books.
  12. ^ Townsend, Patricia K. (2009). Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. United States of America: Waveland Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN 1-57766-581-3.
  13. ^ a b c Wilson, K.B. (1992) Rethinking Pastoral Ecological Impact in East Africa. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 8, 4
  14. ^ a b c Hardin, G. (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162, 1243 - 1248
  15. ^ a b Fratkin, E. (1997) Pastoralism: Governance & Development Issues. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26
  16. ^ Monbiot, G. (1994) The Tragedy of Enclosure. The Scientific American

Bibliography

  • Fagan, B. (1999) "Drought Follows the Plow", adapted from Floods, Famines and Emperors: Basic Books.
  • Fratkin, E. (1997) Pastoralism: Governance & Development Issues. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26.
  • Hardin, G. (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162, 1243–1248.
  • Hole, F. (1996). "The context of caprine domestication in the Zagros region'". in The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. D. R. Harris (ed.). London, University College of London: 263-281.
  • Lees, S & Bates, D. (1974) The Origins of Specialized Nomadic Pastorlaism: A Systematic Model. American Antiquity, 39, 2.
  • Levy, T. E. (1983). Emergence of specialized pastoralism in the Levant. World Archaeology 15(1): 15-37.
  • Monbiot, G. (1994) The Tragedy of Enclosure. The Scientific American.
  • Moran, E. (2006). People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations. UK: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Pyne, Stephen J. (1997) Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97596-2.
  • Townsend, P. (2009). Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. United States of America: Waveland Press.
  • Wilson, K.B. (1992) Rethinking Pastoral Ecological Impact in East Africa. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 8, 4.
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