Water Management and Effective Grazing in Winter Settlement Choices of the Deh Mishi Tribe from the Chekab Baft Region of Kerman

One advantage of ethnoarchaeological studies in the scope of archaeological approach is  its application in analyzing the pattern of settlement. The study of living societies and extracting their social and economic patterns, helps bring the interpretation of archaeological findings closer to reality. The ethnoarchaeological project and study of the Vakilabadi branch of the Deh Mishi tribe within the Chekab Baft region in the south west of Kerman province, was therefore carried out. Before the nomadic settlement plan, the people in question had been nomads with a rancher lifestyle. The manner by which the settlement choices of this tribe relates to the regional water resources, the reason behind the almost large distance between the settlement and the water sources, the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of the usage of the present findings from ethnological and ethnoarchaeological studies for evaluating the settlement patterns, and accurate analysis of the relevance and dependence of cultural and natural variables within the archaeological contexts, are amongst the most important questions of this article. The authors, through interviews with the elders of the Vakilabadi family, alongside environmental surveys and archaeological analysis, have understood that the winter settlement of this tribe is not based on closeness to water sources, but rather the management of time and distance in order for the livestock to be effectively grazed and watered, all the while spending the least possible time going through the smallest possible distance. This study indicates that intact ethnoarchaeological subjects can still be observed and studied within some of the regions of the Iran central plateau, which will present similar and homogeneous patterns for analysis and interpretation of archaeological data.