ABSTRACT
Patterns of subsistence based on hunting, herding, farming, pastoralism, and nomadism all depend on the exploitation of herd animals and were all established during the prehistoric period yet they still survive at the present day. The cultural and environmental determinants of these social systems and the transitions between them have intrigued anthropologists e.g. Evans-Pritchard 1940, since the beginning of this century, but it has only been within the past decade or so that comparative studies have been carried out on pastoral economies. Khazanov maintains that the sources of pastoral nomadism in the Old World are now clear and that they can be directly linked to a food-producing economy. The insistence by Khazanov and other anthropologists that pastoralism can only develop from a society that practises agriculture may not apply in Africa, perhaps because there was no shortage of wild plant foods for both animals and people.
