TheImprovement ofTropical and Subtropical Rangelands

290 IMPROVEMENT 0' TROPIOAL AND SUBTROPIOAL RANGJ:LANDS
SEASONS AND M1GJU.TIONS
Early statements on the nature of the Baluchi-Brahui pastoral
system fail to deal with the question of lMluonal migrations in concrete
and precise terms. Pottinger, for example, describes the Baluchi
as being a pastoral people who remain within a relatively restricted
area. D On the other hand, he believes the Brahui to be -a still more
unsettled wandering nation, always residing in one part ofthe country
during the summer, and emigrating to another for the winter
season; they likewise change their immediate place of abode many
times every year in quest of pasturage for their flocks.-10
The ImperitJl Gazetteer is somewhat more specific about the
Brahui regime, suggesting that the movement from highland to lowlands
and vice versa was in part conditioned by a desire to escape
temperature extremes and in Part by employment as seasonal agricultural
workers at harvest time. ll Spooner foreshadowed an expl..
nation when he suggested that upelo~downs1opemovement was
coupled to periodic visits to grain fields and date groves, as well as
to somewhat irregular movement of the household units and herds in
response to a varying pattern of rainfall distribution. 12 However, it
was not until the appearance of Pehrson's study of the Mani Baluch
and Barth's continuation of Pehrson's work lS that an ecological explanation
of an apparently vague, complex, and seemingly random
system was developed (figure 6-1).
A MIXED ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Faced with a harsh, inhospitable, and marginal environment, the
Marri have evolved a complicated subSistence system that mixes a
variety of exploitive techniques that are difficult to combine in an
attempt to maximize returns.1. A. a result, Mani household units
engage in herding, agriculture (generally dry farming), wage labor,
and collecting in proportions that vary from group to group.
Herding usually formS the most important activity, with a wide
variety of animals being kept. Sheep and goats· are the most important
animals herded, their meat and wool being sold, but milk
and other dairy products, because of taboos against their sale to
outsiders, are consumed within the family.16 Donkeys and camels are
the m~or baggage animala, although the rough and stony nature of
the Marri tribal area is hard on camels and generally restricts their
possession to the rich, who keep their camel herds outside the tribal
area in the lowlands of Sind. Horses are kept by the wealthr u