Adaptation is a general term for the way people react to their physical and social situations. It is useful, however, to think of it over the length of history, as a process of coevolution. Co-evolution is a powerful concept in evolutionary biology and I think it has some pertinence to our discussions of the relations among farmers, herders, and their livestock. If we allow that each of these groups may interact with others of its own kind and the environment, then over time we may see the rationale for the kinds of economic and social mixes that are described in this seminar. Rather than trying to identify types and to see cases of nomadism as a unity, we should bear in mind what evolutionary biologists know well: that both the physical and social environments of each case are different and consequently affect the adaptive stance that each “species” takes.
In the long history of pastoral adaptations, there have been several significant innovations that have altered mobility, social structure, and relations with other mobile herders and people of the settlements. Among these, but scarcely discussed in the seminar because of its focus on narrow slices of time, are the following, not necessarily in historical order:
The keeping of dogs
The use of pack animals, especially donkeys
The introduction of the woven tent
The introduction of horses and camels for riding
The introduction of pick-up trucks and roads
The commodification of wool
Markets in which to sell and buy goods
The introduction of tea and coffee
The introduction of firearms
The forced settlement of nomads — state control
Circumscription of pastures through changes in land tenure
Availability of wage labor
Provisioning of livestock and people with feed and water Loss of land to agriculture and degradation of pastures Changes in demand for pastoral products Access to education for pastoralist children (fig. 14.15)
Police states with close control over nomads
In the twenty-first century, all these factors obtain for nearly all pastoralists. Eight thousand years ago, when the herders of Tepe Tula’i ventured from the steppe and into the zagros Mountains, none of these obtained. The history of pastoral nomadism is one of adaptation to these factors, which affected both mobility and social life.
Despite such changes, there is a core adaptation that cannot have changed because the most fundamental of the factors — climate, terrain, species of livestock, and vegetation — have not changed significantly. That is not to say that they have been constant; rather that any changes have occurred within narrow limits. In the Near East, these factors necessitate mobility and flexibility in the conformation of social groups.
World History
