Pastoralism

Pastoralism, term used to describe an economy based predominantly on the herding of animals such as cattle, goats, sheep, and camels. Pastoral societies are mainly found in central and south-west Asia (such as the Basseri of southern Iran), East Africa (such as the Maasai and the Karimojong), and as far north as the Arctic Circle, where the Saami herd reindeer.

Pastoralism is particularly well adapted to life in harsh environments such as arid grasslands, or semi-deserts. In these areas the soil is often too poor to sustain an agricultural economy, but the vegetation can be used for animal husbandry. The herds produce dairy foods, blood (let from the living animals), meat, wool and hides, and dung, used for fuel.

Pastoralists are often nomadic, as their movements are dictated to a great extent by the needs of their animals. Seasonal migration (transhumance) is also common, as groups move according to seasonal variance in pastures. The Basseri move to the highlands in summer, and the lowlands in winter. Like other nomadic peoples, pastoralists tend to place less emphasis on material goods than sedentary societies do, and hence their technology is often more limited, although their culture is often rich with myth and ritual.

Pastoralists have often been considered to be particularly resistant to change, almost as if they are left over from a past era and have somehow missed the supposed evolution towards agriculture. However, most pastoral societies are remarkably versatile and the majority have mixed economies, employing partial sedentarism, or agriculture, and trading, or even settling, with their sedentary neighbours when necessary.

Pastoral societies usually consist of hierarchical chiefdoms, with a male elder as the head of each household, and descent traced through the male line. Their basic social and economic unit is usually the immediate family. Because of the variable nature of pastoralism, the larger group often disperses into these smaller units when food is scarce, or at times of migration. During fertile periods large numbers congregate together.

Livestock is given great spiritual and social significance by pastoralists; it provides wealth and social status, so livestock often plays a large part in the ritual content of their religion, and the ideological content of their culture as a whole. The American anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits wrote of the “cattle complex” of east African pastoralists, referring to their intense values relating to cattle.

Since Western colonialism began there have been many attempts by governments to settle pastoral people into an agricultural economy, often considered to be more “civilized” than pastoralism. Such projects have frequently failed, partly because pastoralism is often the only possible way of life in certain environments, and partly because in societies where livestock plays such a great cultural role, the animals cannot simply be removed without their loss being felt in other areas of life. It has been suggested that for pastoral people, controlled penetration into the livestock industry, in which they already have specialist knowledge, may be a more viable option than agriculture.