Paper short abstract:

While camel breeding in the Sahara has declined, it has increased in Kazakhstan because of the necessity for milk production. How and why has the modernization effect differently arrived between the Sahara and Central Asia in camel breeding culture? This question is reviewed.

Paper long abstract:

This study aims to think about the modernization impact on camel breeding culture in the Sahara Desert and Central Asia. The camel has been an important animal for the desert people to get milk, meat, wool and working power. There are two species of camel: Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) and dromedary (Camelus dromedarius). The former, Arabian Peninsula native is bred in tropical Middle East and in Africa, while the latter lives in the cold steppe of Central Asia.

In the Sahara Desert, the Touareg have lived with dromedary. The use for transportation is reduced; camels are now animals almost for tourism.

The number of camels in Kazakhstan had decreased from 1,200,000 in 1941

heads to 100,000 heads of camel. The camel breeding began to re-increase however recently. It is mainly because of the need of the milk production becoming more important. While the Bactrian camel has been kept as working animal in Kazakhstan, the camel milk has recently come to be highlighted as healthy drink; milk production became more important and the number of dromedary has increased.

In the socialist time of the Soviet Union, the collective farm system dominated Camel breeding. Today, the breeding form of the camel is various: big ranching system considered as enterprise, private individual pasturing, breeding in small yards, and traditional nomadic ways. Various kinds of effect and change to which pastoralist culture has been exposed with the modernization process are analysed here.