Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Clivedurdle · 10-06-2006, 12:23 PM

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farm

Umm, in many parts of the world, sheep and goats are parts of pastoralist lifestyles, with camels, that cause great annoyance and warfare with the settled farming peoples.

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Pastoralism is a subsistence pattern in which people make their living by tending herds of large animals. The species of animals vary with the region of the world, but they are all domesticated herbivores that normally live in herds and eat grasses or other abundant plant foods. Horses are the preferred species by most pastoralists in Mongolia and elsewhere in Central Asia. In East Africa, it is primarily cattle. In the mountainous regions of Southwest Asia, it is mainly sheep and goats. It is often camels in the more arid lowland areas of the Southwest Asia and North and East Africa. Among the Saami people (or Lapps ) of northern Scandinavia, it is reindeer. Some pastoralists in northern Mongolia also herd reindeer. While the Saami mostly use their reindeer as a source of meat, the Dukha people (or Tsaatan ) of northern Mongolia milk and ride their reindeer much as other Mongolians do with horses.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/subsistence/sub_3.htm

Could the sell all you have and follow me thinking actually be something from a group wanting to return to a nomadic lifestyle?

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Pastoralism is most often an adaptation to semi-arid open country in which farming can not be easily sustained without importing irrigation water from great distances. Pastoralism is usually the optimal subsistence pattern in these areas because it allows considerable independence from any particular local environment. When there is a drought, pastoralists disperse their herds or move them to new areas. Farmers rarely have these options. They suffer crop failure and starvation in the same situation. A pastoral subsistence pattern reduces the risk when there is an irregular climatic pattern. This is especially true of nomadic pastoralism.

The animals herded by pastoralists are rarely killed for family use alone. Fresh meat is distributed throughout the community.

Clivedurdle · 10-06-2006, 12:30 PM

Many of the parables, for example about worrying about tomorrow, are actually examples of pastoralist versus settled ways of thinking. Farmers have to plan for the next year, pastoralists are driven by the search for good grazing on a daily basis. Allah's will for example is pastoralist thinking.

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10-06-2006, 12:30 PM	#22
Clivedurdle Contributor Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: London UK Posts: 16,024	Many of the parables, for example about worrying about tomorrow, are actually examples of pastoralist versus settled ways of thinking. Farmers have to plan for the next year, pastoralists are driven by the search for good grazing on a daily basis. Allah's will for example is pastoralist thinking.

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