Ilse Köhler-Rollefson
Traditional pastoral societies are fascinating to social anthropologists, but
animal scientists and economists despair over them because these groups subscribe to
supposedly outmoded means of animal production. Neither social nor natural
scientists appear to be aware of the crucial role of pastoralists in preserving
biodiversity in domestic livestock breeds and in making the continued human
exploitation of arid and other difficult environments possible.
The livestock rearing methods of traditional pastoralists are in many aspects alien to the western mind. Animal scientists have tended to consider pastoral production strategies as irrational, inefficient, and ecologically destructive. One of the most frequent complaints has centred on the large numbers of unproductive animals pastoralists supposedly keep, holding that their desire to increase herd sizes for prestige reasons inadvertedly leads to overgrazing. In the famous paradigm of 'the tragedy of the commons', advanced by ecologist G. Harding (1968), it was implied that pastoralists lack any sense of responsibility for their communally held pastures and that the eventual destruction of their environment was more or less preprogrammed into their production systems. Thanks to the research by social anthropologists, these false evaluations are now being revised. It has been shown that although pastoralists tend to build up their herds during times of plenty, these excess animals act as a buffer against dramatic losses during times of drought, improving survival chances (Mc Cabe, 1991). It has also been brought to light that many pastoral societies have developed elaborate protection systems for the preservation of the vegetational resources of their grazing areas (Shoup, 1990).
Creators of Indigenous Breeds
There is an additional important aspect to the indigenous knowledge system of
pastoralists that has been overlooked by animal and social scientists alike and
remains unacknowledged. Pastoralists must be regarded as crucial guardians of bio-
diversity, because they have developed and maintain a large variety of indigenous
livestock breeds. Many of these breeds are adapted to specific and often very
difficult environmental conditions in which high performance breeds perish. The loss
of the genetic resources represented by these indigenous breeds means a considerable
reduction of the potential for human exploitation of such zones. The nomads of the
arid zone, for instance, have created breeds that are able to live off scanty vegetation
and survive the seasonal fluctuations in the availability of grazing that are a
characteristic feature of this environment. Selected for hardiness and resistance to
disease and drought rather than high productivity and performance, they ensure the
long-term survival of the human groups that depend on them.
Virtually every pastoral group has created a specific and phenotypically distinct animal breed. This is a consequence of the fact that in traditional pastoral societies breeding stock is rarely if ever sold, and changes in ownership occur only within circumscribed social networks, at occasions such as births, circumcisions, marriages or other crucial stages in the life cycle. Hence, the exchange of genetic material is limited to the social network within a tribe or other endogamous unit.
Redistribution of genetic material between different social groups occurred only during raids of tribal warfare which were not uncommon among such groups as the Bedouins of the Somalis. But, by and large, the genetic composition of a social group's animals remained virtually unchanged over generations. In this respect the livestock holdings of a pastoral group resemble very closely the recognized herdbook of registered breeds of western cultures: both derive from a small original population and represent essentially closed gene pools.
There are further parallels between indigenous breeds and herdbook breeds. Pastoralists might be illiterate, but they memorize in great detail the pedigrees of their animals. Such inveterate camel breeders as the Rashaida in the Sudan (Köhler-Rollefson et al., 1992) and the Raika caste in Rajasthan (Köhler- Rollefson, 1992 a,b) keep mental records of their animals over seven or eight preceding generations, although they usually emphasize the female lines and conceptualize male animals only as sons of a certain dam.
Active selection for certain qualities is often limited to the male breeding animals, which are chosen with great discrimination on the basis of their dam's and other female relatives' performance, as well as disposition, conformation, colour and other varying criteria.
The one-humped camel furnishes an excellent example for the various processes involved in the development of indigenous livestock breeds. Animal scientists have expressed the opinion that the camel differentiated very little since its initial domestication and that few distinct breeds exist. However, in the Sudan alone, at least a dozen breeds are known, which are named after groups that keep them. Among them are the Rashaidi breed which is locally famous for its hardiness and milk performance, although animal scientists classified it as a transport breed. The Anafi and Bishareen are typical racing and riding breeds, very popular nowadays for export to the camel racing business in the Gulf States. The heavy Lahaween camel is a good meat producer, whereas Arab is a generic term for large and strong-boned burden camels (Köhler-Rollefson, 1993).
Threats to Indigenous Breeds
One "solution" proposed within the scope of western development aid and technical
assistance to the low productivity of indigenous breeds has been to advocate the
importation of high performance animals, often to cross-breed them with local
breeds. These imported animals have high requirements in terms of feed and
stabling, and their maintenance has often proved unsustainable. But even cross-bred
animals, which supposedly combine fitness to local climatic conditions with improved
performance, have frequently shown themselves inferior to pure indigenous stock.
For instance in Rajasthan in India, local Sirohi goats were crossed with Swiss milk
goats, but the project was terminated, because of inadequate results; instead efforts
were focussed on selection within the local breed (Kropf et al., 1992). In the same
area, research on pure-bred Tharparkar cattle demonstrated that its performance was
often higher than that of the cross-breed (Gahlot, 1993).
Cross-breeding is not the only factor that poses a threat to the survival of indigenous breeds: there are other indirect dangers for the biological diversity they represent. As outlined above, the development of indigenous breeds is closely linked to individual societies and a product of the stock exchange systems that are functioning within these societies. There is a growing trend for livestock breeding to be disarticulated from traditional societies and to shift into the hands of land owners with capital. In the Sudan, for instance, investors have profited from the recent series of droughts by accumulating large livestock holdings through purchase of animals from different tribal groups. As a result, formerly distinct breeds merge into one generic type. Similar processes can be observed for camel breeds in Rajasthan, where the decrease in common pasture grounds is forcing the traditional camel breeding groups, the Raikas, into economic destitution, opening up the business for members of the rich land owning castes.
The necessity of interdisciplinary research
These developments, which threaten the continued existence of indigenous breeds as
separate gene-pools, are difficult or impossible to stop, but they could be hindered, if
governments made a sincere effort to support traditional pastoral systems rather than
neglect or even undermine them. Present efforts to preserve threatened livestock
breeds, coordinated by the FAO, concentrate on cryogenic preservation and to some
extent live preservation. Data are entered into the Global Genetic Data Bank using
standardized descriptor lists. Additional effort has to be placed on examining in detail
the processes that have led to the development of individual breeds, because this
knowledge would help in conceptualizing appropriate preservation programmes.
Animal scientists have to acknowledge in their research strategy that breeds are not
biological taxa, but represent the outcome of social processes and that they will not
survive outside the social contexts and production systems that formed them. Hence
the documentation of breeds should not be left to animal scientists alone but must
turn into an interdisciplinary effort involving the efforts of social scientists, as well as
the indigenous knowledge of pastoralists.
Conclusion
It is blatantly obvious that the gradual extinction of the indigenous breeds that are
able to exploit the vegetational resources of extreme environments, such as deserts
and other uncultivable lands, will seriously affect the capacity of human society to
inhabit large areas of the globe. The loss of these hardy animal breeds therefore
means a reduction of the part of the world that can be utilized by humankind. A
shrinking of the human habitat is taking place just at a time when human populations
are expanding at an accelerated rate and can least afford this.
Traditional pastoral groups are often accused of clinging to an outdated way of life and representing drains on national economies. But the contribution of pastoral societies to the maintenance of bio-diversity in domesticated animals and their role in keeping otherwise barren tracts of land habitable can not be measured in terms of money. This circumstance should be widely acknowledged on an international level and be reflected in comprehensive programmes that support these traditional systems of land utilization.
Dr. I. Köhler-Rollefson
League for Pastoral Peoples
Pragelatostrasse 20
64372 Ober-Ramstadt
Germany
References
Gahlot, A.K. (1993) 'Cattle wealth of desert with special reference to Tharparkar
breed.' Paper presented at the International workshop on common property resources
and the crisis of pastoralism, Jodhpur, India.
Harding, G. (1968) 'The tragedy of the commons', Science 162:1243- 1248.
Köhler-Rollefson, I., B. Musa and M. Fadl (1991) 'The camel pastoral system of the southern Rashaida in eastern Sudan', Nomadic Peoples 29:68- 76.
Köhler-Rollefson, I. (1992a) 'The Raika dromedary breeders of Rajasthan: A pastoral system under crisis', Nomadic Peoples 30:74-83.
Köhler-Rollefson, I. (1992b) 'The camel breeds of India in social and historical perspective', Animal Genetic Resources Information 10:53-64.
Köhler-Rollefson, I. (1993) 'About camel breeds: a reevaluation of current classification systems', Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 110:66-73.
Kropf, W. et al. (1992) 'A comparison of reproductive performance and milk production of Sirohi goats with Alpine and Toggenburg crosses.' Paper presented at the Vth International Goat Conference 2-8 March, New Delhi, India.
McCabe, J.T. (1990) 'Turkana pastoralism: a case against the tragedy of the commons', Human Ecology 18(1):81-103.
Shoup, J. (1990) 'Middle Eastern sheep pastoralism and the Hima System', pp. 195- 215 in Galaty, J. and D. Johnson (eds) The World of Pastoralism. Herding Systems in Comparative Perspective. New York: The Guilford Press.