Pastoralism in transition: Exploring intersections of religious and environmental changes

Abstract (English)

What can we learn about pastoralism and pastoral livelihoods by exploring changes in pastoralists' religious lives? ? (How) does religion shape pastoralists' relationships to the land, their domestic animals, other non-humans, and their responses to environmental challenges? Do pastoralists' experiences of land change and environmental crises inform their religious practices?
This panel tackles a significant blind spot in current research on pastoralism under global environmental change – religion and spirituality. From divinities who provide and withhold rain, to religious specialists advising on animal movements; from pastoralists who are pastors, to churches that provide financial services, religion pervades the lives of many (agro)pastoralists, shaping their relationships with "nature" and responses to environmental variability in both conceptual and material ways.
In pastoral areas, transformations in indigenous spiritualities, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Shamanism occur simultaneously with rising climatic instability, privatization of commons, expansion of farming, and impacts of resource extraction and conservation policies. Yet, studies on these two sets of changes rarely communicate.
Recent reviews of political economic and environmental changes in rangelands overlook religion as a variable. Critics deplore that environmental challenges are studied in isolation from religion (Skirbekk et al., 2020); and that religious actors and institutions are neglected in political ecological analyses (Wilkins, 2021). In a world that is 85% religiously affiliated (and increasing), disregarding this dimension often leads to simplistic narratives linking climate, religion, and natural resource-based conflict and to inadequate responses to disasters. Illuminating how religious factors mediate (agro)pastoral engagements with the land is crucial for a deeper understanding of contemporary pastoral livelihoods.
We invite contributions that explore intersections of religious and environmental changes in pastoral communities, and how these dynamics reflect diverse human engagements with the land and environmental changes. We conceptualize "religion" broadly, including organized religions, diverse spiritualities and cosmologies, and religious movements; and "religious change" as including processes like conversion, revival, creativity, and secularization. Environmental change includes climatic variability, land use/land cover changes, impacts of land tenure changes and conservation policies, and biodiversity losses/gains, among others.
This panel aims to stimulate a debate on the interface between religion, environment, and changing pastoral livelihoods. By bridging the gap between religious and environmental studies in pastoral contexts, we hope to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of pastoralists’ lives and decisions under global environmental change.