Nomadic Shepherds Research Articles

The role of personnel management in increasing productivity at agricultural enterprises in Mongolia

The relevance of improving the efficiency of agriculture in Mongolia and, accordingly, the role of personnel management in the implementation of this task has grown especially in recent years when the number of pastures and arable land has substantially decreased due to an increase in the area of mineral extraction. The purpose of the study is to determine the most effective motivation and planning system for them, considering the national characteristics and mentality of agricultural workers, mainly nomadic shepherds, and to form recommendations on the most acceptable management style for this group. The Holfstede typology of cultural dimensions was used as a key method to identify the cultural and behavioural characteristics of the target audience. During the survey conducted among 1514 staff representatives and processing of its results, the average indicators for six cultural dimensions were calculated, and estimates of these indicators were given. According to the obtained data on the typology of cultural dimensions, it was determined that values in the examined social group are largely determined by traditions and customs, which means that a managerial model is in demand that will not impose existing Western management principles but uses its own tools based on relatively democratic principles. Based on the obtained characteristics, recommendations were formed on such key management tools as the principles of subordination, the system of setting tasks and monitoring their implementation, and on the effective motivation of personnel. The practical importance of the study lies in the development of recommendations for improving personnel management and, as a result, increasing efficiency at agricultural enterprises in Mongolia

Hokand Hanlığının Çarlık Rusya’sı ve Çin’le Siyasi-İktisadi İlişkileri

Information about Khoqand is also included in the geographical works of the 10th century historians. According to the manuscripts that have reached our days, it is possible information about Khoqand. The Khoqand Khanate is one of the newly developing state of history in Central Asia. But it has remained as one of the khanates that left a deep mark on the past. Domestic trade in Asia has been based on the products of nomadic shepherds, resident farmers and artisans, especially in ancient cities and rural areas. All three states of Turkestan were in foreign trade and political relations with Kashgar, India, Afghanistan, Iran, especially Russia and China. Like others, these international relations played an important role economic and political life of the Khoqand Khanate. In this context, it is documenting that Khoqand Khanate has political and economic relations with China and Tsarist Russia. Some historical documents have been preserved about these contacts. In this article, we will briefly focus on the foreign relations of the Khoqand Khanate and its effects on the state.

Lecionação sem aulas? Questões de liberdade e segurança no modelo MAPE

In Portuguese language, the word aula (lecture) is etymologically rooted in the Greek word άυλή, which, in Ancient Greece, meant “courtyard” and suggested a balance between freedom and safety for nomadic shepherds and animals. Nowadays lectures are subject to huge restrictions in terms of time and space, which has strong implications for freedom and safety. However, the development of online instruction, especially in its asynchronous version, stimulates reflection on a possible recovery of the original meaning of άυλή, or even on the possibility of providing instruction without lectures, for asynchronous online instruction dilutes the work of instructors and students in time and space and naturally calls for students’ active participation in the educational process. Accordingly, after some reflections on the concept of άυλή, and on its relation with the concepts of freedom and safety, we report an empirical study, which was aimed at understanding how some teachers, who were attending teacher education courses, viewed asynchronous online learning. Considering that the participants had been exposed to MAPE model, they commented, in the context of interviews, some aspects of online learning in general and specific aspects of that same model, especially aspects that could be related to issues of freedom and safety. The findings of the study suggest that the participants acknowledge that MAPE model, overall, allows for much freedom and safety, despite the fact that some of them stated that they did not feel so safe with regard to some specific aspects.

Interstitial but Resilient: Nomadic Shepherds in Piedmont (Northwest Italy) Amidst Spatial and Social Marginalization

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.

Cultural Practice and Social Initiation in Sub-Saharan Africa: The "Godja" or Flogging in "Barugube" Fulani of Benin

Benin Fulani people are nomadic shepherds who live with their herds in occasional camps located away from areas where villagers are. Although they are people with a noncentralized political system, Benin Fulani have devised an initiation rite with every adolescent and Suka have to undergo before being accepted into the different age groups among the Fulani Waaldeeji. These age classes are organized in an educational institution where prevail equality and mutual trust conducive to assistance to one another as a rule. This initiation rite constitutes one of the means by which the Fulani Barugube confers gradually the full rights and social duties to the Sukaabe. More than a rite of social integration in which aggression occurs and develops a logical exchange of lashes, the Godja turns to be a practice that helps to maintain and affirm a social identity around cultural references. Key words: Flagellation or “Godja’’ rite initiation; Barugube; Age class or “Waaldeeji’’; Social integration

Berlinale 2009

BERLINALE (2009) Festival PoliticsAsked whether the Berlinale has fostered an image as a "political" film festival, Christoph Schlingensief, the German jury member at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival (5-15 February 2009), blurted out: "A competition entry here scarcely stands a chance otherwise." Schlingensief, a highly motivated political filmmaker in his own right, hit the nail right on the head. You only have to look back at the past Golden Bear winners. In 2007, the Grand Prix went to Wang Quan'an's fiction-documentary Tu ya de hun shi (Tuya's Marriage, China). Set in rural Mongolia, Tuya's Marriage mirrored the plight of nomadic shepherds whose way of life is threatened by the government's misguided plans to move them to urban shelters. In 2008, it was awarded to José Padilha's Tropa de elite (The Elite Squad, Brazil). Set in 1997, when the Pope announced his visit to Brazil, that news triggered...

Sustainable development: The way for future, where are we?

Sustainable development: The way for future, where are we?

Comparable Karyologic Analysis of the Karakachan Dog within Canis Familiaris

ABSTRACTThe Karakachan Dog is one of Europe's oldest dog breeds. A typical Mollos, created for guarding its owner's flock and property, it does not hesitate to fight wolves and bears or to defend its owner and his family in case of danger. Its ancestors started forming as early as the third millennium BC. The Karakachan Dog is a descendant of the dogs of the Thracians—the oldest inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula, renowned as stock-breeders, whom Herodotus describes as the most numerous people after the Indians. The Proto-Bulgarians also played an essential part in the formation of the Karakachan Dog as they brought their dogs with them at the time of their migration from Pamir and Hindukush. The dog is named after the Karakachans—nomadic shepherds of Thracian origin. Due to their conservative stock-breeding traditions, they managed to preserve some of the oldest breeds of domestic animals in Europe—the Karakachan sheep, the Karakachan horse, and, of course, the Karakachan Dog.The data collected from 8 dogs (5 male and 3 female), possessing exterior and behavior characteristics typical for the breed was used in the study. The Karakachan Dog data was compared with the results from various authors on the topics of Canidae family cytogenetics, the karyotype of the dog, intersexuality in the dog and numerical and structural chromosome abnormalities in the dog. Among numerical chromosome abnormalities diagnosed in the dog, the most common are sex chromosome aneuploides. There were other forms of numerical chromosome abnormalities found in the Karakachan dog—the polyploidy and specific structural chromosome abnormalities.

Distribution, status and conservation of Indian gray wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) in Karnataka, India

AbstractThe Indian gray wolf Canis lupus pallipes is the major large carnivore in the plains of Karnataka, India. We carried out a study on its distribution and status from November 2001 to July 2004. We estimated 555 wolves occupying about 123 330 km2 of the state. In the past 40 years, wolves have disappeared from the southern plateau from an area of about 31 801 km2. Their distribution is now largely restricted to the north‐eastern dry plains. The wolf has also disappeared in recent years from some ‘protected areas’ such as Melkote Temple Wildlife Sanctuary, and their present population is largely found in ‘non‐protected’ areas. Blackbucks are the only natural prey of wolves in Karnataka, but their density in most parts of the state is extremely low. The major prey species is domestic livestock, especially sheep. The available ‘remote area’ (forests or rocky terrains) in the wolf‐occupied regions determined the status of the wolf. Killing of adult wolves and pups was common throughout the range of the wolf. However, such killings were made largely by local sheepherders with small sheep holdings and not by nomadic shepherds who maintained large sheep herds. The forests in the north‐eastern parts of the state exist in small patches every few kilometers. Because each wolf pack ranges over large distances and is by and large a commensal species, we propose that the management of these small forest patches, considering them as components of a larger landscape, is the only effective conservation practice for the wolf. Although existing locally in low densities, because of a large ranging area of a single pack, the seemingly isolated wolf packs can become parts of a large metapopulation, providing a sustainable population.

Mobility and control among nomadic shepherds: The case of theraikas. II

This paper analyzes the relationship between leaders and ordinary shepherds among the raikas—nomadic shepherds from western India. It uses a neo-institutional perspective to show how control over information is crucial if shepherds are to prevent their leader from misusing the extensive powers he possesses to make decisions on their behalf. Control over information is not, however, sufficient. The paper argues that shepherds must also possess the capacity to impose sanctions if their leader oversteps the bounds of delegated decision-making authority. The paper highlights the importance of politics and the divergent interests of the shepherds and their leaders. In so doing, it allows inquiry into a system of social interactions that is characterized by conflicting interests and the negotiation of conflict, but is often perceived as harmonious. At the same time, the investigation offers new insights into other social situations structured by principal-agent relationships.

Mobility and cooperation among nomadic shepherds: The case of theRaikas

This paper describes and then analyzes the decision-making arrangements that prevail among the Raikas—nomadic shepherds from Western India. The paper suggests, using a simple analytical framework, that the existing distribution of decision-making during migration helps the Raikasto utilize available economies of scale, represent the different interest groups in their collectives, and control their decision-makers. At the same time, the ordinary shepherds in the camp are able to extract a comfortable subsistence from a complex and harsh environment by delegating much of their decision-making responsibilities to the leaders in the camp. To the extent shepherds in other parts of the world migrate over long distances and must confront similar issues of delegation of responsibilities and control over decision-makers, the analysis holds general relevance.

Les Turkana : aperçu général d'une société pastorale

The Turkana, a pulation of around 250,000 nomadic shepherds, live in the north-west of Kenya in an extremely arid and barren area between lake Turkana and Uganda. Having lived many years without any intrusion of the modern world, the Turkana, nomadic shepherds perfectly adapted to their hostile environment, had to, however, diversify their pastoral economy following the serious drought of 1961. Some of them took up fishing. The author, gives us a brief survey of the social and economic structures of this ethnic group. Concentrating on the place of cattle, both from a social and a symbolic point of view, within the Turkana community, he depicts the recent changes that have taken place in their way of life following the wish of the Kenyan government to 'develop' this region.

Folklore Medicinal Plants of Mewat (Gurgaon District), Haryana, India

Abstract48 plants used by the Meo community of Gurgaon district for the treatment of ailments of men and animals have been listed. The ingredients used in preparation and mode of administration of each treatment are also reported. The information on plants and their therapeutic uses was gathered from the local medicine men, ‘Hakim’, nomadic shepherds and older persons of the area.

Asymptomatic cryptosporidiosis in nomadic shepherds and their sheep

The formed stool samples of 276 asymptomatic members of 36 households of a group of nomadic shepherds and 215 non-diarrhoeal faecal samples from their sheep were examined for cryptosporidial infection by a modified Ziehl-Nielsen technique. Thirty-six (13%) human samples and 37 (17.2%) samples from sheep were positive. A strong possibility of asymptomatic zoonotic transmission of cryptosporidiosis due to prolonged and constant association of shepherds and their sheep was an important finding.

Occupation de l'espace périphérique de la ville de Djibouti : évolution des genres de vie traditionnels et sédentarisation des pasteurs nomades

Occupation of Peripheral Space in the City of Djibuti ; Changes in the Traditional Way of Life and Settlement of the Nomadic Shepherds. A country of drought and spreading desert, ruled by different political regimes, the Horn of Africa is also a region scarred by conflicts, which have accelerated the degradation in living standards and economic systems. At the northern limit of the Issa region, where the nomadic way of life prevails, the Republic of Djibuti is a privileged area, both as regards the security offered and better economic conditions. In the vicinity of the capital, the railroad stations, military camps and water sources are all important points which encourage the nomads to settle down. They no longer hesitate about abandoning their usual way of life and voluntarily sacrifice their indépendance for national and international aid. Subsidized by the government, irrigated truck farming remains a very limited substitute activity for the nomads, and this on account of unfavorable conditions in the area for farming.

Relations entre nomades et sédentaires des confins sahariens méridionaux : essai d'interprétation dynamique

In the plains stretching along the western border of the Air mountains, the present repartition of the population, of which 85% are nomadic shepherds, belies the numerous vestiges which give evidence of a stronger sedentary occupation in the past The commonly accepted pattern of the historical shift from pastoral nomadism to a sedentary cultivation of the soil is here at fault. Instead an adjustment of the human occupation to ecological conditions has been taking place since the middle of the second millenium B.C., thus allowing the preservation of the natural environment submitted to periodical climatic changes.

Reproduction des écosystèmes et transformation des systèmes sociaux

Reproduction of ecosystems and transformation of social systems - In this article the writer analyses recent studies, American ones in particular, made by anthropologists, of various societies of hunters — plant-gatherers (Pygmies, Bushmen), of nomadic shepherds (Jie, Karimojong, Dodoth in Eastern Africa) and the farmers of New Guinea. He shows that these societies make a selective, intelligent use of the resources of their environment and do not make use of some resources although they are aware of their existence. He shows that peoples with different economies may have opposite attitudes to the same ecosystem. For the Pygmies the equatorial forest provides the plants and wild animals they use and it seems to them welcoming and protective ; for the Bantu farmers who grow manioc and bananas by burn-beating, the forest seems hostile and aggressive. The writer analyses the constraints that ecological and technological structures impose on the dynamics of such societies. He poses the general problem of the rationality of the economic processes and shows that one cannot have an a priori universal model of economic rationality. Finally he discusses the still more general problems of the forms, places and effects of production relationships in various societies.