The Effects of China's Grassland Contract Policy on Pastoralists' Attitudes towards Cooperation in an Inner Mongolian Banner

摘要

China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is experiencing a marked decline in grassland quality partially as a result of government policies to sedentarize nomadic pastoralists and privatized collective grasslands. Previous research suggests that traditional forms of cooperation among Inner Mongolian pastoralists have deteriorated as a result of privatization and sedentarization. Herders in New Barag Right Banner (n = 50) representing both sedentary and mobile livestock management strategies were asked to respond to a scaled survey regarding their attitudes towards cooperation with other pastoralists. Inter-rater reliability and Mann-Whitney U Tests were utilized to compare the attitudes towards cooperation across sedentary and mobile settlement categories and to assess whether or not sedentary and mobile herders share the same cultural model regarding cooperation. The authors show that there is both high intra- and inter-group agreement on the survey variables across settlement categories, indicating that sedentary and mobile herders share the same cultural model regardless of their settlement pattern.