no dramatic change in lifestyle practiced by pastoralists any-
where aft er the advent of Roman political domination. Th e
lone exception is found in the areas in which former troops
were settled. Some of those settled engaged in pastoral pur-
suits. Beef consumption dropped noticeably with the demise
of the empire. Th e breakdown of trade networks and the lack
of military consumption played roles in this shift. Th e move
to raising sheep and goats cut down on expenses as well as
risk for farmers in a world that was making the transition to
a more localized economy.
Pastoralism left its mark upon the Roman psyche. Th e
pastoral lifestyle became the idyllic antidote to the rancor
and chaos of city life (as characterized by the Roman poet
Horace in his Epodes, written in 30 b.c.e.). Beginning with
Virgil’s Eclogues (42–37 b.c.e.), the Latin genre of pastoralism
emerges. Th e genre emphasizes rustic purity and innocence.
Virgil used his work to underscore political and social events
occurring in the Roman world as well.
THE AMERICAS
BY DAVID VALLILEE
Th e term nomadism derives from the Greek word nomás,
meaning “feed” or “pasture.” Generally, it has been defi ned
as a circumstance in which people have no permanent home
and wander in search of food for themselves and pasture for
their animals. It also applies to peoples whose subsistence is
based largely on hunting migrating mammals, with the result
that the location of their temporary shelters is determined
by herd movements and a need to avoid excessive hunting
in one place. Nomadic pastoralism is a life that is based on
herding domesticated animals and oft en requires moving the
animals to the best pastures. For example, pastures in arid
regions may not be useful outside of the rainy season, while
pastures in mountainous and colder regions may not be ac-
cessible in winter. Th ese conditions require that livestock be
moved between diff erent regions seasonally. Nomadic pasto-
ralists may travel to a wide variety of places according to the
availability of pastureland, whereas transhumant pastoralists
move between fi xed locations each season, typically between
lowlands and mountains.
In a general sense, all the early inhabitants of the Ameri-
can continent during the Paleo-Indian Period (ca. 13,000–
8000 b.c.e.) can be described as nomadic, with no fi xed
year-round settlements and with livelihoods based on hunt-
ing and gathering that required frequent movement. While
scholarship of the Paleo-Indian Period previously focused on
the hunting of now-extinct big game or megafauna, such as
mastodons, mammoths, ground sloths, and saber-tooth ti-
gers, scholars now agree that the Paleo-Indian hunters relied
more heavily upon species of mammals that did not become
extinct: bison, caribou, moose, elk, and ox.
Th e Archaic Period (ca. 8000–1000 b.c.e.) in the Ameri-
cas generally is viewed as a gradual period of transition from
nomadic hunting and gathering societies to sedentary, ag-
riculturally based societies. Despite the introduction of ag-
riculture, many cultures retained a hunting-and-gathering
component in their diet. For some a seminomadic existence
based on seasonal movements that followed animal migra-
tions continued throughout the period. Toward the end of the
Archaic Period small year-round settlements—and in rare
cases large settlements, such as Poverty Point in Louisiana
(ca. 1600–1300 b.c.e.)—began to appear, and nomadism be-
came less common.
In many of the mountainous regions of South America,
parts of northern Mexico, and the Great Plains and Great Ba-
sin regions of North America, however, nomadic existence
and reliance upon hunting remained central throughout the
Archaic Period and later (until 500 c.e.). Th e Paleo-Indian
Period in central Mexico was characterized by small nomadic
families, or microbands, who moved their camps three or
four times a year, hunting horses, antelope, and, occasionally,
mammoths and other now-extinct species of megafauna. Th ey
also hunted smaller game: rabbits, turtles, birds, gophers, rats,
and other small mammals. Extensive archaeological study of
the Tehuacán Valley (in the state of Puebla, Mexico) has led to
a number of conclusions about the Archaic Period in central
Mexico. One conclusion is that in the Tehuacán Valley (ca.
8000–5000 b.c.e.) subsistence depended upon plant collect-
ing, trapping of small mammals, and hunting of a variety of
animals and birds. Th e cultivation of maize (corn) fi rst ap-
peared in the region around 5000 b.c.e. Beans, amaranth (a
grain), chili peppers, plums, avocados, squashes, and gourds
were also cultivated. Between about 5000 and 2300 b.c.e. ag-
riculture gained an increasingly larger proportion of the Te-
huacán Valley diet (25 percent), but hunting of mammals also
continued. Year-round occupation of hamlets began approxi-
mately between 3400 and 2300 b.c.e., aft er which nomadism
for the Tehuacán Valley can be said to have ceased.
With the extinction of mammoths, prehistoric horses,
and camelids in the Great Plains region during the early Ar-
chaic Period, a shift to bison hunting became ever more cen-
tral to survival. Th e tools of this period, particularly fi nely
carved, razor-sharp spear points, were essential components
for increasing the success of bison hunting. Hunting parties
drove herds of bison over cliff s, such as at the Head-Smashed-
In bison jump in southern Alberta, Canada, and into can-
yons, ravines, and corrals (bowl-shaped rock formations),
where large numbers of bison could be slaughtered quickly.
Th e settlement systems of the Archaic Plains Indians
adhered to a fl exible and mobile pattern with an emphasis
on hunting bison augmented by hunting smaller animals
(deer, raccoons, beavers, rabbits, squirrels, muskrats). Shel-
ter typical of the period included open-air and rock-shelter
fi eld camps, and post-in-ground structures, while portable
perishable shelter—presumably hide-covered tepees—were
probably the most prominent. Aft er the Archaic Period, these
patterns of subsistence continued.
Th e Archaic Period Desert culture (ca. 9000–1000 b.c.e.)
located in the Great Basin area was primarily a foraging so-796 nomadic and pastoral societies: The Americas