Pastoralists and nomads

Lesson 2 of 6 in "Ways of living", about 6 minutes

Pastoralism is a way of life based on herds: cattle, sheep, goats, camels, yaks, reindeer, llamas or horses. The animals turn grass and shrubs, which people cannot eat, into milk, meat, wool and hides. Pastoralists live where rain is scarce or the growing season short: the Sahel and Sahara, the Central Asian steppe, the Tibetan plateau, the Arctic tundra and the high Andes.

Nomad, pastoralist, transhumant

These words are often mixed up. A nomad is anyone with no fixed home who moves as a way of life. A pastoralist is a herder. Many pastoralists are nomadic, moving the whole household with the herd. Others practise transhumance, which means moving the animals between fixed seasonal pastures, often summer grazing in the mountains and winter grazing in the valleys, while keeping a home base.

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1. Winter pastures. Start in winter. The Bakarwal of Jammu and Kashmir keep their sheep and goats in the lower hills and plains near Jammu, where the cold is milder.
2. Birthing season. Young animals are born towards the end of winter or in spring. Herders time births so that mothers have new grass to eat when they need the most milk.
3. Spring migration. When the snow melts, the move begins. Bakarwal families walk their flocks over high passes for weeks. Sámi herders in northern Europe follow reindeer towards summer grazing.
4. Summer pastures. High or northern pastures are green for only a few months. Herds graze and gain weight. Moving on stops any one pasture from being eaten bare.
5. Autumn return. Before winter closes the passes, families bring the herds down by the same routes. Fences, dams, roads and borders increasingly block these old paths.
6. Sale and trade. Herders have always traded with farmers and towns. They sell animals, wool and ghee, and buy grain, cloth and tools. Then the herds settle into winter grazing again.

Why move?

Movement is the central skill. In dry lands, rain falls in patches. Grass that is lush this month is gone the next. By moving, herders follow fresh pasture, give grazed land time to recover and escape drought, snow and disease. Staying in one place would quickly strip the ground. What can look like wandering is a planned route worked out over generations.

Peoples of the herd

• Maasai, Samburu and Turkana in East Africa keep cattle, goats and sheep.
• Fulani, also called Fulbe or Peul, herd cattle across West Africa and the Sahel.
• Tuareg, who call themselves Kel Tamasheq, keep camels and goats in the Sahara.
• Bedouin herd camels, sheep and goats in the deserts of West Asia and North Africa.
• Mongolian and Kazakh herders keep horses, sheep, goats, cattle and camels on the steppe.
• Sámi in northern Europe and Nenets in Siberia herd reindeer.
• Quechua and Aymara herders keep llamas and alpacas in the high Andes.

India's herders

India has many pastoral peoples. The Gujjar and Bakarwal of Jammu and Kashmir take buffalo, sheep and goats to high meadows each summer. The Gaddi of Himachal Pradesh do the same with sheep and goats. The Raika, or Rabari, of Rajasthan and Gujarat are known for camels and sheep. The Toda of the Nilgiri hills in the south keep buffalo that are central to their religion.

Wealth on the hoof

For pastoralists, animals are far more than food. They are savings, since a herd grows by itself in good years. They are the means of marrying, since bridewealth is paid in livestock. They are the measure of a person's standing, and often the centre of ritual. Herders usually live from milk and from trading animals for grain, and slaughter sparingly.

Shared land, careful rules

Pasture is normally held in common by a clan or section, with rules on who may graze where and when. Among the Sámi, a group of herding families called a siida shares the work and the grazing. Outsiders have often mistaken common land for unowned land. In fact it is governed, only not by fences and title deeds.

Pressures today

Governments have long tried to settle nomads, seeing movement as disorder. Pasture has been lost to farms, wildlife parks, mines and fences, and borders have cut across old routes. Droughts are growing harsher in many dry regions. Yet research increasingly finds that mobile herding suits these lands better than fixed ranching. The United Nations has named 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in recognition of this.

Words in this lesson