Pastoralism in Soqotra: external entanglements and communal mutations

Abstract

This article presents the first study of pastoralism on Soqotra Island, which is the main island of the Republic of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Its inhabitants constitute a once predominantly pastoralist community with a unique language and of mixed ethnicity who are now being enlisted in a state-sponsored and internationally-assisted conservation-with-development experiment. The article seeks to remedy Soqotrans' disenfranchisement from the academic literature on pastoralism around the world. Accordingly, it gives an overview of the nature of pastoralism on the island. This is done through the following analytical tasks: First, it provides a brief geo-cultural contextualization of the island. Second, it describes the underpinnings of a mixed subsistence pastoral regime in terms of livelihood practices, spatial mobility and residential modality. Third, it offers a provisional inventory of the pastoral flocks and herds. Fourth, and finally, the article summarizes the pastoralists' sociocultural changes resulting from Soqotra's entanglement with an externally initiated process of communal transition.