The domestication of camelids is not sufficient cause for the development of long-distance caravan traditions. Ethnographic evidence suggests that caravans are organized by herders with sufficiently large herds and the economic stability to depart on a caravan journey for weeks or months. Herders have high labor productivity and scheduling that permits important members of the household to depart on long voyages (Section 3.2.3). Households that conduct long-distance caravans often have a herd that is large enough to contain a viable number of caravan animals, or they will lease animals from others in order to have sufficient camelids to make a journey worthwhile (Browman 1990: 400;Nielsen 2000: 387-388).

Pastoral wealth is primarily manifested in larger herd sizes, where wealthy herders in modern contexts will own hundreds or thousands of animals in the south-central Andes. While an ethos against accumulation may have existed in some contexts, for example among egalitarian foragers, pastoralists worldwide display a similar logic of accumulation with respect to herd size. "In pastoral societies, having more animals is better than having fewer. Because the pastoral economy is based on a continuous demand for successful animal reproduction to replace losses due to predation, disease and use, the accumulation per se of more animals is a socially sanctioned and desirable end in itself." (Aldenderfer 2001: 25). In a human behavior ecology framework, Aldenderfer (2006) suggests that the origins of pastoralism may have its roots in the costly-signaling value of the possession of large herds. Thus, herd size is linked to status and it represents one of the factors contributing to the ability of caravan drivers to organize long distance caravans, and, in turn, to acquire non-local goods as part of caravan activities.