Mobile Pastoralists Research Articles

‘Our Greatest Riches’: Horses at the Intersection of Settler and Kazakh Society in the Late Imperial Period

This article examines interactions between Slavic peasant migrants and mobile pastoralist Kazakhs within the setting of the Kazakh Steppe during the period of heaviest resettlement to the region beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth century. It considers how the importance of horses to both settlers and Kazakhs alike dictated these interactions and how the sedentary world of the settlers disrupted the seasonal migration routes of Kazakh horse herders. Particularly with concern to the greatly expanded horse market, issues regarding land use, and increased instances of horse theft throughout the region, the Russian state’s encroachment into the steppe forever altered the social and economic makeup of the region.

A palimpsest grave at the Iron Age cemetery in Estark-Joshaqan, Iran

At the onset of the Iron Age, after c. 1200 BC, Iran was a place of major social transformation. After the collapse of the Bronze Age urban civilisations, the land was inhabited mainly by groups of mobile pastoralists that gradually transitioned from tribal organisation into loose federations, before finally developing into the Median and Persian early states (Potts 2014). This transition is still poorly recognised, as settlement sites from this period are scarce and most evidence is from cemeteries that were excavated many decades ago. Here we report results of excavations at a recently discovered cemetery that may provide new insights into the social complexity and cultural affinities of Iron Age nomads in Iran.

A pastoral landscape for millennia: Investigating pastoral mobility in northeastern Jordan using quantitative spatial analyses

Northeastern Jordan is one of the few remaining regions in the Middle East where pastoral nomadism is still practiced. In this desert region, pastoral mobility is an adapted land use able to cope with low rainfall rates, great seasonal and annual rainfall variations and thus heterogeneous vegetation and water availability. During winter, herders and their livestock move into the desert; in summer they move to the desert margins to places with perennial water supply. First traces of mobile pastoralism date back to the beginning of the Late Neolithic.Within the basaltic region of northeastern Jordan, there is a dense distribution of archaeological remains; some of them can be linked to pastoral groups due to the herders' ancient practice of building agglomerations of sub-circular enclosures ('clustered enclosures') made of basalt boulders for corralling their flocks and domestic activities. These features provide an excellent opportunity to investigate a landscape that shows traces of pastoral activity since eight to nine Millennia.In this study, 9118 clustered enclosures in the northeastern Jordanian basalt desert have been systematically recorded using satellite imagery. In order to investigate potential migration or communication routes, grazing lands and social interactions of former pastoralists, we examine their first- and second-order characteristics using distance and density based approaches of point pattern analyses by integrating geomorphometric and geomorphological site properties. The results of this spatial analysis are combined with available archaeological data and a review on traditional herding practices in northeastern Jordan. Overall, the results demonstrate that the observed spatial distribution of clustered enclosures is influenced locally by natural characteristics but regionally by cultural practices.

Complexity in the spatial utilization of rangelands: Pastoral mobility in the Horn of Africa

Extensive movement is a key strategy for pastoralists to ensure adequate forage intake for livestock while distributing grazing pressure throughout the landscape. However, the complexity of pastoral mobility was overgeneralized in previous research, which often leads to sedentarization-oriented policy-making. Based on continuous GPS-tracking of cattle movement over seven months and pastoralist knowledge of mobility, we investigated spatial rangeland utilization patterns in five study sites across the Borana Zone of southern Ethiopia. By quantifying the extent of movement, density of utilization, and recursive use of rangelands, we found highly diverse mobility patterns and resource-use strategies even within a single study region. Rather than the central-place model, pastoral mobility patterns in Borana can be characterized using restrictive, semi-extensive, or extensive herding models. The research findings suggest that sedentarization largely results in compromised mobility. Thus, we recommend both intra- and inter-community coordination to reduce recursive use of rangelands and mitigate degradation.

Livestock mobility and the territorial state: South-Western Niger (1890–1920)

AbstractColonial rule in West Africa initiated the incorporation of mobile people, particularly pastoralists, into Western territorial states. This article reports on the early period of French colonial rule of the area that is now South-Western Niger – a strategically important area with respect to territorial competition among the French colonies of Dahomey and Soudan (later the colonies of Senegambia and Niger) as well as the British colony of Nigeria. Building from the study of contemporary patterns of livestock mobility and their logics, archival and secondary literatures are used to develop an understanding of dominant herd mobility patterns at the time (transhumance for grazing and trekking to distant markets); the importance of livestock as a source of tax revenue; colonial anxieties about the loss of livestock from within their borders; and efforts of colonial administrators to reduce the potential loss of livestock from their territories. This case illustrates the limitations of the territorial state model where the state lacks sufficient power over mobile subjects utilizing a sparse and fluctuating resource base. The actions of French administrators and Fulɓe pastoralists worked as a form of ‘hands-off’ negotiation, with each group monitoring and reacting to the actions of the other. Due to the limitations of colonial state control, the existence of boundaries elicited greater monitoring of livestock movements by colonial administrators but also increased the leverage held by mobile pastoralists as the French sought to increase the attractiveness of their territory to the principal managers of its wealth (livestock). The proximity of borders to the study area complicated the task of French colonial administrators, who necessarily became increasingly focused on monitoring the movements of their subjects (labour and capital) to avoid their possible escape as they moved within the borderlands of what is now South-Western Niger. The limits of colonial power to monitor and control these movements led administrators to initiate policies favouring pastoralists.

Modeling Herding Decision Making in the Extensive Grazing System in Southern Ethiopia

The practice of extensive herding through camp relocation allows pastoralists to track greener pastures while redistributing grazing pressure throughout the landscape, but the lack of intensive and continuous monitoring data on large-scale livestock movement results in limited understanding of this important practice. This article takes an integrated approach to understanding pastoral mobility and modeling extensive herding. The analysis is based on Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of fifty-eight cows, as well as surveys, participatory mapping, and interviews with pastoralists in five study sites in southern Ethiopia. Linear mixed-effect models are used to examine the community- and household-level determinants of extensive herding. The findings suggest that resource conditions, resource users, and socioeconomic context play significant roles in affecting the practice of extensive herding. Compared to household herd size, community-level factors largely determine the feasibility of extensive herding. Future pastoral policymaking needs to facilitate the creation and maintenance of favorable herding context to encourage large-scale mobility as an adaptation strategy in the arid and semiarid environment.

Institutional delivery service utilization and associated factors among women of reproductive age in the mobile pastoral community of the Liban District in Guji Zone, Oromia, Southern Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

BackgroundGlobally, an estimated 289,000 maternal deaths occurred in 2013. Majority of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Mobility of pastoralists is a well-recognized survival strategy in arid and semi-arid land of sub-Saharan Africa. However governments often encourage settlement as a solution to the difficulty of providing health services for mobile pastoralists. This study aimed to assess utilization of institutional delivery and associated factors among women of reproductive age in the mobile pastoral community of the Liban District in Guji zone, Oromia, Ethiopia.MethodsA Community based cross-sectional survey was conducted among the mobile pastoralist community of the Liban District. Seven hundred ninety-one (791) randomly selected women, who had birth within the last 2 years preceding the survey, were interviewed using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-Info version 3.5.4 and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were done.ResultsOut of 791 women who gave birth within the last 2 years preceding the survey, only 110 (13.9%) gave birth in health institutions. Majority (74.1%) of the women gave birth at their home. Ninety-one women (11.5%) gave birth at traditional birth attendant’s home; assisted by traditional birth attendants. Multiple logistic regression shows that women who had readily available cash at the onset of labor (aOR 2.79, 95% CI: 1.29–6.25), delivered the birth preceding the most recent birth in a health institution (aOR 6.8, 95% CI: 3.44–13.45) and had birth related complications during the birth preceding the most recent birth (aOR 1.90, 95% CI: 1.08–3.36) were more likely to deliver at health institutions.ConclusionMajority of the pastoral women seek institutional delivery, only when labor related complications are perceived. Mechanisms of alleviating indirect health care costs affecting institutional delivery need to be addressed in future studies.

Informal Vows

In post-Soviet Kazakhstan, mobile pastoralism is now a task managed not by collective farms but by individual households: extended networks of kin band together to create flocks, and poor families trade labour for sustenance and a share of the flock’s live offspring. The success of these sheep-herding camps turns on their integrity as domestic units: the camp cannot function without the tasks customarily performed by women, yet relations of blood or marriage remain the only social institutions capable of mediating the exchange of domestic labour. This paper contrasts elaborate marriage ceremonies with more informal unions in which the primary desire is the presence of a woman’s labour. These marriages—unregistered, undertaken from necessity and celebrated by little more than a meal and perhaps a bottle of vodka for drinking toasts—index the conflicts and contradictions implicit in domestic labour being simultaneously fundamental to the household’s economic life and yet treated as a form of labour not to be honourably alienated from the family.

A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe

Archaeological horse remains from Mongolia's late Bronze Age Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) culture present some of the oldest direct radiocarbon dates for horses in northeast Asia, hinting at an important link between late Bronze Age social developments and the adoption or innovation of horse transport in the region. However, wide error ranges and imprecision associated with calibrated radiocarbon dates obscure the chronology of early domestic horse use in Mongolia and make it difficult to evaluate the role of processes like environmental change, economic interactions, or technological development in the formation of mobile pastoral societies. Using a large sample of new and published radiocarbon dates, this study presents a Bayesian chronological model for the initiation of domestic horse sacrifice at DSK culture sites in Mongolia. Results reveal the rapid spread of horse ritual over a large portion of the Eastern Steppe circa 1200 BCE, concurrent with the first appearance of draught horses in China during the late Shang dynasty. These results suggest that key late Bronze Age cultural transformations – specifically the adoption of mobile pastoralism and early horseback riding – took place during a period of climate amelioration, and may be linked to the expansion of horses into other areas of East Asia.

Land-use regime shift triggered the recent degradation of alpine pastures in Nyanpo Yutse of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

The eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a cultural landscape where traditional pastoralism substantially shaped the present mosaic structure of the alpine grasslands. During the past two decades, however, severe grassland degradations of this region has been considered as the major ecological concern. In this study we took an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of the historical land-use regimes to the observed degradation, by conducting an in-depth case study in a local pastoral village in the Nyanpo Yutse region. Firstly, we mapped historical land-use intensities (LUIs) of the study area at land-use transition time points of 1970s, 1984, 1994 and 2015 with oral history and participatory GIS (PGIS) approaches. Secondly, we conducted Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) time series analysis to detect the temporal and spatial patterns of the degradation. Thirdly, we discussed the causal relations between the land-use and land-cover changes. Livestock and pasture privatization from 1984 to 1994 created the land-use regime shift which resulted in a marked increase in LUIs and decreased pastoral mobility. The LUI increase in this transition period fostered the establishment of short-grass vegetation which facilitated the spreading of plateau pikas. The installment of iron fences as private pasture borders from 2004 to 2007 eventually started the onset of degradation. Our case study illustrates that the past land-use regime shift triggered the recent ecological regime shift in Nyanpo Yutse. Severe grassland degradation occurred with a time lag during which cumulative LUIs surpassed the vulnerability threshold of the biophysical system.

Natural resource governance in lower Omo, Ethiopia – negotiation processes instead of property rights and rules?

Research on common-pool resources in the last 30 years has hinged on concepts such as rules and property rights for understanding how access and use of natural resources is managed by communities and other actors. However, a small body of literature on mobile pastoralism maintains that resource governance might not always be based on resource-related rules, but instead on negotiation and general norms of reciprocity. Situations conventionally labelled as ‘open access’ might therefore not always be as unregulated and unmanaged as they seem. Here, we examine what the absence of rules for resource access and use means in practice, and how resource users adapt such a governance system to increasing scarcity of pasture land. We conducted interviews, group discussions and participatory mapping exercises in two neighbouring areas, Hamar and Bashada, in the lower Omo area in southern Ethiopia. Both groups are culturally closely related to each other, but showed important differences in their ability and willingness to change their institutions to adapt to resource scarcity. In both Hamar and Bashada, access to grazing was generally non-exclusive. Instead, we found a complex mosaic of ways in which access to grazing was practiced and sanctioned, characterised largely by negotiations and interplay between individual actors rather than by firm rules. Both groups were confronted with increasingly erratic rainfalls and insufficient availability of pasture. Strikingly, while the Bashada had recently established a strictly enforced set-aside area to provide grazing for the end of the dry season, the Hamar rejected such ideas and sought grazing in protected areas, which eventually led to conflict between herders and authorities. Reasons for these diverging strategies might be connected to subtle differences in the degree to which decision-making is individualised and social coordination accepted. These seem to have important implications for community adaptability to changing environmental and societal conditions.

Mobile Phones and Socio-economic Transformation Among Fulani Pastoralists in Northern Benin

Abstract The mobile phone has spread recently in rural Benin as one of the new technologies most widely adopted by Fulani pastoralists, who have generally been regarded as hostile to novelty. This article analyses the logic and forms of appropriation of mobile phones in connection with the socio-economic transformation that accompany it. An ethnographic approach was used, involving individual interviews with participant observation in various settings where mobile phones are used by Fulani pastoralists to meet challenges they face in their daily lives. It appears from the study that the mobile phone, while bringing significant changes in the livelihood strategies of pastoralists, especially in terms of social connectedness, has at the moment limited economic impacts due to various factors including accessibility and ease of use. With regard to the mass adoption of mobile phones by pastoralists, we argue that socio-economic continuity and change are to be regarded not as opposites but as interconnected realities, and this needs to be taken into account to improve development policies in connection with pastoral communities.

Bronze Age Subsistence Change at Regional and Microscopic Scales in Northeast China

This article investigates Late Bronze Age mobile pastoralism in Northeast China. Analysis of the use-wear patterns provides direct evidence speaking to the subsistence economies during the Bronze Age. The patterns of use-wear are compared to the settlement patterning and environmental contexts to test proposed theories about whether and how subsistence change takes place. The results indicate continuity in mixed animal and plant based economies in both the Early and Late Bronze Age despite changes in climate and population. The relative intensity of economic practice is guided by the environmental context, but this is detected only at the sub-regional level.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Rangeland Governance in Northern Tanzania

The article examines the role of indigenous knowledge (IK) systems in the governance of common-property rangeland resources among pastoral communities in Northern Tanzania. It draws on the political ecology approach to examine the role and state ofindigenous knowledge on rangeland governance in the changing socio-cultural, political and ecological context. It employs qualitative methodology to capture the narratives from the indigenous people. Using purposive (non-probability strategy) technique, the study obtained a sample of 50 interviews and life histories combined, and four focus group discussions from four research sites. Findings indicate that forms of indigenous knowledge—such as rangeland rituals and cosmologies, rangeland zonation, livestock taxonomy, water communism and pastoral mobility—regulate and maintain a harmonious relationship between indigenous people and the wider ecosystem. The article concludes that IK should be recognized as an integral component of local resource governance. Also, indigenous rangeland cooperatives should be formed to help the sustainability of IK systems and settling emerging rangeland disputes.

The Role of Kinship in Negotiating Territorial Rights

This paper explores the role of kinship in herder claims for winter shelter ownership in rural Mongolia, where pastureland is currently designated as state-owned property in the national constitution. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted amongst mobile pastoralist households, this article demonstrates how contemporary winter pasture rights take shape within a locus of political relations structured by custodial land-use practices. It highlights the ways that herders negotiate for territorial rights through appeals to established regional families and are how these appeals are mediated by local government administration. From this analysis, I argue that concepts of kinship in the political economy of pastoralism should be re-examined in light of current debates around land-tenure legislation in Mongolia.

Weather and resource information as tools for dealing with farmer–pastoralist conflicts in the Sahel

Abstract. Conflicts between pastoralists and farmers in the Sahel mainly arise from competition over land and water resources or because of livestock damage to crops. Rather than being linked to larger environmental change processes such as climate change, conflicts are often caused by inappropriate zoning of land, governance and unequal power relations between stakeholders. However, conflicts may be affected by more short-term weather and resource information that guide mobility of pastoralists. In this paper, we therefore explore if improved weather and resource information and improvement in its communication could prevent conflicts or reduce their severity. Based on a survey of key stakeholders involved in dissemination of weather and resource information and studies on pastoral access to and use of information, we conclude that improved information may both reduce and increase the level of conflict, depending on the context. Communication of information will need to go beyond just the weather and resource information and also include the multiple options for herd movements as well as providing information on herd crowding and potential conflict areas.

Seasonal dynamics of human retinol status in mobile pastoralists in Chad

Vitamin A deficiency is a prevalent public health problem in Africa and South-East Asia, although national population based surveys are lacking in many countries. This study investigated seasonal variation of human retinol concentrations in Chadian mobile pastoralists to identify critical time periods for interventions addressing vitamin A deficiency. The repeated cross-sectional study design used convenience sampling during three seasons to include 327 Fulani, Gorane and Arab adult mobile pastoralists in nine camps in the Lake Chad area. Human blood and pooled cattle milk retinol concentrations were rapidly assessed by portable flourometer (iCheck™). Linear regression models with random effects for correlation within camps were applied with human retinol concentration as outcome. Logistic regression models, with camp as random effect, were evaluated for the outcome human retinol deficiency. Human seasonal means were 2.14μmol/L (95% CI 1.82–2.46) in rainy, 0.99μmol/L (95% CI 0.91–1.07) in cold and 1.86μmol/L (95% CI 1.63–2.09) in dry season. Retinol concentration and deficiency varied according to season and ethnic group. Average values were highest in Gorane during rainy and in Fulani in the cold and dry seasons. Arabs had lowest average values in all seasons. Retinol deficiency (<0.70μmol/L) was found in 15% of study participants in the dry, 25% in the rainy and 32% in the cold season. Retinol concentrations varied according to age, sex, milk consumption level and pooled cattle milk retinol concentration. Effect sizes varied and not all were statistically significantly different. Pooled cattle milk retinol concentrations varied seasonally and were positively associated to human retinol concentrations. This study establishes seasonal variation in human blood and pooled cattle milk retinol concentrations in Chad, demonstrating a linkage from animals to humans through milk. Rapid analysis using portable technology is feasible in remote populations under harsh climatic conditions.

Effects of extreme land fragmentation on wildlife and livestock population abundance and distribution

Fragmentation, degradation and loss of natural habitats are now recognised as major threats to wildlife conservation and mobile pastoralism in East African savannas. These processes are driven primarily by land tenure and policy, increasing human population, expansion of settlements and agricultural farms, road networks, urban development and fencing. To understand and characterise the forces driving habitat fragmentation, we analyse how biophysical (soils, slope, rainfall, rivers) and human-created (roads, towns, parks, quarries) features influence where people choose to fence the land in the Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem of Kenya. We also explore the consequences of land fragmentation through fencing on the abundance and distribution of wildlife and livestock populations. We show that fences are most highly concentrated along the major roads and around the major urban centres. Movements of migratory wildebeest and zebra between the Nairobi National Park and the pastoral Kitengela Plains adjoining the park on the south are getting increasingly impeded by increasing concentration of fences. Populations of wildebeest and other herbivores have collapsed to a small fraction of their former abundance largely owing to destruction of their habitats and obstruction of their movements between the park and the pastoral lands by fences and other land use developments. Conserving the key seasonal wildlife dispersal areas in the Athi-Kaputiei Plains is critical to ensuring the future viability of several key wildlife species in Nairobi National Park. Several initiatives, including a conservation land lease program has been launched, but their spatial coverage and funding levels would need to be greatly expanded to secure sufficient open spaces for both wildlife and livestock.

The Archaeology of Pastoral Nomadism

Pastoral nomadism encompasses an array of specialized knowledge concerned with the daily rhythms and long-term tempos of caring for herd animals in order to extract subsistence livelihoods. It also embodies the relational lives of herders and the diverse ways in which herd animals structure the social and symbolic worlds of mobile pastoralists. This article reviews the latest research on ancient pastoral nomadic communities that is emerging in many parts of the world. We emphasize the importance of revolutionary advances in archaeological methods and biomolecular approaches that have made visible mobile pastoralist behaviors and decision-making processes previously concealed in the archaeological record. Archaeologists are gradually producing the high-resolution, multiscalar data sets required to link together the individual, community, and regional interactions that, over time, structured pastoral nomadic economies, social and ritual lives, and political organization.

Re-infection with Fasciola gigantica 6-month post-treatment with triclabendazole in cattle from mobile pastoralist husbandry systems at Lake Chad

At Lake Chad in central Africa, livestock fascioliasis caused by Fasciola gigantica represents a major veterinary health problem, particularly in cattle reared in mobile pastoralist husbandry systems. We assessed re-infection after a single dose of triclabendazole with fascioliasis in cattle in a mobile pastoralist setting towards the end of the dry season. Within the cattle herds of 14 groups of mobile pastoralists, 375 cattle were randomly selected. A faecal sample was obtained from each animal to determine the prevalence of F. gigantica. Animals were administered a single oral dose of triclabendazole (12mg/kg). A second faecal sample was obtained 6-month post-treatment after cattle had returned from the annual migration cycle. Faecal samples were fixed in sodium acetate-acetic acid-formalin (SAF), and examined for F. gigantica using the sedimentation technique. From the 375 cattle enrolled at baseline, 198 animals (53%) in 12 groups of mobile pastoralists were re-sampled at the 6-month follow-up. Baseline prevalence did not differ noteworthy between animals lost to follow-up and those re-examined. At baseline, bovine fascioliasis prevalence in cattle with follow-up data was 41.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) 35.2–48.9%). At the 6-month post-treatment follow-up, the prevalence was 46.0% (95% CI 39.2–52.9%), ranging between 0% and 75% at the herd level. The mean faecal egg counts at the unit of the herd were higher at follow-up compared to baseline. The observed persistent high prevalence of F. gigantica infection in cattle shows that a single pre-rainy season treatment does not prevent rapid re-infection despite the partial migration away from the high-risk areas at Lake Chad into drier areas. A locally adapted strategic control package for fascioliasis in cattle in the Lake Chad area ought to integrate targeted triclabendazole treatment and seasonal transhumance practices.