Mallory

[Hal Neumann]

On 7 Feb 1999 03:54:55 EST Steve Long X99Lynx at aol.co writes:

This particular statement really bothers me. I also saw the
"intervening agriculture" stage as a requirement for pastoral nomadism
repeated again and again in Renfrew's Archaeology and Language where
it was used to eliminate all kinds of possibilities regarding the
steppes. I don't see why the nomadic pastoral culture has to go
through an agricultural phase, particularly if it has the resources to
feed itself. . . And, if there are any agriculturists within range,
than the nomads themselves wouldn't seem to need to go through that
phase, because they would always have something to trade (like
horses.). . . .
---------------------------------

Yes, the assertion that pastoral nomadism *Has* to follow from
sedentary agriculture bothers me as well.

There are, I believe, models that demonstrate otherwise.  I am
thinking here of the Plain Indian (horse/buffalo) cultures of North
American in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries.  While the
Cheyenne, Teton Sioux, and Crow peoples (to name a few) did make the
transition from agricultural economies/cultures to that of nomadic
herdsmen/hunters others such as the Comanche, Kiowa and, perhaps, the
Plains Apache appear to have transited directly from pedestrian
gatherer/hunters to mounted herdsmen/hunters.  Still others (Pawnee,
Mandan, Hadatsa, Arikara) appear to have been in the process of
transiting from agriculture to mounted nomadism at the time of
Euro-American encroachment.

Whatever the prior status of the nomadic herdsmen/hunters, vigorous
and dynamic trade relationships (as well as raiding) existed between
the nomadic herdsmen and the agriculturists.  The horse/buffalo
peoples exchanged horses and the products of the hunt with
agriculturists for maize, beans, etc as well as for manufactured good
(both of Native and Euro-American manufacture).  The extent and
importance of this trade/exchange was set forth by Jablow (1951) (see
below).

--Hal W Neumann
neander97 at yahoo.com

(I realize that many would dispute the use of the label herdsmen /
pastoral nomad to describe the mounted Plains Indian, but the fact
remains that they were excellent practitioners of animal husbandry
who, maintained horse herd that numbered in the tens of thousands 
herds which were not solely built from raiding or from capturing wild
stock, but were bred for "desired qualities.")

--Jablow ; Joseph.  THE CHEYENNE IN PLAINS INDIAN TRADE RELATIONS,
1795-1840 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, c1994);
 Originally published in Monographs of the American Ethnological
Society,1951.  [an excellent and brief discussion of the extent and
complexity of Plains Indian commerce]

--Forbes, Jack D.  APACHE, NAVAHO, AND SPANIARD (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1960).
--McGinnis, Anthony.  COUNTING COUP AND CUTTING HORSES: INTERTRIBAL
WARFARE ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS, 1738-1889 (Evergreen, CO: Cordillera
Press, 1990).
--Wallace, Ernest, and E. Adamson Hoebel. THE COMANCHES:  LORDS OF THE
SOUTH PLAINS, Civilization of the American Indian, No.34 (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1952).
Grinnell, George Bird.  THE CHEYENNE INDIANS:  THEIR HISTORY AND WAYS
OF LIFE, 2 vols  (1923; reprint: University of Nebraska Press 1972).