The Problem with Pastoralists

1 For an example of the continuing prevalence of this view, see Meyer 2010a. 

But while ethnographic analogy is very useful for understanding some aspects of pastoralism, it is highly problematic for characterizing the nature and place of pastoralists in the ancient world (Bernbeck 2008a Khazanov 

For an explanation of the Islamic state that incorporates all these attributes, see Hall and Ikenberry 1989. 

The alternative too often takes the form of simplistic correlations of material culture attributes such as crude handmade pottery (e.g., Alizadeh 2008 103) or circular architecture with mobile ways of hfe, but see Berelov 2006 for an exception. 

Bernbeck (1992, 2008a) provides strong empirical evidence of this in two different situations. 

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