Throughout the world's arid regions, and particularly in northern and eastern Africa, formerly nomadic pastoralists are undergoing a transition to settled life. This reference shows that although pastoral settlement is often encouraged by international development agencies and national governments, the social, economic and health consequences of sedentism are not inevitably beneficial.

Drawing upon the author's extensive field research among pastoral peoples in the Middle East, India, and the Mediterranean, and on more than 30 years of comparative study of pastoralists around the world, Pastoralists is an authoritative synthesis of the varieties of pastoral life. At an ethnographic level, the concise volume provides detailed analyses of divergent types of pastoral societies, including segmentary tribes, tribal chiefdoms, and peasant pastoralists. At the same time, it addresses a set of substantive theoretical issues: ecological and cultural variation, equality and inequality, hierarchy and the basis of power, and state power and resistance. The book validates "pastoralists" as a conceptual category even as it reveals the diversity of societies, subsistence strategies, and power arrangements subsumed by that term.

Drawing upon the author's extensive field research among pastoral peoples in the Middle East, India, and the Mediterranean, and on more than 30 years of comparative study of pastoralists around the world, Pastoralists is an authoritative synthesis of the varieties of pastoral life. At an ethnographic level, the concise volume provides detailed analyses of divergent types of pastoral societies, including segmentary tribes, tribal chiefdoms, and peasant pastoralists. At the same time, it addresses a set of substantive theoretical issues: ecological and cultural variation, equality and inequality, hierarchy and the basis of power, and state power and resistance. The book validates "pastoralists" as a conceptual category even as it reveals the diversity of societies, subsistence strategies, and power arrangements subsumed by that term.

A summary of archaeological work along the Dhofar plateau and its backslope into the Nejd of Southern Oman, this book documents survey and excavation of small-scale stone monuments and pastoral settlements.

"In the spring of 1973, the Baharvand tribe from the Luristan province of central western Iran prepared to migrate from their winter pastures to their summer camp in the mountains. Seasonal migration in spring and fall had been their way of life for as long as anyone in the camp could remember. They moved their camp and their animals-sheep, goats, horses, donkeys, and chickens-in order to find green pastures and suitable temperatures. That year, one migrating family in the tribe allowed an outsider to make the trip with them. Anthropology professor Frank Hole, accompanied by his graduate student, Sekandar Amanolahi-Baharvand, traveled with the family of Morad Khan as they migrated into the mountains. In this volume, Hole describes the journey, the modern and prehistoric sites along the way, and the people he traveled with. It is a portrait of people in transition-even as the family follows the ancient migration path, there are signs of economic and social change everywhere. Illustrated with maps, photos, and supplementary videos"--

Based on over twenty-five years of research and fieldwork, the Second Edition of Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Studying Pastoralism, Drought, and Development in Africa's Arid Lands, offers a highly readable and often humorous ethnographic description of the Maasai-speaking society of East Africa. This unique text details the story of how one society of livestock herders in northern Kenya has adapted to and survived both natural and human-induced disasters of recent times, including drought and famine, inter-pastoralist warfare, and the wide-scale intervention of international development and relief organizations. The Ariaal's determination to maintain their pastoral lifestyle while taking advantage of new health, employment, marketing, and education opportunities offered in the growing Kenyan towns provides a fascinating study of the dynamics of cultural change and the threat to cultural survival among East African pastoralists. This small, accessible ethnography offers a detailed look at pastoral ecology, life in an Ariaal community, the trials and tribulations of anthropological fieldwork, and problems of development and social change for Ariaal people.