Beginning of Pastoralism
“Somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, one or more groups of humans in one or more locations discovered that they could control and domesticate certain species for human consumption. Thus, instead of having to roam in search of their food sources, they could bring the sources “home” to them. This is sometimes referred to as the “Neolithic” or New Stone Age revolution, and it was revolutionary not only for how humans worked and provided food but for every aspect of their cultures and social relationships, as well as for the species they fed on. The revolution of domestication actually culminated in not one but two new economic system. The first we will describe as pastoralism. Pastoralism, originating from the word “pasture”, is the production of food predominantly from the exploitation of domesticated animals. It is what might conventionally be called “herding” or “ranching”. Thus, the primary “work” to be done was tending and exploiting – milking, breeding, and slaughtering – such animals as cattle, sheep, goats, llamas, horse, pigs, and other smaller creatures, depending on the locally available species.
In the vast majority of these societies – and they were spread across the world, from grasslands of east Africa to the mountains of Central Asia and the plains of North America – the ownership and control of herd animals was the prerogative of men. Women and children might do the day-to-day work of tending the animals – milking the cattle and so on – but it was men who decided when one would be slaughtered or traded or sold for some purpose. Thus, in terms of production and even more so by control of production, pastoralism was a man’s world, and the gender division of labor devolved into a gender inequality. Men’s status was much higher than women’s in typical pastoral societies. Men accordingly tended to be the heads of family and household; again, women might wield real “domestic” power in the home, but their political power was limited compared to men.” (Jack David Eller, 158)
Looking back to the hunting-gathering stage, human being depends directly on the natural environment resources for getting the basic need by collecting or gathering the naturally grown leaves, fruits, roots, etc from the surrounding grown vegetation, and also from hunting, trapping and fishing activities. The nomadic people like the Eskimos, the pigmies, the bushman, the Australian aborigines are some of the examples of people who carried out such activities. With the advancement of human knowledge and skills, human being started taming wild animals and started a semi nomadic life. They started growing vegetation and domesticated animals like sheep, goats, pigs, horse, etc. However, they move from one place to another along with the herds of their animals in search of fodder, vegetation and water. Thus they became herders.
Pastoralism, as a means of livelihood by using of extensive grazing on rangelands for livestock production, is an important economic and cultural way of life for between 100 and 200 million people throughout the world. Many pastoralists can be found in Africa; however pastoralism is also practiced in dry and sub-humid lands in the Middle East, South and East Asia, South America and Europe. It can
also be mentioned that in sub-Saharan Africa about 16% of the population relies on pastoralism, and in some countries, such as Somalia and Mauritania, pastoralists represent a majority of the population.