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Nomadic pastoralism persists at a substantial scale in Tuva and neighboring regions of Inner Asia. Tuvan pastoral lifeways reflect adaptations to both local environments and current economic realities. Much of our quantitative understanding of the economics of Tuvan nomads is derived from data collected in the first half of the 20th century. Accordingly, this paper provides an updated picture of the inner workings of nomadic households using data collected in Barun-Khemchik and Bai-Taiga provinces in 2013–2015. It analyzes herd composition and size, and compares the frequency of different animals kept today with values recorded in Tuva in 1916 and 1931. It then quantifies rates of provisioning hay and grain, and the production of meat and dairy products for consumption and sale. Finally, it characterizes typical costs of food, petrol, medicine, clothing, and school supplies faced by present-day herders. We advocate the collection of quantitative ethnographic data that can shed further light on the future of the Tuvan pastoralist niche.

Objectives The Sahel belt is occupied by populations who use two types of subsistence strategy, nomadic pastoralism and sedentary farming, and who belong to three linguistic families, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afro-Asiatic. Little is known, however, about the origins of these two populations and their mutual genetic relationships. Materials and methods We have built a large dataset of mitochondrial DNA sequences and Y chromosomal STR haplotypes of pastoralists and farmers belonging to all three linguistic phyla in the western, central, and eastern parts of the Sahel. We calculated pairwise genetic, geographic, and linguistic distances between populations and analyzed the effects of geography, language, and subsistence on population genetic structure. Results We found that subsistence mode significantly contributed to the generally low population structure in the Sahel and that language affiliation plays a more important role for pastoralists than for farmers. We also demonstrated that geographic isolation significantly influenced the population structure of sedentary farmers but not of nomadic pastoralists. Finally, we found haplotypes shared between the Fulani and Arabic-speaking Baggara, supporting the theory of Baggarization, which explains the recent adaptation of Arabic-speaking nomads in the Sahel region through contact with autochthonous sub-Saharan populations. Conclusions Based on various genetic and archaeological evidence pertaining to the Sahel, we suggest that the idea of a bidirectional Sahelian corridor is valid, but that pastoralists made a more important contribution to its population structure. It is also possible that agropastoralists diverged into farmers and pastoralists in the early stages of formation of the Sahelian gene pool.

Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, this chapter will document the ways in which climate change impacts on social, political, and economic landscapes in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In the western Himalayas, altitude places limits on the possibilities for farming. With agriculture alone insufficient to secure household reproduction, many families from the Gaddi tribal community pursue livelihood strategies which combine small-scale agriculture with nomadic pastoralism. However, there are limits to adaptability – dependence on grazing resources and rain-fed irrigation together with heightened exposure to extreme weather events have left many Gaddi households acutely vulnerable to climate change. Unable to rely on the customary combination of agriculture and pastoralism, Gaddis are increasingly forced into new forms of labour. Building roads or working on hydro-projects is precarious, uncertain, and dangerous and, again, depends on leaving village homes to travel to remote mountain valleys and desolate Himalayan passes. In rural Himachal Pradesh, the impacts of climate change are differentiated by class, caste, and ethnicity – those insulated by wealth may opt to move out of agriculture. Meanwhile, Gaddi families – their long-standing agro-pastoralism occupying an increasingly precarious niche – are forced down new and precarious routes into an increasingly uncertain future.

The Eurasian rangelands contain the world’s largest contiguous pasture area, grazed for millennia by mobile pastoralists’ livestock. This paper reviews evidence from one Eurasian country, Kazakhstan, of how nomadic pastoralism developed from some 5,000 years ago to the present. We consider a timespan from pre-industrial, socialist and capitalist periods, during which pastoral social formations shifted from clans, to state employees to private farm families and ranchers. The aim is to understand how events over the last hundred years have led to sequential dissolution and re-formation of the social units necessary to manage livestock across the geographical scale of spatially heterogenous and seasonally variable ecosystems. It is argued that the social scale of extensive livestock management must be tailored to the geographical scale of the biotic and abiotic conditions. The paper briefly appraises archaeological data indicating the long duration of mobile pastoralism in the Kazakh rangelands. The middle sections then provide an overview of how events from the late 17th C onwards unravelled the relationships between Kazakh nomads’ socio-economic units of livestock management and the rangeland environment. At present, mobile animal husbandry is not feasible for the majority of Kazakh livestock owners, who operate solely within small family units without state support. These reformulated post-Soviet livestock grazing patterns are still undergoing rapid change, influencing the balance between vegetation communities, wildlife and carbon, as ecological publications show. In conclusion, there is trend that by concentrating capital and landed resources onto a minority of large-scale pastoralists, a few can re-extensify through mobility in combination with selective intensification, such as more reliance on cultivated feed. Unfortunately, current state and international efforts are leaving out the majority of small-scale livestock owners and their livestock who are unable to adopt either practice at sufficient scale, leading to more environmental damage and social inequity in the future.

The data on the genetic and spatial subdivision of populations of synanthropic species of small mammals, their dependence on the intensity with the territories of distant-pasture cattle tending are presented, and some patterns of indicators of ectoparasite infestation of their communities are revealed. The factor determining the genetic and spatial differentiation of populations of small mammals can be attributed to the relationship of small mammals with ungulates that has long historical roots (Neogene, Anthropogen). At present, these relations have been preserved with domestic ungulates, which, along with physical and geographical ones, determine the genetic and biotopic differentiation of populations of small mammals. The assumption is made about the deep historical roots of the establishment of such relationships by pasture ungulate animals from the neogene and pleistocene.

We analyzed a unique data set of livestock numbers in the Mongolian southern Gobi. In a novel approach, we combined biophysical data on precipitation and pasture biomass productivity with data on fine wool prices from 1981 through 2015 to investigate dynamic patterns and responses of livestock numbers in Mongolia’s southern Gobi. Using piecewise structural equation modeling enabled us to disentangle the effects of biophysical and politico-economic factors on livestock numbers and species composition, paying particular attention to the singular transition from centrally planned to free-market economy that happened in Mongolia in 1992. Our analysis reveals that biophysical and politico-economic factors were both important determinants of livestock numbers, and highlights the politico-economic singularity of 1992 as the single-largest driver of livestock dynamics in the period investigated. roductivity Nomadic Herding Gobi Precipitation Variability Post-Soviet Mongolia Extreme Events, Piecewise Structural Equation Modeling

The Sahel/Savannah belt of Africa is a contact zone between two subsistence systems (nomadic pastoralism and sedentary farming) and of two groups of populations, namely Eurasians penetrating from northern Africa southwards and sub-Saharan Africans migrating northwards. Because pastoralism is characterized by a high degree of mobility, it leaves few significant archaeological traces. Demographic history seen through the lens of population genetic studies complements our historical and archaeological knowledge in this African region. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of demographic history in the Sahel/Savannah belt as revealed by genetic studies. We show the impact of food-producing subsistence strategies on population structure and the somewhat different migration patterns in the western and eastern part of the region. Genomic studies show that the gene pool of various groups of Sahelians consists in a complex mosaic of several ancestries. We also touch upon various signals of genetic adaptations such as lactase persistence, taste sensitivity and malaria resistance, all of which have different distribution patterns among Sahelian populations. Overall, genetic studies contribute to gain a deeper understanding about the demographic and adaptive history of human populations in this specific African region and beyond.

Fascioliasis is a freshwater snail-borne zoonotic helminth disease caused by two species of trematodes: Fasciola hepatica of almost worldwide distribution and the more pathogenic F. gigantica restricted to parts of Asia and most of Africa. Of high pathological impact in ruminants, it underlies large livestock husbandry losses. Fascioliasis is moreover of high public health importance and accordingly included within the main neglected tropical diseases by WHO. Additionally, this is an emerging disease due to influences of climate and global changes. In Africa, F. gigantica is distributed throughout almost the whole continent except in the north-western Maghreb countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia where only F. hepatica is present. The present study concerns the DNA multimarker characterization of the first finding of F. gigantica in sheep in Algeria by the complete sequences of rDNA ITS-1 and ITS-2 and mtDNA cox1 and nad1 genes. Sequence comparisons and network analyses show sequence identities and similarities suggesting a south-north trans-Saharan geographical origin, with introduction from Ghana, through the Sahel countries of Burkina Faso and Mali into Algeria. This way perfectly fits with nomadic pastoralism according to interconnecting intranational and transborder herd transhumance routes traditionally followed in this western part of Africa from very long ago. The risk for further spread throughout the three north-western Maghreb countries is multidisciplinarily analysed, mainly considering the present extensive motorization of the intranational transhumance system in Algeria, the lymnaeid snail vector species present throughout the north-western Maghreb, the increasing demand for animal products in the growing cities of northern Algeria and the continued human infection reports. Control measures should assure making anti-fasciolid drugs available and affordable for herders from the beginning and along their transhumant routes and include diffusion and rules within the regional regulatory framework about the need for herd treatments.

Mobility, nomadic pastoralists’ main adaptive strategy, has been compromised by agricultural expansion and rangeland fragmentation, among other factors, in many pastoral contexts. Among nomads’ coping strategies, is re-shaping mobility in shrinking grazing grounds. Through semi-structured interviews, we examine adaptation and resilience to the effects of increasingly intensive land use and marginalization focusing on Alpine nomadic pastoralists in Piedmont, Northwest Italy. Our results show that Alpine nomads access a wide variety of grazing grounds through a web of social relations with multiple stakeholders, acting in the interstices of mainstream society and navigating marginal contexts: geographically, they use fallow, abandoned, and post-harvest plots; economically and socially, they interact with other marginal groups (e.g., migrants) and are stigmatized by diverse sectors of society. This use of interstitial spaces is in itself a form of adaptation that is taking place in diverse geographical contexts as nomads reconfigure their mobility and social relations to access the scattered pieces of land left unused by industrial, agricultural, and conservation land uses.

A mobile group of stockbreeders who in the 4th millennium BC inhabited the steppes of northern Caspian Sea was apparently forced to undertake far-distance migrations in search of better pastures by the environmental crises of the 2nd millennium BC. These migrations had tremendously significant historical implications and brought about several innovations. With the expansion of nomadic pastoralism, new form of human-animal interaction in virtue of particular physical and behavioral characteristics and capabilities of livestock was developed and began to lay the basis for economic, social and class systems as well as art style of the respective communities. Given the nomadic character of their life, there still remain several questions about the culture of the Eurasian nomadic warrior groups, and the present work, building on case studies, attempts to examine the impacts of the environment and fauna diversity on and the role of animals in the subsistence system and the art as well as the social systems and classes of these groups.

We study how Russian colonization of the Kazakh steppes in the late 19th century influenced the evolution of traditional institutions of Kazakhs. Using a rich dataset constructed from Russian colonial expedition materials, we find that during the transition from nomadic pastoralism to a semi-sedentary pastoralist-agricultural system, Kazakhs’ traditional communes shrank, property rights on land became more individualized, and households became less likely to pool labor for farming. We argue that two main forces behind this evolution were increasing land pressure and technological change. The speed and the magnitude of these adjustments were much larger than usually assumed in most of development economics literature on traditional institutions.

Summary To improve estimates of C. burnetii epidemiology in Kenya, a survey was undertaken in small ruminants in Baringo County, where acute cases of Q fever in humans had been reported in 2014. From 140 household herds selected, 508 (60.5%) goats and 332 (39.5%) sheep were included and an indirect ELISA assay for C. burnetii IgG antibodies performed. In addition, epidemiological information at both herd and animal level was collected. Generalized mixed-effects multivariable logistic model using herd as the random effect was used to determine variables correlated to the outcome. Overall seroprevalence was 20.5% (95% CI: 17.8%, 23.3%). Goats had 26.0% (95% CI: 22.2%, 30.0%) compared to sheep 12.2% (95% CI: 8.7%, 16.0%). Nomadic pastoralism, goats and older animals (>1 year) were associated with greater risk of C. burnetii seropositivity (P = ≤0.05). Heterogeneity in C. burnetii seropositivity was observed across the sublocations (P = 0.028). Evidence of C. burnetii exposure in small ruminants revealed poses a potential risk of exposure to the people living in close proximity to the animals. We recommended integrated animal–human surveillance and socio-economic studies for C. burnetii, to aid our understanding of the risk of transmission between the animals and humans, and in the design of prevention and control strategies for the disease in the region.

Bones of domestic sheep dated to the early first millennium AD are described from the Dâures massif in the Namib Desert. The remains confirm earlier investigations which inferred the acquisition of livestock from indirect evidence in the rock art, suggesting a fundamental shift in ritual practice at this time. Dating of the sheep remains is in broad agreement with the dating of other finds in the same area and in southern Africa as a whole. The presence of suspected sheep bone artefacts, possibly used for ritual purposes, draws attention to the importance of livestock as more than a component of diet in the changing economy of hunter-gatherer society.

This chapter addresses the problem of subsistence change from nomadic pastoralism to sedentary agriculture as a consequence of drought and its subsequent effects on the social, economic, and political structures of Somali populations living in northeastern Kenya. The severe drought affecting the Sahelian region of Africa during the past decade has revealed the vulnerability of pastoralists to extreme ecological pressure and has made evident the lack of scientific understanding of human adaptation to marginal environments. The drought occurring in northern Kenya is an eastern extension of the phenomenon experienced by several million Sahelians in the early 1970s. The severe drought and accompanying loss of livestock were particularly onerous owing to the scarcity of economic alternatives that could absorb famine refugees. In reviewing Somali settlement in Kenya one must note that, although the new settlers were refugees from famine, they were not geographically displaced.

Nomadic pastoralism and transhumance are ancient human adaptations to the movements of large herbivores, which themselves migrate to follow favorable environmental conditions. Free-ranging livestock production has been criticized as less water efficient than factory farming and crop production. This fails to take into account both the additional ecosystem services made possible by rainfall over rangelands, and the ability of free-ranging animals to track water availability across environmental gradients. By analogy to transhumance, we propose a model of "transhumant rewilding," or species reintroduction with managed herding of wild ungulates for the ecological restoration and sustainability of food production in (silvo)pastoral systems. We consider preliminary evidence for the feasibility of this model with a case study from central Chile in which guanacos (Lama guanicoe) could be used to help restore a silvopastoral savanna ("espinal") via browsing and endozoochory. First, we present preliminary data on guanaco foraging in espinal. Second, we use a GIS analysis to identify least-cost paths between areas of high and low espinal condition in central Chile and assess the feasibility of using them as migratory pathways. Finally, we consider the relative ecosystem service advantages and costs of the transhumant rewilding scenario compared to other restoration and agricultural development scenarios for central Chile. We conclude that transhumant rewilding has the potential to be a useful model for rewilding-inspired land management in cultural landscapes and can contribute to food security and sustainable agricultural production.

This article investigates how, with increasing land pressure during Russian settlement in Kazakh steppes in the late nineteenth century, clan institutions affected the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled agriculture. Using a novel dataset constructed from Russian colonial expedition materials matched with clan genealogies, we find that, controlling for geographic factors, clan identity strongly influenced the duration of transhumance period, the organization of production, and the acquisition of new agricultural tools. Information transmission within clans, external economies of scale in nomadic pastoralism, and clan-specific values and norms underlie the results.

Agrarian societies reduced risk during pan-Asian cooling events by investing in pastoralism and developing long-distance trade., Ancient farmers experienced climate change at the local level through variations in the yields of their staple crops. However, archaeologists have had difficulty in determining where, when, and how changes in climate affected ancient farmers. We model how several key transitions in temperature affected the productivity of six grain crops across Eurasia. Cooling events between 3750 and 3000 cal. BP lead humans in parts of the Tibetan Plateau and in Central Asia to diversify their crops. A second event at 2000 cal. BP leads farmers in central China to also diversify their cropping systems and to develop systems that allowed transport of grains from southern to northern China. In other areas where crop returns fared even worse, humans reduced their risk by increasing investment in nomadic pastoralism and developing long-distance networks of trade. By translating changes in climatic variables into factors that mattered to ancient farmers, we situate the adaptive strategies they developed to deal with variance in crop returns in the context of environmental and climatic changes.

This introduction brings together literature on pastoralism and socio-environmental change and examines these in the context of eastern Tibet. The literature on pastoralism presents it mainly as a mode of production and a way of life. Eschewing any presentation of pastoralism as an ideal-type that exists in “pure” form, or that is defined in opposition to agriculture, the portrayal in this book emphasizes how pastoralists have to interact with others, including agriculturalists and traders in order to maintain their ecological niche; how mobility is environmentally determined as well as a choice; and how nomadic pastoralism is not a static system but rather a dynamic strategy appropriate to the environmental and political contexts in which it is practiced. The selected literature on socio-environmental change highlights a theory of change that presents the concept, first, as unhinged from a foundation of substance and fixity, and second, as sufficiently complex to be articulated as orders and kinds of change. This literature draws mainly from Bateson’s (A sacred unity: further steps to an ecology of mind, New York, pp. 283–289, 1991) thinking on orders of change, but also from Dwyer and Minnegal (The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16(3), 626–645, 2010; Minnegal and Dwyer, Ethnology, 38(1), 59–80, 1999) in their theorization of social change as analytically divided between kinds of change: namely, products and processes. Together, a framework of change is offered that is appropriate to the complexity and dynamism of pastoral systems in eastern Tibet.

This study develops a methodology to identify hot spots of critical forage supply in nomadic pastoralist areas, using the Afar Region, Ethiopia, as a special case. It addresses two main problems. First, it makes a spatially explicit assessment of fodder supply and demand extracted from a data poor environment. Fodder supply is assessed by combining rainfall-based production functions and rule-based assessment for prevailing land use. Fodder demand is based on a data consistency check of livestock statistics concerning herd size, composition and geographical distribution. Second, individual herd movements have to be evaluated jointly in concurrent migration patterns to assess local pressures on fodder resources. We, therefore, apply a transition model that relates stock levels to seasonal migration routings for all Afar sub-clans jointly so as to localize the hot spots where feed demand exceeds forage supply. Critical areas come to the fore, especially, near fringes of Highlands and in the southern part of the Afar. A sensitivity test shows that ‘Baseline’ scenario is close to the ‘Best’ but under ‘Worst’, the Afar region would fall into despair. We conclude that the model is a useful tool to inform policy makers on critical areas in the Afar region. View Full-Text

Understanding the causes and consequences of land use and land cover change in drylands is crucial for global sustainability. Inner Mongolia consists of arid and semiarid ecosystems of global importance. Our main goal was twofold: to review the patterns and drivers of land use and land cover change in Inner Mongolia, and to discuss ecological impacts and strategies for promoting landscape and regional sustainability. We took an interdisciplinary and retrospective approach, based on historical records and remote sensing data. Inner Mongolia has evolved from an ocean to a forested region and then to a dryland area in the past millions of years. As a cradle of Chinese civilization, Inner Mongolia has experienced a series of land transitions from localized primitive agriculture that occurred in prehistoric times to broad-scale nomadic pastoralism that lasted for a few 1000 years, and to sedentary pastoralism with increasing agriculture and urbanization since the 1960s. The general land use pattern has long been shaped by the interactions between nomadic pastoralism and agrarian culture. The major drivers of land use and land cover change include: climate, demography, socioeconomic structures, institutional changes, and technological innovations. The landscapes of Inner Mongolia have evolved historically through several phases, and the profound and unsustainable landscape transformations during the past 50 years have been driven primarily by land use policies. Strategies based on landscape sustainability science are needed to curb ecosystem degradation and promote sustainability in the region.

The purpose of the present study is a comparative analysis of the characteristics of traditional rural constructions constituted by temporary settlements for animal corrals, employed for vertical transhumance or nomadic pastoralism, spread over the mountain regions of three different Countries of the Adriatic-Ionian area, i.e., Greece, Italy and Montenegro. The main methods applied in this research were the detection and typological survey of some examples of these rural constructions located in Southern Italy, whose typical dimensions, building material and constructive technologies were detected and analysed. Major findings of the research have been the identification of some similarities connecting architecture and building material of these constructions, which revealed common technologies applied by people from different countries that, despite different socio-economical and cultural traditions, have employed similar techniques, implementing simple but very effective constructive building principles. Main conclusions are connected to the possible restoration of these constructions that, designed over the centuries in order to fulfil their primary agricultural role, now constitute a widespread cultural heritage with a significant architectural value, influencing the agricultural environment and the visual perception of its landscape that, within the current re-discover of the agricultural heritage, may play a central role, even though new activities related to rural tourism.

BACKGROUND A prolonged hepatitis E outbreak occurred between 2009 and 2012 among a semi-nomadic pastoralist population in the Karamoja region of Uganda. As data on the public health problems of nomadic pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa is limited, we sought to characterize the epidemiology and challenges to control of hepatitis E in such a setting. METHODS A retrospective case-series investigation was undertaken. Surveillance line-lists of suspected hepatitis E cases maintained during the outbreak were analyzed. Standardized interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with key informants involved in outbreak control activities. RESULTS Between August 2009 and September 2012, 987 hepatitis E cases with individual case-based data were identified. Of 22 total deaths, almost half occurred during the first 4 months of the outbreak. Infection attack rates were higher among males and young adults. The average time between onset of jaundice and presentation was approximately 1 week. Challenges to control were related to persistent consumption of untreated water, poor sanitation infrastructure, remote geography, nomadic movement and civil insecurity. CONCLUSIONS The hepatitis E outbreak in Karamoja highlights the emergence of sanitation and hygiene-related disease among semi-nomadic pastoralist populations. Improving sanitation and safe water access and extending health education programs to remote pastoralist communities is crucial to prevent such diseases from becoming endemic.

Transhumance is a typical form of subsistence in the livestock industry that involves the climatic difference between lowlands and highlands. There are several types of transhumance but its most important factor is the natural difference in climate and vegetation between lowlands and mountain regions. In this paper, we will discuss the connection between mountains and human activities through transhumance (kuch in Kyrgyz), the use of natural resources, and age-based livestock naming differences in the Alai Valley, located in the northern part of the Pamir in Central Asia. In 1920, the region called Kyrgyz was integrated into the Soviet Union. Before the Soviet era, Kyrgyz people had maintained a purely nomadic lifestyle, travelling from one pasture to another in groups. The integration into the Soviet regime caused a rapid transformation in this region from nomadic pastoralism to livestock farming. The transition period that Central Asia went through after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union diverged greatly from the initial optimism that surrounded it. Livestock farming became a matter of individual enterprise, or fermer. Today, the eastern part of the Alai valley is characterized by two types of transhumance: horizontal and ascending. In contrast with the conditions of the Soviet era, the region is now independent, so pastoralists will unavoidable need to gain autonomy in the new market economy.

In India, grazing-based livestock husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy as around 50% of animals depend on grazing. Pasturelands over an area of 12 Mha constitute the main grazing resources that are available. Temperate/alpine pastures are spread across elevations higher than 2000 m in the Eastern and Western Himalayas including the Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim states. Nearly 30 pastoral communities in hilly or arid/semi-arid regions in northern and western parts of India, as well as 20 in temperate/hilly regions, depend on grazing-based livestock production. Due to overgrazing coupled with poor management and care, these grazing lands have deteriorated to a large extent and need amelioration or rehabilitation. Appropriate technologies have been developed, refined and tested in various research and academic institutions. These technologies need to be implemented on a large scale in different parts of the country for augmenting forage resources, enhancing livestock production and sustaining livelihood options in an eco-friendly manner.

The socioeconomics and the ecological impact of nomadic pastoralism were analyzed using interviews with 87 herder families and secondary information in the western Khangai, Mongolia. The pastoralists had an income above the national average for rural areas in Mongolia. Most herders continued traditional seasonal migration patterns, which involved ca. 10 moves per year over a total distance of ca. 100 km between summer and winter grazing grounds. As elsewhere in Mongolia, the number of goats owned by herders has greatly increased and cashmere has become the main source of cash income. Total livestock numbers rose considerably after decollectivization of the livestock sector in 1992, but in recent years have periodically been reduced by harsh winters, often combined with drought. Due to the high economic risk of these periodic livestock losses, many herders invest in better education for their children to enable them to migrate to the cities.

The Altay Steppes are part of the vast Eurasian grasslands where nomadic peoples have lived for thousands of years. Mobile pastoral production is still practised in these steppes. In recent years, however, dramatic changes have occurred in the rangeland society and production system. These have mainly resulted from modernization policies at both state and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region level. Mobile pastoral production is shrinking and herders are switching between subsistence farming and other livelihood alternatives, at times managing to follow specialized livestock production strategies involving seasonal livestock migrations along transhumance routes. This paper uses original ethnographic data in the form of two case studies to describe this flux in a southern Altay Steppe community. Its Kazakh and Altay Uranghay Mongol herders alternate between sedentary subsistence farming and nomadic pastoralism. The paper looks first at the ways people negotiate these swings between different lifestyles and livelihood options. Second, it considers the environmental changes that result from this uncertainty, and particularly the changing patterns of grassland management in the area. Special attention is given to discussion of the complex impact of the national and regional development strategies and of the ways in which those strategies affect the economic and cultural responses of the local community. Study findings suggest a correlation between cultural fragmentation, which undermines grassland management institutions, and grassland fragmentation and pasture degradation. Keywords: nomadism, sedentarism, grassland, Altay Steppes, Xinjiang Introduction Xinjiang has historically been home to numerous Asian nomadic ethnic groups. The Saka, Huns, Rouran, Dingling, Turks, Uyghurs and later Mongols lived in its grasslands. In modern times, nomadic groups such as the Kazakh, Mongols, Kirghiz, Tajik and a small number of Uyghurs have continued to practise nomadic pastoralism in the region. As a result nomadic society's economy and culture remain an important part of the social fabric in contemporary Xinjiang. From the 1950s to the early 1980s, nomadic pastoralism remained the major form of subsistence for these various ethnic groups. During the People's Commune period (1958-1984), the pastures were collectively owned within the commune. Nomads were organized into Production Brigades under a commune and tended collectively owned herds on a family basis in exchange for daily necessities. During those years nomads would drive their herds from the winter camp (or 'winter home' located in a valley or basin) to the spring pastures for lambing. When the lambing was completed they would move to the hill pastures and then onto the alpine summer pasture. After spending two or three months on these high mountain pastures, they would return down the same route to the autumn pastures before first snowfall. In many areas the spring and autumn pastures were the same grassland. Herders would sell marketable animals in the autumn pasture and then travel to their winter pasture in late October or early November. Here they over-wintered for five months before departing again in mid-March of the following spring. This yearly cycle has been maintained since ancient times. The nomads' herds normally consisted of five species: sheep, goats, horses, cattle and camels. Sheep/goats and cattle were the most important sources of income and food (e.g. dairy products, which are indispensable to the nomadic diet). The horses were for riding, and the camels provided the main means for transporting yurts and other belongings. However, the Kazakh and Kirghiz considered horsemeat a choice food and so would slaughter one or two horses and dry their meat for food. Conversely, Mongols and Tajik seldom slaughtered or ate horses. All the nomadic peoples consumed horse and camel milk, and regarded it as a great delicacy (XAHG 2004). …

We have analyzed Y-chromosomal variation in populations from Transoxiana, a historical region covering the southwestern part of Central Asia. We studied 780 samples from 10 regional populations of Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Dungans, and Karakalpaks using 35 SNP and 17 STR markers. Analysis of haplogroup frequencies using multidimensional scaling and principal component plots, supported by an analysis of molecular variance, showed that the geographic landscape of Transoxiana, despite its distinctiveness and diversity (deserts, fertile river basins, foothills and plains) had no strong influence on the genetic landscape. The main factor structuring the gene pool was the mode of subsistence: settled agriculture or nomadic pastoralism. Investigation of STR-based clusters of haplotypes and their ages revealed that cultural and demic expansions of Transoxiana were not closely connected with each other. The Arab cultural expansion introduced Islam to the region but did not leave a significant mark on the pool of paternal lineages. The Mongol expansion, in contrast, had enormous demic success, but did not impact cultural elements like language and religion. The genealogy of Muslim missionaries within the settled agricultural communities of Transoxiana was based on spiritual succession passed from teacher to disciple. However, among Transoxianan nomads, spiritual and biological succession became merged.

This chapter provides an overview of global pastoralism, including the definition, forms, structures, origin, development, distribution, value, and future of pastoralism. Pastoralism can be defined as mobile livestock herding in the dimension of either production or livelihood. Nomadic and transhumant rearing of domesticated animals are generally two essential forms of pastoralism, with pastoral farming/enclosed ranching as the third form of pastoralism in the broad meaning. A clan is generally the basis of pastoral organization, which is responsible for the control of the optimum territory and management of the livestock species herded in every corner of the world. Most of the burden of pastoral activities is borne by women, and empowering women remains a challenge in most of the pastoral regions across the world. Although the emergence of pastoralism was a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, primitive hunting has been commonly accepted as the primary source. The origin of pastoralism can be dated to 6000 B.P. in the Andes of South America, and even as early as 9000 B.P. in Northeast Africa. A multiple-center origination is more probable than a single-center origination for explaining the spread of pastoralism worldwide. Currently, extensive pastoralism occurs on about 25 % of Earth’s land area, mostly in the developing world, from the drylands of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the highlands of Asia and Latin America. Globally, pastoralism is critically important in supporting huge human populations, providing tremendous ecological services, maintaining long-standing civilizations, and making significant contributions to subsistence economy in some of the world’s poorest regions. However, the practices of pastoralism have been overwhelmed by agricultural expansion, industrial development, and sedentary livestock farming in recent decades. Pastoral societies across the world will have more unpleasant fates with the stress of global change in the future.

The Zhunge’er (Junggar) Basin in northern Xinjiang was a key crossroads in antiquity for the dispersal of ideas and technological innovations from the Eurasian steppe into the heartland of central ...

In equilibrium environments where rainfall is relatively stable, grazing animal–vegetation dynamics are density-dependent; it is therefore appropriate to calculate carrying capacities and use them to define sustainable animal populations. In contrast, nonequilibrium environments are characterized by fluctuations in characteristics such as rainfall, resulting in fluctuations in plant biomass and in the corresponding carrying capacity. Herders adapt to such environments by moving opportunistically to pastures with better conditions. Studies since the 1990s have significantly improved our understanding of the continuity and integration of equilibrium and nonequilibrium systems. However, it remains unclear how and where such continuous, integrated rangeland systems result in qualitatively different land use patterns by local herders along a climatic gradient. Here, we developed a simple model that uses key environmental factors to predict a threshold representing the boundary between equilibrium and nonequilibrium land use systems, and we used an area of Mongolian rangeland as an example. We found a threshold in the proportion of usable pasture that corresponded to a specific range of rainfall values. Comparison of our results with previous ones supported our hypothesis about this threshold. The threshold behavior suggested that it is important to identify and monitor the boundary between equilibrium and nonequilibrium land use systems so that managers can respond to climatic change. National governments and aid agencies must understand the threshold process before they can identify focal areas where management regime change is required and propose appropriate policies that will support herders in the long term. Our study provides a simple, low-cost tool to evaluate ecosystems in this context.

The Somali economy is the only one in the world in which more than half the population is dependent on nomadic pastoralism. Trade typically involves drovers trekking animals over long distances to markets. A pilot approach for mapping trade routes was undertaken, using the Afmadow to Garissa routes in southern Somalia. The methodology included conducting a workshop with traders to gather preliminary information about the most-used routes and general husbandry practices and training selected drovers to collect data about key features along the routes, using hand-held global positioning system (GPS) devices, radio collar GPS and pictorial data forms. Collected data were then integrated into geographic information systems for analysis. The resultant spatial maps describe the Afmadow to Garissa routes, the speed of livestock movement along these routes and relevant environmental and social features affecting this speed. These data are useful for identifying critical control points for health screening along the routes, which may enable the establishment of a livestock certification system in nomadic pastoral environments.

In comparison with their impacts elsewhere, humans have trodden relatively lightly on Mongolia's ecosystems and there is an opportunity to conserve globally threatened wild species and maintain natural ecological processes in parallel with modern economic development, but only if co-ordinated action is taken soon. Mongolia has a low population density (ca 1.68 per km2) and the pastoral lifestyle is suited to the landscape. Yet humans have degraded grasslands, damaged forests, depleted wildlife populations and polluted and overused water. Rapid social and political changes have resulted in far-reaching impacts on Mongolia's fragile ecosystems. The country is a major recipient of both foreign aid and foreign direct investment, and it is important to guide economic development with the best ecological judgment available before permanent damage is done. Government has a responsibility to establish a legal, policy and fiscal framework that provides incentives for sustainable use of the land compatible with the...

The present article characterizes the local model of nature management by the Buryat people inhabiting the eastern foothills of the Sayan Mountains. The author describes traditional types of nomadic pastoralism, their transformation at forest-steppe, piedmont, and high-mountain areas with an integrated economy. Various forms of animal husbandry practised by the Eastern Sayan Buryats are distinguished. The differences are determined by natural landscape environment peculiarities, pasture sizes, livestock quantity and breeds, as well as farming development level. The culture of the Eastern Sayan Buryats preserved its animal husbandry orientation in the course of structural and character changes of their day-to-day operating activities and operating cycles.

Participatory rural appraisal techniques and a survey of 100 households were used to evaluate livestock production, and pastoral development of the Maasai in Mara. It was observed that patterns of land-use have principally changed from nomadic pastoralism to sedentary pastoralism, agropastoralism, and, in some cases, pure cultivation. These trends have adversely affected livestock production and the productive capacity of the Mara ecosystem. Diminishing grazing area occasioned by expanding cropping patterns has negatively impacted on vegetation resources and the biodiversity of the ecosystem. It has also increased the intensity of conflict over diminishing land resources. Because the production system is largely subsistence with a strong livestock base, it is further undermined by, among other factors, animal diseases, water scarcity, land individualisation, poor marketing infrastructure, and livestock/wildlife conflicts. Based on the findings of the present study, development approaches need to emphasise integrated livestock and wildlife utilisation, land tenure reforms that embody livestock mobility as a key strategy of optimising the use of transient forage resources, disease control, and development of livestock marketing.

Once the epitome of a perceived 'resistance to change' among East African pastoralists, Pokot pastoralism has changed rapidly and profoundly in recent years. In less than two decades, the pastoral economy of the eastern Pokot, which constitutes the focus of this contribution, transformed from specialized, highly mobile and subsistence-oriented cattle herding to largely sedentary and market-oriented keeping of small stock. The transformation process is embedded in a general trend towards economic diversification, sedentarization and social stratification. The article approaches the transformation of East Pokot pastoralism from a diachronic perspective and makes use of longitudinal data sets collected during several periods of long-term and short-term research between 1987 and 2005. Keywords: Kenya, Pokot, pastoralism, transformation, diversification Introduction Towards the end of the colonial period, when change in African societies had already become a common topic among anthropologists, the pastoralists of East Africa were still depicted as rather timeless, well-balanced social systems, committed to tradition and cultural continuity and averse to almost any kind of innovation or change. The Pokot of northwestern Kenya had even become the epitome of this perceived attitude, which Schneider (1959) adequately termed 'pastoral resistance to change'. The tide turned at the end of the 1970s following postcolonial transformations, ecological crises and famine. Pastoral economies, which only some few years previously had been described as long-lasting cultural adaptations to their natural environments, were now considered to be vulnerable, ecologically risky and non-sustainable. This resulted in a proper crisis discourse fuelled by postcolonial development agendas; the final decline of pastoralism seemed to be merely a matter of time, particularly with regard to the dynamics of accelerating globalization towards the turn of the millennium. Research findings from a recent period of long-term anthropological research (October 2003 to August 2005) with the pastoral Pokot of East Pokot District, Kenya, question the predicted decline of pastoralism. The findings show on the contrary that pastoralists are very well able to adjust swiftly and successfully to altered basic parameters, and to transform both composition and management of herds according to new requirements. The inclusion of data from several periods of long-term and short-term research carried out by Michael Bollig between 1987 and 1996 allow me to describe the transformation of East Pokot pastoralism from a diachronic perspective, spanning almost two decades of socioeconomic dynamics. In this contribution I will focus on two particularly important trends: (1) the rise of the goat, i.e., the shift from cattle-centred nomadic pastoralism to the largely sedentary keeping of small stock; and (2) the adoption of farming as a key element in the overall process of economic diversification. Map 1 shows the area under study. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Rise of the Goat While the human population has grown rapidly in the past decades, the size of the cattle herd could not increase in a comparable manner, because the Pokot savannah does not allow for a considerable expansion of cattle numbers under the given social and ecological circumstances (e.g., limited pastures, frequent droughts, armed conflicts). Consequently the person/cattle ratio dropped from 1:14 in the first decades of the twentieth century to at best 1:2 in recent years. In fact, the size of the cattle population has been oscillating around 100,000 animals since the 1930s (Figure 1). In 1988 livestock numbers had not yet fully recovered from the severe droughts of the early 1980s that diminished both cattle and small stock populations. In the past two decades, though, the cattle herd returned to its usual size of about 100,000 animals, while the number of small stock increased more than fivefold to a projected all-time high of almost 700,000 goats and sheep (Figure 1). …

Chinese officials and scholars ascribe land degradation to previous governmental regimes and local land users, particularly ethnic pastoralists, which are always criticised as ignorant, irrational, backward and uncooperative. The ethnic pastoralists are the clear losers in the desertification discourse in China, who have always been damaged by central planning, land use policy and government ideas on rangeland. There is no reliable objective data found to believe that the Grain-first campaign and land reclamation have greatly led to land degradation in China. There is skepticism about the Chinese government's recent enclosure policy on rangeland, which is thought to be effective in preventing land degradation by transforming nomadic pastoralism into sedentary livestock farming.

Should pastoralists in dryland Africa diversify or specialize in their productive activities? To investigate this question, we analyze data from a consumption survey and two surveys of the nutritional status of children in addition to qualitative interviews comparing nomadic and sedentary population groups in the Gourma area in northern Mali. We show how the children of pastoralists seem to be better nourished than children of sedentary farmers and that the children of the sedentarized nomads seem to be the worst off. Based on these findings, we first argue that sedentary farming appears to be a poorer adaptation than nomadic pastoralism in arid environments such as the northern Sahel. Secondly, we argue that the diversification argument (better to stand on two legs than one) is flawed for mobile pastoralists in the northern Sahel because the logistical and organizational costs of combining different modes of livelihood are large and easily become insurmountable for a single household.

The transition from a hunting/gathering economy to an agricultural economy, beginning about 10,000 years ago, was accompanied by the development of specialised innovations including nomadic pastoralism. It was also associated with the emergence of increasingly sedentary human societies in which relatively large numbers of people lived in a crowded urban environment. The dynamic relationship between agriculture and urbanisation undoubtedly had a profound effect on evolutionary dynamics in developing complex human societies. By the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (EB IA, ca. 3300 BCE) an agricultural economy was well established in the region surrounding Bâb edh-Dhrâ, located in the southeastern plain adjacent to the Dead Sea in Jordan. However, the site apparently did not begin to develop as an urban centre until EB IB. The objective of this paper is to explore what is known about the EB IA people of Bâb edh-Dhrâ. The presence of infectious and metabolic diseases coupled with high infant mortality and low life-expectancy at birth suggest a society at risk. Nevertheless the people were robust and give evidence of at least a moderately successful adaptation to the environment in which they lived. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In dryland ecosystems, mobility is essential for both wildlife and people to access unpredictable and spatially heterogeneous resources, particularly in the face of climate change. Fences can prevent connectivity vital for this mobility. There are recent calls for large-scale barrier fencing interventions to address human-wildlife conflict and illegal resource extraction. Fencing has costs and benefits to people and wildlife. However, the evidence available for facilitating sound decision-making for fencing initiatives is limited, particularly for drylands. We identify six research areas that are key to informing evaluations of fencing initiatives: economics, edge permeability, reserve design, connectivity, ecosystem services and communities. Policy implications. Implementing this research agenda to evaluate fencing interventions in dryland ecosystems will enable better management and policy decisions. The United Nations Conventions on Migratory Species (CMS) and to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) are appropriate international agreements for moving this agenda forward and leading the development of policies and guidelines on fencing in drylands. Implementing this research agenda to evaluate fencing interventions in dryland ecosystems will enable better management and policy decisions. The United Nations Conventions on Migratory Species (CMS) and to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) are appropriate international agreements for moving this agenda forward and leading the development of policies and guidelines on fencing in drylands.

A growing body of evidence shows that for nomadic pastoralists herd accumulation is an efficient strategy for buffering environmental variation and maximizes long-term survival. Pastoralists may thus view livestock as investments, or ‘banks on the hoof,’ that work as insurance against unpredictable environmental conditions. This perspective differs from strict market logic where producers are expected to follow the ‘law of supply,’ i.e., that when the price of a product rises suppliers should be willing to offer more of the product for sale. In terms of insurance, increased meat prices may make it possible for pastoralists to slaughter fewer animals for the same financial gain as when prices are low and subsequently convert unslaughtered animals to herd capital. This study investigates to what degree Saami reindeer herders follow a market driven or risk management logic by investigating how slaughter strategies are influenced by increasing meat prices. While slaughter strategies vary regionally in Norway, our results indicate that reindeer herders follow neither risk nor market considerations alone, but rather a combination, and support the general hypothesis that slaughter strategies entail balancing the benefits of increasing herd size against economic gain through meat sales. This has important management implications since current management schemes aiming to reduce the number of reindeer by stimulating slaughter rates through economic subsidies is based on the assumption that herders are meat producers motivated by monetary gains alone.

Early Holocene foragers in North Africa provide unique responses to adaptational patterns of non-agricultural societies and they can offer intriguing answers to questions regarding relationships between sedentism, economy and sociocultural complexity. Three points are of major relevance for understanding late foragers in North Africa: first, fishing, sustained by reduced mobility, was a common practice at sites located along perennial rivers, such as the Nile, or seasonal watercourses (wadis); second, the successive shift to a food-producing economy implied the acquisition of nomadic pastoralism; third, agriculture has never been a feasible economic practice in desert and peri-desert environments. The practice of fishing and the scarcity of moist lands away from watercourses encouraged more permanent settlement of sites by the water, which offered nutritional resources to plants, animals, as well as humans. The combination of these economic adjustments and environmental conditions favoured social...

Despite the attention given to social relations in the pastoral literature, the role of livestock acquisitions—additions of livestock to herds through bridewealth, exchanges, gifts, payments, and begging (requests)—in herd build up has usually been assumed to be relatively minor compared to births and relevant mostly when the need for rebuilding arises after major losses. This study is based on an unusual set of data—the reproductive histories of the female cattle, camels, and goats and sheep of 13 Ngisonyoka Turkana nomadic herders in northwestern Kenya, collected in 1987. The article reports on the means by which mothers were added to the herd and how these changed through time. The results suggest that for this population in the late 1970s and 1980s, acquisitions were not merely relevant when disaster struck, but instead were a continuously important component of herd management. The results demonstrate the crucial role of social networks in the survival of Ngisonyoka pastoralists in their non-equilibrial ecosystem. Social exchanges, such as bridewealth, provide a resource security well suited to the challenges of coping with such unpredictable environments. Researchers and policymakers are urged to make efforts to support such indigenous networks if they want nomadic pastoralists to continue their effective use of arid, marginal lands.

The traditional livestock sector in Somalia is based on nomadic pastoralism where sheep, goats and camels are herded in large numbers. Data from 1609 females (27 % lactating) and 550 males (26 % exported) belonging to 40 pastoralists were analysed in this study. The expected amount of revenue the herders could lose per year in the studied area was estimated at US$404,630 being made up of US$314,630 from decreased milk yield and US$90,000 from reduced market value of exported animals. However, all the camels in Somaliland are at risk of acquiring surra infection, and therefore extrapolating the current findings to the total population could potentially lose US$223,164,000. This highlights the loss in the magnitude of US$164,253,600 from decreased milk yield and US$58,910,400 from body condition loss. Overall, the benefit in controlling Trypanosoma evansi infection in the study area was US$398,880 (n = 2159). On average, US$720 was saved per head per year from improved milk production in treated animals and US$615 from the increased value of exported camels. It is concluded that all three-treatment options evaluated were economically beneficial strategies; however, the biannual treatment of seropositive camels in the herds was the best financial option.

A civil war is being fought in Darfur in western Sudan that has resulted in a humanitarian disaster with large numbers of Sudanese refugees seeking a safe haven in neighbouring Chad. The conflict is largely ecological in origin and is based on competition for natural resources, including plant genetic resources. Western Sudan has relatively low rainfall and supports rainfed sedentary agriculture and nomadic pastoralism, and a range of domesticated plant species is grown under irrigation by seasonal watercourses. Nomadic pastoralist populations move their herds according to established routes of seasonally available range and pasture species. There has always been a delicate balance between the sedentary and nomadic ways of life that through careful use of water and plant genetic resources has maintained the ecology of the region in balance. Drought, deforestation, overpopulation and overgrazing have accelerated desert encroachment and have exerted huge pressures on the ecology of the region. Indigenous plant genetic resources, including many wild species used as famine foods, are the key to livelihoods in the region. The upsurge in violence has resulted in many farmers abandoning their farms and seed stocks. Social systems are disrupted and rehabilitation of agriculture will be very difficult. This article describes domesticated and wild plant genetic resources of southern Darfur and details their importance to livelihoods in the region.

This article discusses postcollective herding practices of Kyrgyzstan's seminomadic pastoralists illustrated by case studies of herders in the highland areas of eastern Kyrgyzstan in 2004. After independence in 1991, the privatisation of all livestock meant the burden of risk devolved onto individuals rather than networks, such as collectives or clan units, for the first time in the history of these pastoralists. The ongoing process of social reorganisation which followed livestock privatisation has resulted in a wide variety of coping strategies being employed by herders, including both short- and long-distance migration as partnerships, individual families, extended families or reorganised herding cooperatives. At the same time, reduced livestock numbers since independence have left vast areas of grazing lands vacant. In spite of the many dramatic changes of the last 150 years, migration patterns and cultural identity among Kyrgyz herders have persisted. Keywords: cultural identity, herding practices, Kyrgyzstan, migration, pastoralists, privatisation, risk Introduction Kyrgyzstan is 94 per cent mountainous with elevations ranging from 840 m in the capital Bishkek to over 7,000 m in both the Tian Shan and Pamir-Alai ranges, a geography that has greatly influenced the Kyrgyz system of seminomadic pastoralism (Schmidt 2001). A nation of horsemen, three events of the modern era were to dramatically affect the Kyrgyz people and eventually change their seminomadic, pastoral way of life forever. The first was the arrival of the Russian army in present day Bishkek, in 1860, soon to be followed by thousands of Russian and Ukrainian settlers. These European colonists appropriated large tracts of the most fertile lowland pastures, converting them to plough land, greatly reducing the amount of winter pasture available to the Kyrgyz while also disrupting their seasonal migration patterns and water access for their livestock (Popova 1994, Schillhom van Veen 1995, Wilson 1997). This event forced some small-herd owners to begin leading settled lives and by 1914 up to 22 per cent of the Kyrgyz population had settled (Popova 1994). The next major event to affect the indigenous system of nomadic pastoralism was the forced collectivisation under Stalin of all Kyrgyz pastoralists between about 1928 and 1932, after which time permanent settlements began to be built throughout the whole of Kyrgyzstan. Use of the yurt (Kyrgyz: boz ui), which was now seen as being backward, was greatly reduced, while mechanisation was introduced for production and transportation, greatly reducing the need for horses and camels for transport and haulage. The third event to dramatically affect Kyrgyzstan's seminomadic herders (Kyrgyz: chaban) was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resulting disbandment of the collectives. The subsequent economic crisis and ongoing process of 'de-development' have left large numbers of seminomadic herders operating as individual family units, rather than as part of a larger collective or clan unit, for the first time in their history. This article starts with an overview of precollective and collective-era herding practices of Kyrgyzstan's seminomadic pastoralists. This is followed by a discussion of the postcollective situation illustrated from field visits to herders in the highland areas of Kyrgyzstan's eastern Naryn and southern Issyk-Kul Provinces conducted in 2004. In the organisational vacuum left in the wake of independence, most former herding-collective members became individual livestock owners, although a small number of herding collectives were simply reorganised as independent, member-owned cooperatives. Both individual herders and cooperatives were found to be using widely varying operational strategies to cope with the new economic order. These included formation of herding or mixed herding and farming cooperatives; both short and long migration as individual family units, extended family units or partnerships; and management of family-owned herds or mixed herds of both family-owned livestock and the small livestock holdings of sedentary Kyrgyz. …

Food production originated in various ways in different parts of the world. Plant domestication with the adoption of agriculture has been successful in some areas, but not in others, where animal domestication with nomadic pastoralism proved to be more effective. Likewise, the preceding phases of pre-adaptation and development of a broad spectrum of wild resource exploitation followed different pathways, according to the locally available resources, climatic and geographic conditions, and social organizations. Northern Africa greatly contributed to the understanding of the origin of food production under preconditions that differed from those in the Fertile Crescent. Apart from a narrow strip along the Nile valley, northern African lands are arid and scarcely productive for agriculture. Nevertheless, early studies interpreted northern African archaeological records of the Early and Middle Holocene according to the traditional north-western Mediterranean and Near Eastern frames of reference. Consequently, terms such as “Epipalaeolithic,” “Mesolithic,” and “Neolithic” were uncritically applied to northern African contexts. This paper compares and discusses the evidence for food production in the Near East and northern Africa, considering the question of introduction or local breeds of domesticated animals in the Maghreb and the Sahara. It then reviews the relevant data for long-held diffusionist models of pastoralism into Africa to provide a different perspective and the proper means of interpretation of the northern African archaeological records. Finally, it examines some recent findings from the Tadrart Acacus, in the Libyan Sahara, which contribute to clarification of distinctive African pathways and propose an alternative model for the beginnings of food production.

Nomadic pastoralists live at the northern extent of human habitation within the ca. 5000 m elevation Aru basin, in the nortwestern part of the Chang Tang Nature Preserve, Tibet. These nomads herd primarily sheep and goats, a lesser number of yaks, and a few horses. Goats are increasing in importance because of the value of cashmere wool in national and international markets. Although sheep wool production is greater per animal than for the cashmere goats, the price obtained for its wool is much lower. Still, households keep more sheep than goats, primarily because sheep meat is preferred for consumption and sheep wool is important for the nomads' own use. The Aru nomads have traditionally depended on hunting to compensate for livestock lost to predators and unpredictable climatic phenomena such as blizzards. The prohibition of hunting in the reserve from 1993 has apparently resulted in a lowering of their standard of living, even with an overall rise in cashmere prices. According to the nomads, without hunting they have thus lost a safety measure important during years with heavy livestock losses. Conservation related development initiatives in the reserve should address this issue.

This paper explores the changes in early forms of pastoralism in the West Central Zagros Mountains from village-based herding in the Neolithic period to initial stages in the formation of full-fledged nomadic pastoralism by the Late Chalcolithic period. It has been argued that the initial development of pastoralism in the Central Zagros Mountains should be viewed as an adaptive strategy to a highland environment with limited and dispersed resources in order to supplement a primarily agricultural village-based economy. With expansion of the agricultural regime, the distance to be traveled to pastures by herders became greater, and as a consequence, the organization of labor involved in herding had to be modified to meet the more complex task of moving sizable herds over larger areas. The empirical evidence for the assessment of hypotheses proposed in this paper comes from archaeological fieldwork in the Islamabad Plain in the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, as well as previous archaeological and ethnographic research in the region.

The rangelands of Kazakhstan were historically used for nomadic pastoralism, with long migrations to make best use of the seasonal availability of pasture. In Soviet times, livestock production was intensified. From the 1970s concerns were raised in the Soviet literature about rangeland degradation, but very little was written about Kazakhstan's rangelands in the Western literature. Rangeland science in the Soviet system uses rather different methodologies to those in the West; this needs to be taken into account when comparing the two literatures. Here we use literature reviews, fieldwork and modelling to assess the likelihood that Kazakhstan's rangelands were overgrazed in Soviet times. We conclude that the extent of degradation of the pastures in our case study areas was probably lower than suggested in the literature, but that seasonal stock movement was essential to avoid degradation. Since independence, stock numbers have collapsed and stock movements are now limited. Recent field assessments suggest that the rangelands are in good condition. Kazakhstan's rangelands present a rare opportunity for the study of rangeland dynamics under dramatically changing stock numbers.

Errors and misconceptions abound about nomadic behavior in Mongolia. Mongolians organize the use of space in their own unique way. Their approach to herding is different from that of nomads or pastoralists in Europe or the United States. D. Barzagur, Chairman of Mongolia's Center of Nomadic Pastoralism Study, provides the facts, and discusses the contrasts among ancient herding traditions, the Socialist/Communist period, and the present transition to free-market conditions. Unfortunately, much knowledge and many older traditions are being lost during this process of change.