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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2009
It should be known that differences of condition among people are the result of the different ways in which they make their living … Some people live by agriculture, the cultivation of vegetables and grains; others by animal husbandry, the use of sheep, cattle, goats … Those who live by … animal husbandry cannot avoid the call of the desert.
(ibn Khaldun, AD 1332–1406, The Muqaddimah)Nomadism and the integration of pastoralism and agriculture
There has been much discussion concerning the differences between pastoralism and agriculture, the desert and the sown (Nelson 1973); with much stress being laid on either the complementarity of pastoral and agricultural products or the conflicts generated through competition for resources. Much of this misses the point. Pastoralism and agriculture differ not only in the things produced but more fundamentally in the nature of the productive process itself. While both modes of subsistence in a Near Eastern context are subject to large fluctuations in productivity (Adams 1974), the manner in which each system responds to these fluctuations is quite different.
The organization of pastoral and agricultural production
Whereas fluctuations in the level of agricultural production tend to be buffered and absorbed by the stable structure of a sedentary community, similar fluctuations in pastoral production are amplified throughout the organization of a pastoral community.
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