Agricultural Settlement and Land Use in Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 566

America, Western Europe (apart from the Balkans), Australia and New Zealand, where
commercial cattle and sheep operations are the industrialized parallel to nomadism.
Nomadic peoples are usually ethnically and culturally distinct from those who prac-
tice sedentary agriculture, and usually comprise an ethnic minority population in their
political states of residence. The Kirghiz in western China (Kreutzmann 2003) and Sami
of Scandinavia are illustrative. The family is the principal social unit, and the collective
group lives isolated from others since it is constantly on the move. Despite such self-re-
liant and solitary living, nomads are interdependent with sedentary farming and village
peoples. They sell or barter milk, meat, wool, and skins in exchange for manufactured
items (e.g., pots, knives, ammunition, and medicine), and foodstuffs (e.g., flour, tea, al-
coholic beverages, and spices) they cannot produce themselves. Nan (circular bread) is
an important staple for most nomads in Southwest Asia, obtained in trade with sedent-
ary agrarians. In turn, farmers receive animal products and indirect benefits such as
manure for fertilizer and extra labor at certain times of the year. Andean peoples de-
pend on trade and reciprocity between herders and farmers. While milk and blood are
both important foods throughout Asia and Africa, the Andeans use neither. They mitig-
ate the absence of these nutritious foods by eating vegetable crops, especially tubers,
which nomads gather or purchase in periodic markets.
The distance between the nomads' winter and summer pastures vary greatly from re-
gion to region. In the precipitous Himalaya and Andes, they often move less than 20 km
(12 mi) up and down a major valley. In more arid terrain, such as Iran, the annual round
trip may involve distances of over 1,000 km (600 mi). These long migrations are neces-
sary when sedentary agriculturalists occupy the lower reaches of the mountain valleys,
forcing the nomads to travel farther out into the plains for winter grazing. Migration
routes are often circuitous, with numerous forays into side valleys and isolated plateaus.
In Southwest and Central Asia, nomadic groups employ elaborate systems to coordinate
grazing and water resources, particularly along migration routes where grazing pres-
sure is heavy. For example, in eastern Ladakh, the Kharnak move sheep, goats, and yaks
laterally at 4,000-5,000 m (13,100-16,400 ft). While the herds separate to take advant-
age of every potential pasture in this complex terrain, the arid climate zone dictates
almost constant movement (Dollfus 1999).