Doctoral Dissertation Research Award: The Development of Mobile Pastoralism

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Researchers have long sought to understand the emergence and development of the distinctive pastoral ways of life characteristic of central Eurasia. Many inhabitants of this enormous territory have been sustained for thousands of years by herding sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. The animal herds must be moved continually to fresh pastures in a pattern that often precludes the establishment of permanent residences. The relationship of such subsistence systems to sedentary agriculture or to highly mobile foraging for wild resources is poorly understood. The possibility that specialized herding may have developed directly from mobile foraging rather than as an adaptation complementary to sedentary farming is especially interesting and little investigated. Under the supervision of Dr. Robert Drennan and Dr. Loukas Barton, Jennifer Farquhar will investigate the role of hunter-gatherers in the development of mobile pastoralism in the desert-steppe region of Mongolia. The study focuses on patterns of mobility across the entire economic and social transition from small-scale egalitarian societies some 7000 years ago to the more complex larger-scale sociopolitical integration of the Bronze Age some 2500 years ago. Mobility is critical to both foraging and herding modes of production. Its study provides not only important insight into how settlement strategies changed with the addition of domestic animals, but also puts in context other aspects of social life including patterns of social interaction, hierarchy, and differential access to material wealth, prestige, production, and ritual. Models from evolutionary ecology will be used in the effort to understand better how hunters and, later on, herders distributed themselves within habitats, identifying changes in how, when, and why people moved. The evaluation of these models will contribute to our understanding of the nature of human decision making as well as of the mechanisms of behavioral change. Application of these models over the past two decades has led to advances in understanding a range of phenomena including the origins of agriculture and the emergence of institutional inequality.Ms. Farquhar will carry out systematic regional-scale survey in the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve in southeastern Mongolia to identify locations where the ephemeral remains of highly mobile hunters and herders can be found, and to collect samples of these materials for study. The research is a central part of Ms. Farquhar's doctoral training and will provide field training and experience for both U.S. and Mongolian students. Cooperation among US and Mongolian team members in field work, laboratory analysis, and interpretation will encourage the exchange of people, ideas, and information in order to promote outcomes that reflect the goals and values of all participants. A collaborative approach to public outreach to local herding communities and the large urban center of Ulaanbaatar will contribute to the goals of Ikh Nart Nature Reserve and the national government to promote environmental management and resource conservation, topics of particular concern in light of recent declines in both natural and cultural resources in the face of unprecedented extraction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.