The Transformation of the Steppe: Ecological Imperialism and Livestock-Agriculture in Kazakhstan, 1891-1964

This dissertation examines the transformation of the Kazakh Steppe from a nomadic pastoral landscape to an industrial agricultural system between 1891 and 1964, focusing on the changing relationships between scientific knowledge and environmental policy. Through the concept of "steppe epistemologies"—coherent ways of understanding the relationships between soils, plants, animals, and humans—I trace how different approaches to ecological knowledge shaped successive waves of environmental transformation that ultimately destroyed the material foundations of nomadic pastoralism. The study analyzes three distinct periods characterized by different relationships between scientific knowledge and political power. The late imperial period (1891-1928) was dominated by Vasily Dokuchaev's holistic soil science, which understood the steppe as an integrated ecosystem of geological and biological processes. This "Dokuchaev epistemology" paradoxically enabled both Russian agricultural settlement and the scientific validation of nomadic pastoralism, as Dokuchaev's research suggested that centuries of grazing had enriched the region's renowned chernozem soils. The Stalinist period (1928-1953) developed a "dialectical-materialist epistemology" that emphasized the interdependence of soils, plants, animals, and human labor within socialist agricultural systems. Despite the catastrophic violence of collectivization, scientists like Trofim Lysenko and Vasily Vil'iams articulated theories of agricultural production that recognized ecological relationships, though these were never fully implemented due to labor shortages and political priorities. The Khrushchev era (1953-1964) represented a qualitatively different approach: the abandonment of ecological epistemology in favor of economic and political imperatives. Motivated by Cold War competition, urban consumption demands, and chronic food shortages, Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign treated the steppe as an empty economic resource rather than a complex ecosystem. Paradoxically, this anti-epistemological approach coincided with unprecedented scientific research on steppe environments. However, this knowledge production occurred after fundamental policy decisions had been made, serving to legitimate rather than guide environmental transformation. The dissertation demonstrates that this abandonment of ecological thinking enabled the most destructive and irreversible environmental changes in steppe history. The systematic replacement of native grasslands with grain monocultures, the displacement of indigenous livestock breeds with imported industrial animals, and the spatial separation of crop and livestock production created what Marx called a "metabolic rift"—a fundamental disruption of the cyclical exchanges between human society and the natural world. These changes accomplished what neither imperial conquest nor socialist revolution had achieved: the final destruction of nomadic pastoralism as both an economic system and a way of inhabiting the more-than-human world. Drawing on extensive archival research in Kazakhstan, the study treats scientific publications not merely as technical documents but as sources for understanding changing epistemologies of human-environment relationships. The analysis combines environmental history with the history of science and imperial studies, showing how colonialism operated through the transformation of biological relationships rather than simply through administrative control or demographic change

The evaluation of replacement bull-calves of Kazakh White-Headed breed on own productivity

Live-animal evaluation of replacement young animals including bull-calves on their own productivity in the breeding of Kazakh White-Headed cattle has of scientific and practical importance. The purpose of the work was a live-animal evaluation of the quality of Kazakh White-Headed bull-calves by their own productivity. Bull-calves of the 3rd group (line of Veteran) in all periods of evaluation on growth can be assigned to the elite-record class. Replacement bull-calves of the 1st group (line of Circled) at all ages for live weight belonged to the elite class. Replacement bull-calves of the 2nd group since 9-month age have been evaluated as a class elite-record. According to the adjusted live weight of replacement bull-calves at the age of 210 and 365 days, the animals of the 3rd group were the best. According to this indicator the bull-calves of the 3rd group at the age of 210 days can be attributed to the 1st class, and at the age of 365 days the elite-record. When evaluating the reproductive capacity of the replacement bull-calves of Kazakh White-Headed breed of different lines the superiority of animals of the 3rd group (line of Veteran) has been found. They have significantly higher scrotum girth than the bull-calves of the 1st group by 7,1 cm or 27,0 % (P ≤ 0,01) and 1,9 cm or 6,0 % (P ≤ 0,05) than the young bulls of the 2nd group. The meat qualities also revealed the superiority of bull-calves of the 3rd group. They had higher indicators for the area of the muscle eye, marbling of meat and a comprehensive assessment of meat qualities. Live-animal evaluation of replacement young animals of beef breeds on their own productivity allows us to quickly increase the number of breeding stock.</jats:p

Past, present and future challenges in mountain transhumance

This book, through historical and forward-looking analysis carried out across various study sites by around fifty researchers and stakeholders involved in Mountain Transhumance, aims to anticipate the major changes and challenges facing this pastoral activity, in order to inform policymakers at the local, regional, national, and even global levels. The findings presented in this book are based on research conducted in the early 2020s across twenty case studies on four continents: Asia (Qilian Mountains in the northeast of the Tibetan Plateau, China; Kazakhstan; and Mount Lebanon), Africa (Green Mountains in Libya; Eastern Atlas in Algeria; High Atlas in Morocco; Tigray in northern Ethiopia; and Kamiesberg Mountains in South Africa), Americas (Canadian Rockies; Chimborazo Watershed in Ecuador; Cordillera Blanca and Altiplano in Peru; Malargüe and Southern Patagonian Andes in Argentina), and Europe (Serra da Estrela in Portugal; Cévennes and Upper Tarentaise/Alps in France; Pindos Mountains in Greece; Romania; and Scandinavian Alps in Norway). From a methodological standpoint, the research sought to combine approaches from the human and social sciences—particularly interviews and text analysis involving stakeholders recommended by local transhumance actors—with tools from life and natural sciences, such as forage balance assessments and factorial analyses. In terms of results, the research confirmed and refined the key functions of transhumance, which were found in nearly all the case studies. These functions—listed in no particular order—include: i) making use of a seasonal pastoral resource essential to the forage balance of herds, while maintaining landscapes across altitudinal gradients (one of the key ecosystem services provided by livestock farming); ii) freeing up labour for other important agricultural tasks while protecting cultivated areas from grazing; iii) strengthening food security and livelihoods for pastoral families, villages, and mountain regions; iv) preserving skills and providing remunerative employment opportunities for both young and older generations; v) maintaining social networks and relationships among pastoral communities on opposite sides of the same mountain—networks that support not only tourism development, but also, as in the past, the exchange of techniques, practices, equipment, and genetic material; and more. Another major finding, consistent across most case studies, is the critical role of public policy at the local and territorial levels. Moreover, addressing the immense challenges posed by climate change is a significant issue in most study areas. This is particularly due to the uncertainty surrounding climate evolution and local policy decisions, both of which strongly affect pastoral resource management and the lives of families and communities. Climate change intensifies the uncertainty that pastoral systems have always faced, and it exacerbates the effects of market price volatility, which these systems must increasingly learn to navigate

Animal economics: livestock, pastoralism and capitalism in post-socialist Mongolia

In Mongolia, a range of activities configures time in a spatial way, something echoed in anthropological and social scientific concerns with various forms of ‘timespace’ (May and Thrift 2001, Bear 2014, 2015). Drawing inspiration from the indigenous Mongol term üye (lit. joint, time, generation), I develop a concept of ‘jointed-ness’ to analyse articulated interconnections between different forms of pastoral (and non-pastoral) timespace. Attending to the interconnections of different fora of spatio-temporalised activity, I reveal the dynamic and emergent nature of a livestock-based economy. Since the end of socialism (early 1990s), subsistence household-based herding has replaced collectives employing salaried labourers. Livestock and animal products, sold at seasonally specific times, form major sources of income in conditions I refer to as ‘animal-originating capitalism’. Exploring how the time of pastoral economic life is spatialised in animals as commodities for sale, my work moves beyond studies of the social origins of commodity status (Appadurai 1986, Kopytoff 1986). I thereby show how current Mongolian human-animal relations are not only indexical of the collapse of collective herding, but motors of new forms of economic life. This thesis has three Parts. Part I explores human-animal relations underpinning pastoral economic life, including views of plenty in livestock (Chapter 1) and the temporality of rural labour (Chapter 2). Part II examines the accumulation of livestock, and how this relates to particular forms of personhood. It examines ethics linking livestock accumulation and masculinity (Chapter 3) and, conversely, how these ethics can be destabilized (Chapter 4). Part III analyses how these economic forms are scaled. It examines the temporalisation of cash loans secured against local livestock (Chapter 5), and how this sense of locality is scaled in relation to national and international trade networks (Chapter 6)