ABSTRACT
The domestication of animals-particularly horses and camels as well as cattle, sheep, and goats beginning in the 9th century BC-made possible one of the oldest and most widespread of human societal adaptations to the natural environment. Generally predominant in semiarid or desert regions, where rainfall is insufficient for sedentary agriculture, pastoralism has involved only minimal changes in the ecological contexts in which it has been practiced. Humans and the animal herds that provide their sustenance adapt to seasonal changes by migrating on a regular basis between steppe or savanna grasslands and hill and riverine areas. Movements are timed to insure that there will be sufficient water and plant cover for the pastoral group in question to pasture their herds in the areas they occupy at a given point in the annual migratory cycle. Pastoral groups tend to establish predictable migration routes and to return to the same grazing lands year after year. Thus, in both pasture areas and transit zones pastoral peoples develop a sense of territoriality, which has often led to violent clashes with groups that seek to obstruct their movement or encroach on their watering places or grazing lands.
