Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
This session aims to delve into the multifaceted realm of long-term pastoral dynamics, employing the perspectives of archaeology and ethnoarchaeology to unravel the methods, theories, and stories that shed light on the intricacies of pastoralist lifeways. The objective is to deepen our understanding of the longevity and sustainability of pastoral practices, emphasizing the complex interactions between humans, animals, and the environment over extended periods. Specifically, this session has been organized to examine the social and cultural transformations within pastoral societies over time in different regions of the world where pastoralism continues today in order to try and understand the resilience and flexibility of these communities in response to environmental, social, political, and economic changes. We hope that this exploration will shed light on the strategies employed by pastoralists to adapt and thrive. We also hope that by drawing on the lessons learned from long-term pastoral dynamics, we can identify time-tested and innovative practices to ensure the sustainability of pastoralist lifeways.
Other Keywords
Pastoralism •
Digital Archaeology: GIS •
Ethnography/Ethnoarchaeology •
Geoarchaeology •
Stratified Site •
Zooarchaeology •
Mobility •
Reindeer •
Landscape Archaeology •
Ethnoarchaeology
Geographic Keywords
Asia (Continent) •
Chukotskiy avtonomnyy okrug (State / Territory) •
Russian Federation (Country) •
Kingdom of Sweden (Country) •
Kingdom of Norway (Country) •
Isle of Man (Country) •
Republic of Iceland (Country) •
Republic of Turkey (Country) •
Faroe Islands (Country) •
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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The Archaeology of Pastoral Landscapes in Mountain Areas of the Central Pyrenees and North of Spain (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Seasonal pastoralism is a livestock strategy which shaped Mediterranean landscapes since ancient times. The recent development of archaeological research in mountain chains of south-west Europe has provided us with new data and interpretative models to study the livestock practices starting from their pre-historic...
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CAMP: A New Project for the Study of Pastoral Archaeological Sites (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pastoralism is now recognized as a smart economy for food production in drylands, especially in the current scenario of climate change, where natural resource variability is increasing globally. Outdated stereotypes about the inefficiency and irrationality of pastoralism are being reevaluated, and there is a shift in the...
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Hearth Fatigue: Excavation of a Deeply Stratified Campsite from the Medieval Era in Northern Mongolia (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Until recently there were only a few examples of deeply stratified habitation sites in Mongolia. During survey, we located an erosional gully with several hearths, an ash lens, and cultural materials. Initial radiocarbon dates indicate that the site was occupied from 1000 to 1400 CE, spanning the pre-Mongol through Yuan...
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“I Had a Reindeer Called Onni . . .”: Reindeer Stories, Memory, and the Continuation of Reindeer Herding Culture in Northern Fennoscandia (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, ethnoarchaeological research combining archaeological evidence and traditional knowledge of reindeer herders has added considerably to our understanding of cultural meanings of various reindeer herding practices traceable through the archaeological record. One important aspect brought forward by...
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Long-Term Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Sámi Reindeer Husbandry on the Northern Shore of Europe (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Reindeer hunting, reindeer husbandry, and nomadic pastoralism form a significant part of the history of Sápmi, and the whole northern Fennoscandia from the late Iron Age to modern times. Sápmi, situated on the northern shore of Europe, is the transnational homeland of Sámi people, Europe’s only indigenous group. Recent...
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Pastoralism and Landscape Sustainability: A Mediterranean Perspective (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The contraction of traditional pastoral practices in the last century has prompted a rapid transformation of those landscapes whose character had been shaped by pastoral mobility. A transformation that is accentuated by the consequences of climate change. This process is particularly relevant in Mediterranean landscapes,...
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Reassessing Plants and Pastoralist Foodways in Ancient Eastern Africa: A Preliminary Report on New Excavations at Luxmanda, Tanzania (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars increasingly emphasize that pastoralist foodways centered on livestock systems—being variable and flexible—are especially responsive to climate stress and other drivers of food insecurity. We ask something ostensibly simple but as yet poorly understood in eastern Africa: How, and why, have pastoralist foodways...
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Settlement Persistence in Northwestern Mongolia: Archaeological and Paleoenvironmental Insights from the Long-Term Occupation Site ZK513 (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mongolian Bronze Age (2500–700 BCE) was a period of greater social interaction and important transformations (e.g., the adoption of domestic livestock herding and intensification to widespread mobile, mounted pastoralism) that prompted social inequality and the formation of the first nomadic states. What is known...
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Understanding Reindeer Riding in the Archaeological Record of Northeast Asia through Ethnoarchaeology (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although the innovation of reindeer transport transformed societies across Northeast Asia, tracing the prehistory of reindeer domestication and riding has proven particularly challenging. Recent cross-species archaeozoological research has built an expanded paleopathological toolkit, but to date there are few mechanisms...