In connection with the ERC funded project “From small-scale cooperative herding groups to nomadic empires – a cross-cultural approach, a workshop will be arranged on Thursday 6th of November in Tromsø, Norway.
Time: Thursday November 6 10:00-14:00
Room: “Ny- Ålesund” 2nd floor, Fram Centre, Tromsø, Norway.
There will also be possible to attend the workshop on Teams, the link is provided in the program below.
Guro and Wurihan launched fieldwork for COMPLEXITY, focusing on Mongolian herders. Guro maps social networks and uses experimental games to study cooperation, while Wurihan examines animal health and cooperation in handling disease outbreaks. They are now heading to Övörkhangai Province for interviews.
July 1st this year fieldwork was officially launched for COMPLEXITY.
Guro, a PhD-student on the project, and Wurihan, a postdoc on the project started their journey towards Mongolia and their research among herders.
Thy started their journey from the capital Ulaanbaatar where they met up with local connections and networks.
The focus of their projects are somewhat different, yet interlinked through the lens of cooperation.
Guro’s research will include mapping social networks and experimental games. Experimental games are a widespread research method to investigate human behavior, such as cooperation.
By combining these approaches, Guro will be able to examine the importance of kinship, reciprocity, network position and social environment for those the herders choose to cooperate with.
Wurihan, is more focused on using participant observation to explore the role of animal health and how cooperation affects handling of the outbreak of animal diseases.
After a couple of days in Ulaanbaatar, they set their course towards herding communities.
They are travelling to Övörkhangai Province, which among other things have the location of the ancient city of Karakorum.
On their way, they also stopped by the Erdene Zuu Monastery, which is the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.
Construction of this monastery started in 1585 after a meeting with the 3rd Dalai Lama and the declaration of Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion of Mongolia.
Some pictures below, all taken by Guro and Wurihan (C).
Stay tuned for more updates!
Is livestock is an unstable form of wealth limiting social differentiation? This study demonstrates that pastoral wealth follows the same pattern as that of all forms of wealth. Wealth accumulates over time, and while the highest earners can save much of their income (i.e., newborn livestock), low earners cannot. Thus, high earners can accumulate more wealth over time.
Just got a paper published in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications.
The paper is open accessed and can be found here.
Using governmental statistics from 2001 to 2018 on reindeer herding in Norway, this paper investigates long term wealth differentials in the reindeer husbandry in Norway.
Noteworthy, the data do not represent a sample of reindeer herders but encompass the entire population of licensed reindeer herders in Norway
The paper argues against a dominant view that livestock, as the primary source of wealth, limits the development of inequalities, making pastoralism unable to support complex or hierarchical organisations (see also this page).
In sum, there is nothing apparent in pastoral adaptation, with livestock as the main base of wealth that levels wealth inequalities and limits social differentiation.
You can read the full paper here.
Annoyingly, the journal cropped one of the figures in the pdf version of the paper so that relevant information is missing. So, Fig.7 should be viewed online until this is corrected (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02316-3/figures/7).
But, while we looked at the wealthy and poor, another way to look at wealth differentials is to look at how the poor are doing relative to the middle class, i.e. the 50/10 ratio.
In effect, we can compare the median reindeer number (the number of reindeer a herder right in the middle of the distribution has) with the tenth-percentile reindeer number (the number of reindeer someone near the bottom of the income distribution has).
If the 50/10 ratio shrinks it means that poorer households are catching up with the ‘middle-class’.
While not addressed in the paper, here is a figure showing that the poor are catching up to the middle-class, especially in recent years.
Join us as we explore the world of nomadic herding, from the traditional knowledge and skills used by nomadic herders to the economic and environmental benefits of this unique way of life. Discover how nomadic herding can be a sustainable and valuable part of the modern world.
Like so many else, I’ve been experimenting with ChatbotGPT from openai.com. I’m completely blown away by the possibilities and the level of content that it manages to create.
To test it, I asked it to give me some catchy title suggestions for a blog post about nomadic pastoralism. One of the suggestions was “Nomadic Herding: A Sustainable Way of Life”!
So here it goes; I think it was pretty good but see for yourself:
write a 800 words blog post titled “Nomadic Herding: A Sustainable Way of Life”
Nomadic herding is a traditional way of raising livestock that involves moving from one place to another in search of pasture and water. This way of life has been practised for thousands of years and continues to thrive in many parts of the world. As a result, nomadic herders have a deep connection to the land and a wealth of traditional knowledge and skills to manage their animals and sustain their way of life.
But what makes nomadic herding a sustainable way of life? To answer this question, it’s essential to understand the unique characteristics of nomadic herding and how it can benefit the environment and local communities.
One of the critical characteristics of nomadic herding is the use of large, mobile herds of animals. This allows nomadic herders to move their animals to different areas in search of fresh pasture and water, and it will enable the land to recover after the animals have grazed. In addition, this type of mobility helps to prevent overgrazing and soil erosion and helps maintain the land’s health.
In addition, nomadic herders have a deep understanding of the land and its resources, using this knowledge to manage their animals and grazing patterns. This allows them to avoid damaging sensitive areas, such as wetlands and riverbanks, and to maximize the productivity of the land. Nomadic herders also use various traditional herding techniques, such as rotational grazing, to manage their animals and maximize the benefits of grazing.
Another critical aspect of nomadic herding is its role in conserving biodiversity. Nomadic herders often move their animals to different areas in search of pasture and water, which can help preserve their animals’ genetic diversity. In addition, nomadic herding can help to maintain the diversity of plant and animal species in a given area. This is because nomadic herders often graze their animals on land unsuitable for agriculture, which can help preserve natural habitats and ecosystems.
Nomadic herding also provides significant economic and social benefits to local communities. Nomadic herders provide food, fibre, and other products essential to many rural areas’ economies. In addition, nomadic herding can help create jobs and support local businesses. Nomadic herders also play a vital role in maintaining cultural traditions and identity, and they can help preserve a given area’s cultural heritage.
Despite the many benefits of nomadic herding, some challenges must be addressed to ensure its sustainability. One of the biggest challenges is the loss of pasture and water due to the expansion of agriculture, mining, and other forms of development. This can make it difficult for nomadic herders to find suitable grazing land for their animals, leading to conflict with other land users. In addition, nomadic herders must deal with the challenges of climate change, which can lead to changes in precipitation patterns and other impacts on the land.
To address these challenges, it is essential to support nomadic herding and to recognize its value as a sustainable way of life. This can be done through various measures, such as providing access to education, healthcare, and other services for nomadic herders.
This took me 5 minutes (or rather, it took 5 minutes to come up with the query to ChatbotGTP)… After that, I used Grammarly to freshen up some of the writing!
The ramifications are mind-blowing!!
Pastoralism, Climate Change and Policy 