Prevailing anthropological theory holds that social norms restricting the promiscuity of women tend to be more prevalent in pastoralist societies, where the long periods of unmonitored separation between spouses that often arise as a result of animal herding tends to result in stricter repression of female sexuality. This article explores the relationship between several societies' historical reliance on pastoralism and their attitudes towards four topics related to female promiscuity: abortion, female mobility, female promiscuity and female genital mutilation. The author finds all for topics to be significantly correlated with historical reliance on pastoralism.