the culturallandscapeand appeared later in the idea ofsequent occupance.
Eventually, Sauer’s views led to the emergence of the fields ofcultural ecology
and landscape ecology. He suggested that cultures are the unique result of a collec-
tion of influences, but especially are shaped by those cultural patterns that were pre-
viously present in the landscape, and that these influences could be exposed and
examined. He did not claim that the environment hadnoimpact on the development
and characteristics of a culture, only that it represented a secondary influence in
comparison to preceding cultural attributes. Sauer became the most influential figure
in American cultural geography, and his emphasis on a particularist approach to the
study of landscapes remains at the heart of the discipline today.Pastoralism
The practice of raising and husbanding domesticated quadrupedal livestock, typi-
cally sheep, goats, cattle, horses, or other animals. Pastoralism may be conducted
either on a subsistence level, where stock are kept for the needs of the owner and
family, or on a commercial scale, where large numbers of animals are herded on
large tracts of land, eventually to be slaughtered and processed for the market. Many
groups who are pastoralists are also nomadic and may engage intranshumance,a
practice common in mountainous regions, in which herds of animals are moved
between lower and higher elevations on a seasonal schedule. In other cases the
migrationof humans and animals involves a regular rotation among traditional
grazing lands, which are abandoned once the animals have consumed most of the
available vegetation. A key distinction between pastoralists and hunters and gather-
ers is that the animals associated with pastoralism are domesticated and live in close
proximity to the herders, sometimes even sharing the same structure for shelter.
Non-commercial pastoralism is typically viewed in the context ofcultural
ecologyas an adaptation to natural conditions that prohibit the development of
complex agricultural systems. Conditions are either too dry (the Sahel region) or
the growing season too short (northern Scandinavia, Siberia) to produce sufficient
food for the population, and domesticated livestock then become the main source
of calories in the diet. Moreover, the livestock when slaughtered may provide
clothing, weapons and tools, and other items essential to the survival of the pasto-
ralists. Pastoral groups may be classified on the basis of the dominant type of live-
stock they raise, or on the geographicregionthey typically occupy.
There are many pastoral societies remaining on the planet, although government
modernization and settlement policies, in many cases forced on groups following a
pastoral lifestyle, have reduced theirnumbers dramatically over the past two254 Pastoralism