TheImprovement ofTropical and Subtropical Rangelands

DROMEDARY PASTORALISM IN AFRIOA AND ARABIA 269
to the human household, or water and grass to animals that had to
remain in the camp (young or sick animals), or could transport weak
small stock or calves from one place to the other. Within the camel
economy itself, there was ofcourae also quite a demand for transport
camels, reducing the proportion that could be exported.
Camels need clot!le attention and constant movement ifthey are to
reproduce well. The area where camels can reproduce is usually more
restricted than the one where they can be put to work, and hence
transport and work camels are more l!lCattered than camel dams. The
literature on camel economies frequently does not recognize this, and
many sources state numbers of animals owned in terms of a sexually
neutral category, which makes it difficult to judge the nature of the
camel's economic role in the society concerned.
The number of people actually specializing in camel pastoralism
is not very large, but a fairly large number depend on carrier camels.
It may even be that it is in relatively short-distance transport for
small pastoral producers and farmers that the camel had its most
important role, rather than in the context of the caravan. There
appears to be general agreement among writers on the subject that
the demand for transport animals is decreasing, an opinion based
on the observation of the changes in the structure of long-distance
trade. More research is needed on these trends, and to ascertain
as well whether there are changes in the demand for short-distance
transport animals.
PREDATORY PASTORALISM
Having discussed the capacity of the camel for subsistence and
commercial production, we should also consider a third historically
important aspect, one that follows from the extreme mobility of the
camel, namely its political role. The areas where we find camel putoralists
today are in the periphery of central states: areas where
scarce resources make it uneconomical to try to maintain strict political
control over people who tend to evade such control. Pastoralists
can often react to political pressure by retreating into inaccessible regions.
They are difficult to rule and historically have enjoyed military
advantages through the agility of their animals.
There is a specific pattern of predatory camel pastoralism
(Bouregeot, 1975) that is neither primarily subsistence-oriented nor
that utilizes the camel as a means ofdirect production of marketable
goods. The Kel Tamasheq (Tuareg) provide a good example of this.