The Walking Larder

Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation

Juliet Clutton-Brock, Juliet Clutton-Brock

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317598374
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Archäologie

This book is one of a series of more than 20 volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986, attempting to bring together not only archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, as well as academics from contingent disciplines, but also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. This text looks at human-animal interactions, especially some of the less well known aspects of the field. A number of studies in the book document some of the vast changes humankind has wrought upon the natural environment through the movement of various species of animals around the world. These chapters provide contributions to the understanding of contemporary ecological problems, especially the deforestation taking place to provide grazing for live-stock. The 31 contributions offer a shop-window of approaches, primarily from a biological perspective.

PASTORALISM

Introduction to pastoralism

JULIET CLUTTON-BROCK

Patterns of subsistence based on hunting, herding, farming, pastoralism, and nomadism all depend on the exploitation of herd animals and were all established during the prehistoric period yet they still survive at the present day. The cultural and environmental determinants of these social systems and the transitions between them have intrigued anthropologists (e.g. Evans-Pritchard 1940) since the beginning of this century, but it has only been within the past decade or so that comparative studies have been carried out on pastoral economies. Notable amongst these have been the publication (in English translation) of the work on pastoral nomadism by Khazanov (1984), and the reviews of Ingold (1980, 1984).

As discussed in Chapter 8 by Meadow, it might be logical to assume that there could be a continuity from the hunting of wild animals to the following of herds, and hence to pastoralism. Khazanov (1984) and other authors claim, however, that this has seldom, if ever, occurred. As discussed by Ingold (1980), the pressures induced by human social systems have resulted in a sequence of cultural changes that have followed the same pattern throughout Eurasia. This began with broad-spectrum hunting towards the end of the Pleistocene, which was replaced by dependence on a few species of large mammals as resources diminished and the human population increased. Change of climate, over-hunting, or the immigration of agriculturalists then resulted in settlement and the cultivation of plants. The generally accepted thesis is that it is only after agriculture and animal husbandry became well established that pastoral nomadism developed as a social system in Europe and Asia. However, as discussed later, plant cultivation as an essential intermediate stage between hunting and a pastoral economy is contended for southern Africa and South America, as well as, with perhaps less evidence, for the reindeer-herders of northern Europe.

Khazanov (1984) maintains that the sources of pastoral nomadism in the Old World are now clear and that they can be directly linked to a food- producing economy. He holds, as is now the general belief, that only people who were leading a relatively sedentary way of life and who had surpluses of vegetable food could domesticate hoofed animals. These food-producing economies spread from their core areas into new habitats, some of which could support settled husbandry but some, especially in arid regions, could support only mobile pastoralism. The work of Khazanov has been centred on the East European steppes, and, indeed, the basis for some of his ideas has been provided by the work of Shilov who discusses nomadism in Chapter 13. Zarins, in Chapter 14, presents archaeological evidence for the beginnings of pastoralism in Arabia, which was one outward extension from the Near Eastern centre of domestication, and he shows how, as the climate became progressively more arid, sheep and goats were replaced by camel-herding. Dhavalikar, with a similar theme but from a later period, in Chapter 15, discusses how successive droughts and famines forced the settled communities of the Deccan plateau of India to resort to pastoral nomadism in order to survive.

The traditions of herd management of reindeer in Lapland, together with some fascinating anecdotes, are described in Chapter 16 by Aikio. While accepting that the general view of reindeer-herding is that it is of relatively recent origin, perhaps dating to the end of the Middle Ages, Aikio personally believes that its beginnings are far more ancient and probably go back to the end of the Ice Age.

In Chapter 17, Tani describes his exhaustive study of how the shepherds of the transhumant flocks of sheep and goats in the Mediterranean countries train certain animals to lead the flocks. These flock-leaders may or may not be castrated and Tani discusses the origins and functions of castration in this context as well as drawing parallels with the castration of human males in the ancient world.

Khazanov (1984) discussed only briefly the origins of pastoralism in Africa and, indeed, they are only just beginning to be investigated. Cattle- herding in North and East Africa is discussed in Chapters 18 and 19. Whereas sheep and goats were undoubtedly brought into Africa from western Asia, there does seem to be some slight evidence to suggest that cattle may have been locally domesticated in North Africa (Clutton-Brock in Ch. 18). Robertshaw, in Chapter 19, gives the evidence for the first pastoralism in East Africa as being found from the late 3rd millennium BC. From the diversity of animal remains from archaeological sites and ethnographic accounts, he discusses the relationships between hunters and herders, attitudes of cultural superiority by pastoralists, and the question of stock-thieving by hunters; a topic that has also been discussed by Davidson in Chapter 6 and mentioned by Clutton-Brock in the Introduction to Section I of this book.

The insistence by Khazanov (1984) and other anthropologists that pastoralism can only develop from a society that practises agriculture may not apply in Africa, perhaps because there was no shortage of wild plant foods for both animals and people. Robertshaw claims that the pastoralists of East Africa were reluctant cultivators, and the evidence from the western Cape of South Africa indicates that the aboriginal Khoi (Hottentots) were never settled and never cultivated plants, with the exception of a narcotic (Klein 1986). The Khoi were originally hunter- gatherers who adopted, sometime after 2000 years ago, the sheep and cattle that had moved south through the continent with migrating people over the preceding millennium. Again, as discussed by Klein (1986) the Khoi may have obtained their cattle by raiding from Bantu immigrants. They used oxen as draught animals and sheep to provide milk and meat (Smith 1986).

In Chapter 20 Galaty describes the systems used by the Maasai for the naming and classification of their cattle. The mastery of pastoral cognition is gained through learning and experience which are today inevitably decreasing as young people turn towards school education.

The remaining four chapters in this section of the book are about camelid pastoralism in South America, a subject that has been little investigated until very recently. Chapters 21 and 22 by McGreevy and Brotherston, respectively, discuss the role of camelids before the Spanish Conquest and, in particular, the importance of the llama in Inca society. Browman, in Chapter 23, presents a review of the earliest evidence for camelid exploitation and the shift from hunting to pastoralism, which does appear to have preceded the cultivation of plants. These three chapters demonstrate how modern data on animal distributions and behaviour, literary sources, and the investigation of animal remains from archaeological sites can be combined to elucidate the history of ancient social systems and palaeoeconomies.

Finally, in these studies on camelid pastoralists, Rabey in Chapter 24 describes fieldwork that he has carried out amongst llama-herders in the hills and plains of the south central Andes. With the hill herdsmen Rabey describes what could be the most primitive form of pastoralism, which is merely an extension of hunting with very little control or ownership of the animals. If this is indeed a relic of an anciently established system of exploitation, it appears to support Aikio (Ch. 16) and to belie the theories of Khazanov (1984) that pastoralism only develops from true domestication. On the other hand, like much modern reindeer nomadism in northern Eurasia, this form of herd-following may involve the secondary use of feral animals, which were anciently domesticated, within a modern hunting economy, as discussed by Ingold (1980, p. 123).

At this point it may be helpful to explain some of the terms used in studies of pastoralism, using the definitions of Ingold (1980) and Khazanov (1984):

Hunters are food-extractors who are only interested in the dead animal, as discussed by Meadow in Chapter 8. Like other carnivores, the hunter interacts with prey only when it is about to be killed. All other social systems of food-producing protect the living animal until it is ready for slaughter.

Herd-following may apply to a human population that ranges over the same area in its annual cycle as the animal population, or it may apply to particular humans that are associated with particular herds of animals, in which case it is equivalent to ranching.

The rancher loosely owns herds of animals for exploitation of meat and other resources that are often marketed. In origin the animals may be wild, feral, or domestic but they live as wild animals except that their territory is usually restricted.

Nomads may be wandering hunters and gatherers or mobile pastoralists. However, the reasons for mobility in these two groups are so different that Khazanov considers that hunter-gatherers should be termed ‘wandering’ and the term ‘nomadism’ should be reserved for mobile pastoralists.

Pastoralists are divided by Khazanov into a number of different categories within two main groups. Pastoral nomadism proper, which is characterized by the absence of agriculture and is exemplified by, say, the pastoralists of the Sahara, or the ‘pure pastoralists’ of McGreevy (Ch. 21), and semi- nomadic pastoralism in which there is periodic changing of the pastures during the year but the cultivation of crops is also practised. This is the most common form of pastoralism.

Transhumants are agriculturalists living in the Mediterranean and southern Europe who move their livestock between mountain and lowland pastures.

These somewhat simplistic definitions are given here to clarify some of the terms used in this section of The walking larder: for further discussion see Ingold (1980, 1984) and Khazanov (1984). The intention of the chapters on pastoralism is to present a picture of the complicated and fascinating relationships between herd...