Nomadic Pastoralists Research Articles

ҚАЗАҚСТАНДАҒЫЗАЙЫРЛЫ БІЛІМ БЕРУ ЖҮЙЕСІНІҢҚАЛЫПТАСУЫЖӘНЕ АҒАРТУ ХАЛЫҚ КОМИССАРИАТЫ

The article considers the radical changes in the field of education, which began with the establishment of Soviet power in Kazakhstan, the role of the People's Commissariat of Education of Kazakhstan in the active implementation of the secular education system. The People's Commissariat for Education raises the issue of decisions and concrete work plans to address pressing issues such as school construction, textbooks and staff shortages in line with the secular education system in Kazakhstan. The article analyzes the positions of the Bolsheviks, who supported the introduction of a secular education system in Kazakhstan, and their views, such as ignoring the continuity of national ideology and educational traditions.In particular, the operation of madrassas operating on Kazakh soil before the October Revolution was banned and considered restricted as a religious education.Similar restrictions were applied to Russian-tolerant schools that began to operate under Tsarist Russia.It is no secret that the secular education system has manyadvantages. However, his first difficulties in Kazakhstan were many.It was especially closely connected with the inability of the Kazakh people to mobilize their children for regular school work due to their nomadic pastoralism. There was also a high demand for textbooks in the Kazakh language and specialists with special education. It was the People's Commissariat for Education that resolved these pressing issues and ensured the regularity of work in this area.

Government through clanship: Governing Ethiopia’s Somali pastoralists through a community-based social protection programme

Drawing on an analysis of the implementation of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in the Somali periphery, we consider how the programme is promoted as an ‘innovative’ social protection programme that links food security with development projects. Underpinning its ‘innovative’ role is a community-based approach, focusing upon the institutions, values and capacities of a community. Taking the case of the nomadic pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Somali region, we consider the role of clans as the ‘dominant’ grassroot socio-political organizations. Our analysis, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork shows how in the implementation of PSNP the mobilization and (re)deployment of clanship values and rules create legible and governable Somali pastoral subjects. This is in line with the Ethiopian state’s conception of ‘improvement’ and ‘modern’ way of life based on sedentary-based development and governance. We illustrate how clan leaders unwittingly (re)organize their clan (leadership) values and capacities to support this project. We argue that clan-based implementation of PSNP has become an ‘effective’ mechanism of extending state power and governing nomadic pastoralists, leading to changes in relations of authority and in forms of (inter)subjectivity between pastoralists, their clan (leaders) and the state. Towards this end, we put forward the concept of ‘government through clanship’ to reflect the assemblage of these practices, processes and changes which would offer critical analytical insights into social policies claimed to be community-based.

The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians.

The diversity of Central Asians has been shaped by multiple migrations and cultural diffusion. Although ancient DNA studies have revealed the demographic changes of the Central Asian since the Bronze Age, the contribution of the ancient populations to the modern Central Asian remains opaque. Herein, we performed high-coverage sequencing of 131 whole genomes of Indo-European-speaking Tajik and Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz populations to explore their genomic diversity and admixture history. By integrating the ancient DNA data, we revealed more details of the origins and admixture history of Central Asians. We found that the major ancestry of present-day Tajik populations can be traced back to the admixture of the Bronze Age Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex and Andronovo-related populations. Highland Tajik populations further received additional gene flow from the Tarim mummies, an isolated ancient North Eurasian–related population. The West Eurasian ancestry of Kyrgyz is mainly derived from Historical Era populations in Xinjiang of China. Furthermore, the recent admixture signals detected in both Tajik and Kyrgyz are ascribed to the expansions of Eastern Steppe nomadic pastoralists during the Historical Era.

Genome-wide DNA methylation status of Mongolians exhibits signs of cellular stress response related to their nomadic lifestyle

BackgroundEpigenetics is crucial for connecting environmental stresses with physiological responses in humans. Mongolia, where nomadic livestock pastoralism has been the primal livelihood, has a higher prevalence of various chronic diseases than the surrounding East Asian regions, which are more suitable for crop farming. The genes related to dietary stress and pathogenesis of related disorders may have varying epigenetic statuses among the human populations with diverse dietary cultures. Hence, to understand such epigenetic differences, we conducted a comparative analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation of Mongolians and crop-farming East Asians.MethodsGenome-wide DNA methylation status of peripheral blood cells (PBCs) from 23 Mongolian adults and 24 Thai adults was determined using the Infinium Human Methylation 450K arrays and analyzed in combination with previously published 450K data of 20 Japanese and 8 Chinese adults. CpG sites/regions differentially methylated between Mongolians and crop-farming East Asians were detected using a linear model adjusted for sex, age, ethnicity, and immune cell heterogeneity on RnBeads software.ResultsOf the quality-controlled 389,454 autosomal CpG sites, 223 CpG sites were significantly differentially methylated among Mongolians and the four crop farming East Asian populations (false discovery rate < 0.05). Analyses focused on gene promoter regions revealed that PM20D1 (peptidase M20 domain containing 1), which is involved in mitochondrial uncoupling and various processes, including cellular protection from reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thermogenesis, was the top differentially methylated gene. Moreover, gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that biological processes related to ROS metabolism were overrepresented among the top 1% differentially methylated genes. The promoter regions of these genes were generally hypermethylated in Mongolians, suggesting that the metabolic pathway detoxifying ROS might be globally suppressed in Mongolians, resulting in the high susceptibility of this population to various chronic diseases.ConclusionsThis study showed a significantly diverse DNA methylation status among Mongolians and crop-farming East Asians. Further, we found an association between the differentially methylated genes and various metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Knowledge of the epigenetic regulators might help in proper understanding, treatment, and control of such disorders, and physiological adaptation in the future.

Metagenomic profiles of Dermacentor tick pathogens from across Mongolia, using next generation sequencing.

Tick-borne diseases are a major public health concern in Mongolia. Nomadic pastoralists, which make up ~ 26% of Mongolia’s population, are at an increased risk of both tick bite exposure and economic loss associated with clinical disease in herds. This study sought to further characterize tick-borne pathogens present in Dermacentor ticks (n = 1,773) sampled in 2019 from 15 of Mongolia’s 21 aimags (provinces). The ticks were morphologically identified and sorted into 377 pools which were then screened using Next-Generation Sequencing paired with confirmatory PCR and DNA sequence analysis. Rickettsia spp. were detected in 88.33% of pools, while Anaplasma spp. and Bartonella spp. were detected in 3.18 and 0.79% of pools, respectively. Khentii had the highest infection rate for Rickettsia spp. (76.61%; CI: 34.65–94.79%), while Arkhangai had the highest infection rate for Anaplasma spp. (7.79%; CI:4.04–13.72%). The exclusive detection of Anaplasma spp. in tick pools collected from livestock supports previous work in this area that suggests livestock play a significant role in disease maintenance. The detection of Anaplasma, Bartonella, and Rickettsia demonstrates a heightened risk for infection throughout Mongolia, with this study, to our knowledge, documenting the first detection of Bartonella melophagi in ticks collected in Mongolia. Further research deploying NGS methods is needed to characterize tick-borne pathogens in other endemic tick species found in Mongolia, including Hyalomma asiaticum and Ixodes persulcatus.

The Control of the Desert Locusts (Schistocerca Gregaria) in Somalia During the Upsurge Between 2019 and 2021

The desert "empty quarter" area of Saudi Arabia, together with Oman and, Yemen, was hit by a cyclone in May 2018, that resulted in vegetation flourishing and enabled the locust population present to increase 400-fold over the following six months. Following a second cyclone in October 2018, the population continued to increase an estimated 8000-fold. Swarms of these locusts in March 2019 flew east into southern Iran and thence to India and Pakistan. A change in wind direction enabled others to fly south into Yemen, where a civil war hindered any control operations. From Yemen, swarms moved to Ethiopia and Somalia in October 2019 and later into Kenya. In contrast to most countries, nomadic pastoralists in Somalia are nearly two-thirds of the population and occupy about two-thirds of the country. The ecology of nomadic pastoralism is an adaptation to an environment in which the availability of water and grass are critical factors. The life of pastoralists differs significantly from sedentary agriculturalists and is based on natural resource management that respects the limitations imposed on their environment, the necessity for mobility. To protect the pastoral system, the Government was concerned about the applying insecticides over vast areas due to the adverse impact on bees in the environment and on livestock that grazed on the pastures. Assisted by FAO, it was decided that locusts had to be controlled by the biopesticide, based on the fungus Metarhizium acridum, which produces a toxin that kills only locusts and related grasshoppers. The biopesticide, originally called "Green Muscle" was developed in the LUBILOSA Project organised with international funding and managed by CABI (Prior et al. 1992; Lomer et al. 2001). Developments in the production of the biopesticide had reduced costs and it is more effective to apply, although it takes longer to kill locusts, it can spread through a population and be particularly effective against the hopper bands of young locusts before they fly. Since 2004, the use of Metarhizium acridum had increased in China from only 5% to over 30% as over 100,000 hectares were treated. An advantage of the biopesticide is that birds are not killed and remain effective predators of the locusts. The programme confirmed the importance of using the biopesticide to protect the environment from the use of hazardous chemical insecticides. It also indicated that there were a number of Key challenges that had to be faced, namely: Difficulty in carry out field evaluations during intensive control operations; Remoteness of control areas where caged experiments could not be conducted; Limited number of government officers capable of carrying out field / laboratory assessments; Lack of suitable laboratory facilities to carry out subsequent observations on field collected samples; Narrow daily window for control operations with Metarhizium acridum operations are required as the air temperature quickly rises beyond 30°C as early as 11.00am; Sparse vegetation cover in semiarid areas affecting barrier treatment approach using aircraft.

Gillian G. Tan: Pastures of Change: Contemporary Adaptations and Transformations among Nomadic Pastoralists of Eastern Tibet

Gillian G. Tan: Pastures of Change: Contemporary Adaptations and Transformations among Nomadic Pastoralists of Eastern Tibet

Defining Dalma: an Incipient Mountain Identity?

Abstract. The Dalma archaeological culture of the northern Zagros has intrigued archaeologists for decades with a resurgence of interest as Dalma-related sherds are found at several sites recently excavated in Iraqi Kurdistan. Research into Dalma has focused on painted and surface-manipulated vessels that are highly distinctive, especially when contrasted with the contemporary widespread black-on-buff painted ceramic traditions of Greater Mesopotamia and southern Iran. Several archaeometric investigations have established that Dalma pottery was always locally produced regardless of where it is found and shows a high degree of microscopic variation in fabrics and production methods despite the apparent uniformity of vessel shapes and decoration patterns. In order to explain this phenomenon, archaeologists have repeatedly argued that groups of pastoral nomads seasonally migrated between Dalma communities and the surrounding regions, facilitating communication within the Dalma territory and producing Dalma cooking vessels with distinct surface markings as needed. However, this model lacks supporting evidence for the existence of highly specialized, long-range nomadism during the Chalcolithic and it does not necessarily explain the centuries-long sustained marked difference between small-scale, village-based Dalma communities and the surrounding societies that were undergoing profound social transformations. Instead, I argue, the Dalma archaeological culture reflects a deliberate rejection of these new forms of social organization by communities who preferred to maintain their adaptive, egalitarian lifeways in the northern Zagros highlands.

In search of a nomadic pastoralism for the 21st century. A transdisciplinary development of future scenarios to foster a social-ecological transformation in Mongolia

Nomadic pastoralism is of vital importance for grasslands worldwide. As one of the largest, widely intact, temperate grasslands in the world, the eastern Mongolian steppe looks back on a millennia-old tradition of nomadic pastoralism. Thus, this type of use of the ecosystem plays an important role in providing and maintaining ecosystem functions, e.g. seed dispersal, nutrient distribution and composition of plant communities. In addition, the nomadic way of life has important cultural and social functions. Global change processes like urbanisation, globalisation, digitalisation and climate change confront societies worldwide with the need for substantial sustainability transformations. While pastoralists are also strongly affected by these changes, their experiences and way of life, which have been evolving and adapting for millennia, can prove very helpful in addressing the transformation challenges. With this paper, we aim to reflect a new form of nomadic pastoralism for Mongolia in the twenty-first century. Implementing a transdisciplinary research process, we conducted a series of stakeholder workshops, surveys and co-writing periods, involving pastoralists, local and national authorities, economic and conservation actors, as well as scientific project partners from a wide range of disciplines. In doing so, we developed exploratory scenarios of contrasting plausible futures of the Mongolian steppe.

Aligning Trends in Climatic Parameters and Nomads’ Indigenous Knowledge about Climate Change in Central Iran (Case Study: Semirom Town)

Abstract Nomadic pastoral communities are considered some of the most vulnerable to climate change. While Indigenous knowledge can play an effective role in mitigating or responding to some impacts of climate change, the extent of their capacity to adapt their livestock and rangeland management is under question. This research aims to assess the scope and applicability of climate change–related knowledge acquired in the management of summer rangeland, with a case study in Semirom, Isfahan Province, Iran. To do so, objective weather conditions (precipitation, minimum temperatures, and maximum temperatures) were evaluated using the Mann–Kendall nonparametric test and compared with subjective evaluations by nomad community members. Specifically, the study targeted a community of 7700 members of the Qashqai, a conglomeration of nomadic tribes in Iran. Their understanding of the weather was evaluated using focus groups and self-administered questionnaires, with a descriptive approach to data analysis. The findings of the climatic investigation revealed a possible shift in the climate in the study area, particularly in winter and autumn. The findings of subjective evaluation showed similar changes in wind, precipitation, and temperature to be the main characteristics of climate change in the region, with about 90% of informants directly citing decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature and wind speeds. The community evaluation also highlighted some adaptations to climate change, such as delays in beginning the seasonal migration, increased reliance on concrete homes, reservoir construction, decreasing livestock yields, and increasing diversification of resources to feed livestock. Understanding the perceptions of nomadic pastoralists, their meteorological basis, and ongoing climate adaptations can facilitate governmental planning.

Resource competition between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in southern Taraba State, Nigeria

This article entitled “Resource Competition between Nomadic Pastoralists and Sedentary Crop Farmers in Southern Taraba State, Nigeria” aimed at exploring the dynamics of resource competition as it affected nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in Southern Taraba State, Nigeria. Research design adopted was descriptive that depended on judgmental sampling technique. Secondary sources of data collection (books, journal articles, monographs, internet materials among others) were sourced from Nigerian libraries and internet. The documentary data were subjected to content validity before qualitatively analyzed into the study. Findings revealed that environmental degradation caused by climate change and shrinking of Lake Chad Basin was the remote factors that trigger resource competition between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in Southern Taraba State, Nigeria. The resource competition has negative consequences on economy, humanitarian, political and social life of the people. Federal government has proposed Cattle Colony, National Livestock Development Plan, Rural Grazing Area, while Taraba State government promulgated Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranching Establishment Law No. 7 of 2017. Regrettably, the resource competition continues unabatedly hence the adoption of Relative Deprivation Theory to deepen the understanding of the series of crises between farmers and herders in Southern Taraba State, Nigeria. The study recommends that federal government should fund ranches; establish National Climate Change Commission as well as revive Lake Chad Basin Commission. These would be panacea for resource competition between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in Southern Taraba State, Nigeria.

Resource competition between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in southern Taraba State, Nigeria

Resource competition between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary crop farmers in southern Taraba State, Nigeria

A survey of laxoox/canjeero, a traditional Somali flatbread: production styles

Flatbreads are traditional food products of ancient origin, still produced and appreciated in their original locations and beyond, having spread through historical and modern migration. While the history and preparation of Somali flatbread, known as canjeero in southern regions and laxoox in northern regions, has been shared orally for generations among the women who cook it at home, it has not been the object of scientific studies. An in-field study was therefore carried out in various cities in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethiopia’s Somali State to document the formulation, production methods, and consumption patterns of this Somali flatbread. Laxoox/canjeero production was found to be relatively homogenous, but the data revealed two significant divergences: in bread formulation and in the procedure for structure development. These divergences result from disparities in the mechanization of bread production between rural and urban, and from the destruction of infrastructure, including food processing machines in public markets, leading up to the Somali civil war. An original framework of four production styles (“heritage,” “new heritage,” “innovative,” and “global”) illustrates these divergences in detail. Heritage production is linked to the historic era of nomadic Somali pastoralism, while the other three styles originated in civil conflict and continue today.Graphical abstract

A satellite perspective on the movement decisions of African elephants in relation to nomadic pastoralists

AbstractThe African savannah ecosystem is populated by nomadic pastoralists who herd livestock in the day and corral them at night in temporary enclosures, called bomas, to protect them. The number and distribution of bomas on the savannah is important from an ecological perspective and may have a significant impact on wildlife movement. However, no study has yet examined this relationship. Here, using very high‐resolution satellite imagery from two time periods, we quanitified changes in boma distribution and density across an area of 3377 km2 in the Laikipia‐Samburu ecosystem of northern Kenya between 2011 and 2019. To assess wildlife movement in relation to bomas, we used a GPS data set on African bush elephant Loxodonta africana movement from 27 collared matriarchs representing herds of 9–15, covering 112 467 hourly GPS fixes over 31 months between 2018 and 2020. Our results showed a more than 46% increase in the total number of human‐built structures between 2011 and 2019, the majority of which were bomas, representing a 21.9% increase in human‐modified land area. Elephants readily adjusted their foraging habits and itineraries in this habitat shared with humans, who were also nomadic in space and time. Assessing the night–day activity ratio, we found elephants move more nocturnally when in closer proximity to bomas, particularly during the dry season. This temporal separation means elephants avoid the times humans are active in and around bomas while still accessing required resources—water and forage. The temporal shift was stronger during the dry season when shared resources are scarce. Using daily travel distance as a metric, we show elephants moved further in closer proximity to bomas which was likely linked to the need to travel between forage patches. Given the rise in human settlements, understanding the consequences of animals' behavioral adjustments is critical to understand the long‐term population viability of elephant populations.

Grammar of Geopolitics: Geopolitical Imaginations of Farmer-herder Conflicts in Nigeria

The farmer-herder conflicts (FHCs) in Nigeria have aggravated in recent years, and so too has its scholarly inquiry. However, there is yet a critical geopolitics analysis of the conflicts despite their geopolitical manifestations. This paper explores the geopolitical imagination of the conflicts based on the “ Grammar of Geopolitics approach” of Gearóid Tuathail. Data used were newspapers’ stories and supplemented by government and independent bodies’ reports. The article shows that the conflicts are represented with ecological and socio-political storylines with local, regional, and global inclinations. They are imagined as evolving from local disagreements to entangle regional political crises and shaped by global environmental shocks (especially climate change) on local communities. The geopolitical storyline of the Nigerian government portrays the conflict as entrenched in lands and amplified by regional crises. The administration’s proposed socio-spatial arrangement (cattle colony) to segregate nomadic herders from arable farmers to avert violence has failed to gain traction in Nigeria’s various areas. The policy itself contradicts the ancient system of nomadic pastoralists, who flourish in smooth space and would not thrive in a constrained striated space. Thus, apart from addressing the environmental and ecological problems associated with the conflicts, the issue of regional geopolitical dynamics within Nigeria and the West Africa region has to be considered. Removal of regional barriers to access and inclusion of the pastoralists in resource use via a trans-regional framework recognizing local needs and disparities is vital. The paper indicates that the grammar of the geopolitics model can handle the media discourse of the FHCs in Nigeria well and helps to organize the narratives (if corroborated with extant scholarly literature as in the case of climate change-FHCs nexus) in such a way that avoids falling into inherently subjective trappings of the media storylines. Thus, the model is best suited for its purpose–to analyze geopolitical imaginations emanating from media sources.

Promoting Peace and Managing Farmer-Herder Conflict: The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Agogo, Ghana

AbstractContinued clashes between nomadic pastoralists and farmers generate concerns about the capacity of community-based civil society organizations to effectively navigate conflict resolution in Agogo Traditional Area (ATA), Ghana. The Agogo and Fulani associations ostensibly manage farmer-herder conflict but with mixed results. Setrana argues that, unlike foreign or international civil society organizations, community-based associations play important roles in managing conflict because they often have better cultural understanding. The success of such organizations, however, depends on whether they are perceived as indigenous or non-indigenous. This binary framework often leads to a winner-takes-all attitude and rarely results in sustainable conflict resolution.

UNDERSTANDING THE STATE BUILDING OF MOUNTED PASTORAL NOMADS ON SEDENTATION AND MERCANTILE ACTIVITY OF KHAZAR KHANATE AND VOLGA BULGARS

The mounted pastoral nomadism was the dominant socio-economical system in Desht-i Kipchak steppes for thousands of years. However, the state building methods and effectiveness of state building apparatus of mounted pastoral nomadic people were subject of debate for researchers. The commerce and sedentation were two important factors in understanding the debatable subjects of this sedantation processes of mounted pastoral nomads. Khazar Khanate and Volga Bulgars were taken as foundations of this study for analyzing and these two factors; sedentation and commerce. After giving very brief historical background about mounted pastoral nomads, Khazar Khanate and Volga Bulgars, this study focuses on describing mercantile activity of these two states as well as their roles transcontinental trade roads. The Islamic sources and material findings are taken into consideration while describing the relation between commercial activity and state building process of Khazar Khanates and Volga Bulgars. Finally, the study concludes the research on the efficiency of commercial activity, and how this efficiency determined the state building as well as sedentation of mounted pastoral nomads. Key words: Mounted Pastoral Nomads, Sedentation, State building, Commerce

Hotspots in a cold land-reported cases of rabies in wildlife and livestock in Mongolia from 2012-2018.

The epidemiological profile of rabies virus within Mongolia remains poorly characterized despite 21,302 domestic animal cases being reported between 1970–2005. This lack of knowledge is particularly concerning given that roughly 26% of the population lives a pastoral herding lifestyle and livestock production contributes up to 18% of Mongolia's total gross domestic product (GDP). The gaps in knowledge of the rabies disease ecology within Mongolia combined with the lack of routine vaccination of domestic animals and wildlife poses a significant threat to the more than 60 million heads of livestock within Mongolia. Animal rabies case data from the General Authority for Veterinary Services and National Center for Zoonotic Diseases were used in this study. Each data point included year of report, an animal descriptor, geographic coordinates and the aimag (province) of origin. A total of 2,359 animal rabies cases were reported between 2012–2018. Cattle were the most commonly reported animal overall (861 cases), followed by goats (268), sheep (251) and dogs (221) within the domestic animal category. Red foxes were responsible for most reported wildlife cases (317) followed by wolves (151). Most rabid animals were reported in the Khuvsgul, Uvurkhangai and Govi‐Altai aimags, and a positive correlation was found between livestock numbers per soum and the number of rabies cases reported. Rabies poses a significant threat to the Mongolian economy and the health of human and animal populations within Mongolia. The close association of the nomadic pastoralists with both domestic animals and wildlife represents a significant threat for disease emergence and necessitates studies that describe the ecology of rabies, which may threaten these populations.

Making and unmaking the state in the Horn of Africa: A deep-time perspective

In this article, I intend to use archaeology’s understanding of deep time and infrastructure to explore the ways in which state-making has been challenged in the Horn of Africa during the last two millennia. I will take a long-term approach to state ecology and state resistance so as to eschew the presentist bias that is all too frequent in political analyses, particularly in Africa, and that prevents us from understanding some of the deep undercurrent that explain contemporary phenomena. The Horn is an ideal case for this kind of inquiry because it has some of the oldest state polities south of the Sahara; state trajectories in the region are non-linear and fraught with obstacles, though surprisingly persistent, and small-scale, stateless societies have proved to be extremely persistent, both in the periphery and at the heart of the state. Here I will explore three themes that are illustrative of the relationship between state-building, infrastructures and resistance in the borderlands of the Horn of Africa: the anti-infrastructural ethos of nomadic pastoralists; internal frontiers or zones of difference, and liminal ecologies, such as swamps and escarpments, which defy state control, technologies and imaginaries.

Steppe Generosity: Kinship, social reputations, and perceived need drive generous giving in a non-anonymous allocation game among Mongolian pastoral nomads

This study explores generosity among Mongolian pastoral nomads using a recipient identity-conditioned heuristic (RICH) allocation game in which study participants could allocate experimental funds among themselves and non-anonymous individuals in their local community. Allocation games were conducted with a sample of forty-six male and female pastoral household heads in Tosontsengel, Mongolia. Results indicate there were positive relationships between players' social reputations for being hardworking, skilled pastoralists, and generous and the amount of money they received from others. Players also gave more money to kin than non-kin. The results also indicate that players' allocation decisions were driven primarily by kinship and players' assessment of others' relative need.