  An important problem in the theory of finite dynamical systems is to link the
structure of a system with its dynamics. This paper contains such a link for a
family of nonlinear systems over an arbitrary finite field. For systems that
can be described by monomials, one can obtain information about the limit cycle
structure from the structure of the monomials. In particular, the paper
contains a sufficient condition for a monomial system to have only fixed points
as limit cycles. The condition is derived by reducing the problem to the study
of a Boolean monomial system and a linear system over a finite ring.
