Mobile Pastoralist Communities Research Articles

Local circulation of elites punctuated by transregional mobility enabled steppe political consolidation in the Xiongnu nomadic state.

The Xiongnu polity (ca. 200 BC- 150 AD) emerged out of indigenous community-centered socio-political structures to forge a powerful state that commanded the Mongolian steppe and beyond. Underpinned by a highly mobile pastoralist population, accustomed to seasonally rhythmic moves and embedded in an equestrian culture that facilitated rapid transport over long-distances, it remains unclear precisely how the movement of commoners, local aristocrats and regional elites abetted the formation and organization of Xiongnu state structures. Here, we evaluate Xiongnu movement and dietary intake through multi-stable isotopic analyses of tooth enamel from directly dated Xiongnu intermediate elites recovered from the mortuary center of Baga Gazaryn Chuluu-a prominent granite outcrop set in the Gobi Desert. Carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis indicates millet was consumed by some individuals, but whether or not this C4 cultivar contributed to the diets of most elites remains ambiguous in this C3/C4 desert-steppe environment. The effectiveness of oxygen isotopes (δ18O) to establish mobility appears much reduced in steppe environments, where geospatially sensitive information appears disrupted by extraordinary seasonality in meteoric water oxygen isotopes, pronounced oxygen isotopic variation in potential drinking water sources, and culturally mediated drinking practices. Most revealing, strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) indicate circulation of local elites around this central place and beyond, a mobility format that helped leaders cement their own position through political consolidation of spatially dispersed mobile pastoralist communities. The consistent presence at Baga Gazaryn Chuluu of extra-local intermediate elites also points toward the importance of transregional mobility in binding together the Xiongnu polity over the vast distances of the eastern steppe.

The doublespeak of ‘leave no one behind’: Implications for religious inequality in Hindu and Muslim pastoralist communities in India

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledged to ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB). This article suggests that LNOB can be a form of ‘doublespeak’, susceptible to being used to mask ideologies and policies that worsen social, political and religious divisions. Despite stated commitments to LNOB, both Agenda 2030 and the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of India adhere to narrow models of development that fail to address and exacerbate the growing problem of religious and other inequalities. This article argues for reclaiming LNOB’s radical potential by conceptualising it as an empty signifier that takes on meaning through the hegemonic struggle to articulate what ‘left behind’ means. It develops this argument through a case study of Hindu Nationalist developmental normativity and two mobile pastoralist communities in Gujarat: Hindu Rabaris and Sufi Muslim Fakirani Jats. The empirical data show that in Gujarat’s marketised neo-liberal land regime, mobile pastoralism as a livelihood is increasingly stressed and liable to be constructed as ‘left behind’. Simultaneously, the Hindu and Sufi religious practices that shaped pastoralists’ relationships with land and animals are being transformed and, framed by the BJP government’s promotion of a Hindu nationalist religious identity, are shifting towards adoption of communal Hindu and Muslim identities that exacerbate social and religious inequalities, with particular effects on women. The paper concludes that LNOB has potential to tackle religious and other inequalities and generate a more radical and democratic politics of development if the range of demands that are met by this ‘empty signifier’ is broadened to challenge the hegemonic representations that dominate, and religion’s centrality in this struggle is recognised.

Effects of a four-year health systems intervention on the use of maternal and infant health services: results from a programme evaluation in two districts of rural Chad

BackgroundAttendance of maternal and infant care services in rural Chad are consistently low. Our study aimed to assess the use of antenatal (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) services, health facility delivery and infant health services after 4 years of a health systems intervention for improving the infrastructure, supplies, training and sensitization for maternal and infant health in two districts of rural Chad.MethodsData from a repeated cross-sectional household survey conducted in Yao and Danamadji in 2015 and in 2018 were analyzed. A stratified two-stage cluster sampling methodology was applied to achieve a representative sample of the rural settled and mobile population groups in the study area. A generalized linear model was applied to determine the health care utilization rates. Multivariate regression models were used to assess the association between the programme intervention and utilization outcomes of selected maternal and infant health services.ResultsComplete datasets were available for 1284 households at baseline. The endline analysis included 1175 households with complete survey data. The use of at least one ANC amongst pregnant women increased in both settled communities (from 80% in 2015 to 90% in 2018) and amongst mobile pastoralist communities (from 48% in 2015 to 56% in 2018). The rate of home delivery among settled communities and mobile pastoralists changed little between baseline and endline and remained high for both population groups. Individuals that were covered by the health systems intervention were however significantly more likely to attend ANC and less likely to give birth at home. PNC services only showed improvements amongst the settled communities (of 30%). Infants’ reported health outcomes and vaccination coverage considerably improved; the latter especially among mobile pastoralist (from 15% in 2015 to 84% in 2018).ConclusionA combination of health systems strengthening interventions was associated with an increased use of certain maternal and infant health services. However, to facilitate equitable access to and use of health care services in particular in times of increased vulnerability and by certain population groups in hard-to-reach areas, reinforced health education and culturally adapted communication strategies, including gender-specific messaging will be needed over a sustained period.

Sustaining learner participation and progression through networked schooling: A systemic approach for Mobile Out of School Children

Despite repeated calls for education systems to respond flexibly to enable all children to participate in formal education, limited progress has been made for those we term Mobile Out of School Children (MOOSCs). Livelihood-related mobility often precipitates a process of learner drop out during the year. Retention of such children, and reducing the risk of their relapsing into MOOSC status, requires a re-framing of ‘school’ as a spatially dispersed system, or network, to accommodate learner movement. Networked schooling for children in mobile pastoralist communities in Ethiopia embeds formal education within mobile pastoralists’ resource management practices and orientates service provision accordingly. Although it is resource-intensive, networked schooling enables the requisite flexibility to support retention of pastoralist and other mobile learners. It of significant interest to global effort towards leaving none behind, particularly in the global drylands and other contexts where climate change is making learner mobility increasingly complex, and the need for a systemic response ever more pressing.

Vaccine hesitancy among mobile pastoralists in Chad: a qualitative study

BackgroundDemand side barriers to vaccination among rural and hard-to-reach populations in Chad are not yet well understood. Although innovative approaches such as linking human and animal vaccination increase vaccination uptake among mobile pastoralist communities, vaccination coverage in these communities is still lower than for rural settled populations. We hypothesize that mobile pastoralists’ communities in Chad face specific demand side barriers to access vaccination services. Understanding the factors that caregivers in these communities consider, explicitly or implicitly, in order to decide whether or not to vaccinate a child, in addition to understanding the provider’s perspectives, are essential elements to tailor vaccination programmes towards increasing vaccination acceptance and uptake.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative study in a rural health district in southern Chad in April 2016 with 12 key informant in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions (FGDs) including 35 male and female participants. Participants in the study included caregivers, traditional chiefs, local and religious leaders from mobile pastoralist communities, and health officials and staff. We conducted a content analysis using a pre-defined set of categories for vaccine hesitancy covering issues on harmful effects of vaccination, mistrust with vaccination programmes/services, issues with the health system and other issues.ResultsThe groups of demand side barriers reported most frequently in focus group discussions were mistrust on the expanded programme on immunization (EPI) and polio vaccination outreach services (53%, n = 94), followed by health system issues (34%, n = 94), and concerns related to potential harm of vaccines (13%, n = 94). Concerns identified by caregivers, health professionals and community leaders followed a similar pattern with issues on programme mistrust being most frequently reported and issues with harm least frequently reported. None of the health professionals reported concerns about vaccinations being potentially harmful.ConclusionMobile pastoralist communities face specific demand side barriers to vaccination. Understanding these barriers is essential to reduce vaccine hesitancy and increase vaccination uptake. Local health systems must plan for the periodic presence of pastoralist communities in their zones of responsibility and create more mutual trust.

Bottlenecks in the provision of antenatal care: rural settled and mobile pastoralist communities in Chad.

To assess antenatal care (ANC) coverage and analyse constraining factors for service delivery to rural settled and mobile populations in two districts in Chad. Data from cross-sectional household and health facility surveys in the two Chadian rural health districts were analysed. First, contact coverage of ANC services in the study area was estimated from household data as the proportion of women who visited health facilities to obtain ANC during their last pregnancy. Second, bottlenecks in the provision of this service were explored by calibrating a multiplicative model of ANC contact coverage to household and health facility data. The model allowed quantification of the magnitude by which coverage decreased as it progressed through the health system. Sensitivity analysis was applied to account for uncertainty around the estimated coverage factors. Direct estimates revealed that ANC contact coverage decreased as the number of required visits increased: 79% of rural settled mothers and 46% of mobile pastoralist mothers visited a health facility to obtain ANC at least once (ANC 1). Among mobile pastoralists, only 20% of pregnant women attended ANC at least three times compared to 63% of rural settled women. Availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability contributed to reductions in service coverage in both populations. For mobile pastoralists, acceptability was clearly the most important factor. ANC 1 contact coverage resulting from the model is 50% for rural settled and 30% for mobile pastoralists. Antenatal care coverage was low in rural districts of Chad, particularly for mobile pastoralists. Acceptability largely explained the prevailing difference between the two population groups.

Isotopic evidence for ceremonial provisioning of Late Bronze age khirigsuurs with horses from diverse geographic locales

Khirigsuurs are communal ritual and mortuary monuments that featured prominently on Late Bronze Age pastoralist landscapes of the Mongolian steppe through the mid-late second millennium to early first millennium cal BC. Khirigsuurs sustained ceremonies that legitimized the relationship between the deceased and the participants, facilitated the formation of new alliances, and emphasized integration and cohesion between mobile pastoralist communities through monument building, ritual horse slaughter, and feasting. Horses played a prominent role in ceremonial activities conducted at khirigsuurs, their heads and hooves regularly deposited in small stone satellite mounds as part of publically visible ceremonies associated with mortuary celebrations that simultaneously integrated mobile pastoralist communities. Here, strontium and oxygen isotopic analyses of sequentially sampled teeth of horses from khirigsuurs located in the Khanuy Valley, a major center of monumental activity situated north of the Khangai mountains in Mongolia, indicate horses from distant locales were ceremonially placed in khirigsuur satellite mounds, while patterned seasonal variation in carbon isotopes suggests horses were fodder provisioned during the winter months. These isotopic data suggest horses were well cared for, reflecting their status as a prestige animal, and were key to facilitating regionally integrative ceremonial activities conducted at khirigsuurs that brought together people from geographically distant mobile communities.

Human and animal health surveys among pastoralists.

Valid human and livestock health surveys, including longitudinal follow-up, are feasible among mobile pastoralists and provide fundamental information to agencies for interventions that are responsive to realities and effective in addressing the needs of pastoralists. However, pastoralists are often excluded from studies, surveillance systems and health programmes. The occurrence of preventable and treatable diseases such as perinatal tetanus, measles and tuberculosis are indicative of limited access to health providers and information. It is difficult for health services to include effective outreach with their available financial and human resources. One consequence is that maternal mortality rates among pastoralists are unacceptably high. Environmental determinants such as the quality of water and the pasture ecosystems further influence the morbidity of pastoralists. In the Sahel, the nutritional status of pastoralist children is seasonally better than that of settled children; but pastoralist women tend to have higher acute malnutrition rates. Pastoralist women are more vulnerable than men to exclusion from health services for different context-specific reasons. Evidence-based control measures can be assessed in cluster surveys with simultaneous assessments of health among people and livestock, where data on costs of disease and interventions are also collected. These provide important arguments for governmental and non-governmental agencies for intervention development. New, integrated One Health surveillance systems making use of mobile technology and taking into account local concepts and the experiences and priorities of pastoralist communities, combined with sound field data, are essential to develop and provide adapted human and animal health services that are inclusive for mobile pastoralist communities and allow them to maintain their mobile way of life.

The landscape of ancient mobile pastoralism in the highlands of southeastern Uzbekistan, 2000 b.c.–a.d. 1400

Here we present the results of archaeological survey and excavations carried out in southeastern Uzbekistan during the summer of 2011. The sites are among the first systematically recovered pastoralist settlements in the mountains of Uzbekistan. Our data include material culture and chronology that document mobile pastoralist communities in the mountains of southern Central Asia at least as early as the middle of the 2nd millennium b.c. Based on AMS/14C chronology, detailed site stratigraphies, and evident reuse of numerous settlement sites within our dataset, we discuss the long-term land use and ecology of pastoralists in this region and argue that a well-developed local tradition of pastoralism was already in place during the early 2nd millennium b.c. and endured until the early 20th century. Our findings reveal striking similarities with nomadic camps found elsewhere in the mountains of Inner Asia and illustrate the local durability of pastoralist landscapes during prehistoric and historical periods.

An intrinsic mechanism for the co-existence of different survival strategies within mobile pastoralist communities

In mobile pastoralism, strategies of mobility are highly heterogeneous within communities; some herders are frequently mobile and others are not. Moreover, pastoral mobility changes over time, especially after external intervention. Although changes in the strategies of herders affect and are affected by other herders, the interactions between herders with different strategies and the effect of changes in the external environment on their strategies have not been explicitly studied. We examined such interactions with a multi-agent model, simulating the herders’ basic decision-making process, simplified rangeland ecosystem, and animal survival. The results showed clear co-existence of wealthy and poor herders at an intermediate cost of moving. The movement pattern revealed that an indirect interaction between wealthy and poor herders was the key to their co-existence, suggesting that very simple rules of pastoral mobility inherently contain a mechanism for the co-existence of wealthy and poor herders. At an intermediate cost of moving, the two groups have access to different pastures, thus reducing direct competition for poor herders and enabling their survival in drought years. Such interaction between herders suggests that any interventions in mobile pastoralist societies should take into account that impacts on the mobility of any one group can influence the entire social structure.

Determinants of conventional health service utilization among pastoralists in northeast Ethiopia

Background: Health service utilization pattern among pastoralists in Ethiopia is not well documented. Available data are very few and mostly institution based. Objective: To assess the determinants of conventional health care utilization among pastoralist communities in northeast Ethiopia. Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional household survey conducted using structured questionnaires administered among 276 mobile and 262 settled subjects within the pastoral area. In addition, reviews of outpatient and inpatient records for the previous year at the local health facilities, as well as focus group discussions among the study communities were conducted to supplement the household survey data. Results: Analysis of the collected data revealed steep distance decay in level of health service utilization, in addition to statistically significant difference in the service utilization between the settled and the mobile pastoralist communities (the odd ratio and 95% CI for utilizing health services of settlers over mobile ones were 1.38 (1.138,1.667) with P value