Pastoralism represents a crucial shift in the relationship between humans and animals that permeates all aspects of culture. One aspect of this transition is changes to settlement and camp structure. Previous studies indicate pastoralists situate themselves in areas suitable for their domesticated animals as opposed to foragers who situate themselves closer to consumable natural resources, such as food and raw materials. Building on these past studies, this paper explores how demography and kinship factor into the decision of where to set up camp and where to place one’s house. We explore this issue through the ethnoarchaeological study of the Dukha reindeer herders of northern Mongolia. Our study reveals two important findings: first, group and herd size does not impact camp spacing; second, the distribution of camps and houses are well correlated with the degree of relatedness. These empirical findings are a significant contribution to our understanding of pastoral settlement structure and further highlight the importance of kinship in nomadic cultures.

中文翻译：

---

蒙古北部杜卡驯鹿牧民亲属的空间表达

放牧是人类与动物之间关系的重要转变，贯穿文化的各个方面。这一过渡的一个方面是定居点和营地结构的变化。先前的研究表明，牧民将自己安置在适合其家畜的区域中，而牧民则将其自身放置在距离食品和原材料等消耗性自然资源较近的位置。在这些过去的研究的基础上，本文探讨了人口统计学和亲属关系因素如何决定在哪里建立营地和在哪里安置房屋。我们通过对蒙古北部杜卡驯鹿牧民的民族考古研究来探索这一问题。我们的研究揭示了两个重要发现：第一，群体和畜群的大小不会影响营地的间距；第二，营地和房屋的分布与相关程度密切相关。这些经验发现对我们对牧民定居结构的理解做出了重要贡献，并进一步突出了亲缘关系在游牧文化中的重要性。