Absentee herd owners and part-time pastoralists: The political economy of resource use in northern Kenya

Little, Peter D.

doi:10.1007/bf01531093

Cited by 78 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…When pastoralists settle, however, wealth differences among families may increase, potentially weakening the reciprocal kinship-based distributive mechanism of seasonal food scarcity. Such wealth differentiation was evident among former Il Chamus pastoralists of northern Kenya (Little, 1985). Through settlement schemes in 1950s, some former pastoralists who individually succeeded as businessmen and local retailers acquired livestock purely for investment purposes and hired local herders to look after their animals.…”

Section: Sedentarization As Changing Patterns Of Diet Seasonalty Momentioning

confidence: 98%

Sedentism, seasonality, and economic status: A multivariate analysis of maternal dietary and health statuses between pastoral and agricultural Ariaal and Rendille communities in northern Kenya

Fujita

Roth

Nathan

et al. 2003

American J Phys Anthropol

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This paper examines longitudinal data to assess the effects of the recent transition from pastoralism to sedentary agriculture for Ariaal and Rendille mothers in northern Kenya. Dietary, morbidity, and anthropometric data resulting from bimonthly repeated surveys of the pastoral community of Lewogoso and the sedentary agricultural community of Songa, covering the period from September 1994-July 1995, were used to test two hypotheses: 1) that sedentism is associated with changes in diet, seasonality, morbidity, and socioeconomic differentiation, and 2) that these changes affect maternal body composition. The first hypothesis is partly supported, with starch replacing milk in the sedentary diet. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance revealed no seasonal effects for diet in the agricultural sample, while starch consumption was significantly affected by seasonality for the pastoral sample. The agricultural community also featured economic dietary disparities favoring wealthier mothers, while no such effect was found in the pastoral community. However, no seasonal or economic effects were found for morbidity patterns in either sample. The second hypothesis is also partially supported, as a generalized estimating equations analysis revealed differences in the way diet and economic strata influence maternal anthropometric values. Economic status was significantly associated with maternal arm-fat area in Lewogoso. Milk was a significant factor associated with maternal weight and arm-muscle area in Songa. These findings are discussed in light of development policy implications.

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Section: Sedentarization As Changing Patterns Of Diet Seasonalty Momentioning

confidence: 98%

Sedentism, seasonality, and economic status: A multivariate analysis of maternal dietary and health statuses between pastoral and agricultural Ariaal and Rendille communities in northern Kenya

Fujita

Roth

Nathan

et al. 2003

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Similar details are also well known for societies in transition from subsistence to market economies. For instance, information is available on processes of increased social differentiation, changes in land and water use, and increased diversification of the economic base in transitional societies (e.g., Little, 1985Little, , 1987Hogg, 1980;Campbell, 1984;Grandin, 1986). However, much less is known about the human nutritional responses to the transitions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutritional ecology of pastoralists in dry tropical Africa

Galvin

1992

American J Hum Biol

128

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African pastoralists inhabit a variety of environments within tropical arid to semiarid regions. Ecological and cultural factors as well as economic opportunities and constraints influence the amounts and types of foods available. The preferred staple of all pastoral populations is milk from livestock. Pastoral diets are low in energy, but apparently adequate in protein. Growth in children is slow until late adolescence when height approaches the 50th percentile of reference data. Adult pastoralists are correspondingly tall and lean. Maintenance of high human numbers within the economy is a common strategy among a variety of pastoralists. The result is that pastoralists appear to be near the lower threshold of reasonable nutritional status at most times. This occurs despite marked variation in such elements as livestock and human numbers, diet composition, and activity patterns.

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“…In the 1970s and 1980s, scholars of pastoralism began to recognize a shift away from customary forms of labor-livestock exchange toward more contractual forms (Black-Michaud 1972;Sutter 1982Sutter , 1987Beck 1980;Barfield 1981;Bourgeot 1981;Bradburd 1990;Little 1985;Hogg 1986;Sperling 1987;Salzman 1992). Though customary forms of labor-livestock exchange remain viable alternative economies, the increased commercialization of livestock sectors and the incorporation of pastoral rangelands and economies within the sphere of states (see Little 2003 for a significant exception) has intensified processes of socioeconomic differentiation and the prevalence of wage labor even in mobile areas (Rigby 1988;Sikana and Kerven 1990;Rao 1993;Bassett 1994;Anderson and BrochDue 1999;Turner 1999;Gardner 2005;Lesorogol 2008;Yeh and Gaerrang 2011).…”

Section: Linking Transformations In Pastoral Labor To Governance: a Rmentioning

confidence: 98%

From kin to contract: labor, work and the production of authority in rural Mongolia

Murphy¹

2015

The Journal of Peasant Studies

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This contribution explores the re-emergence of herding contracts amongst pastoralists in the neoliberalizing contexts of Uguumur, a small rural district in eastern Mongolia. Contrary to past research on hired herding, it is argued that clientage and herding employment are a result of a diverse array of causal factors including disaster and market integration, but, more importantly, are also a result of the way rural forms of social inequality have become both key nodes for the circulation of power and the negotiation and production of authority. As such, this paper aims to demonstrate how these emergent labor dynamics craft useable hegemonies of work and worthiness as frames of legitimacy in the 'age of the market'.

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Absentee herd owners and part-time pastoralists: The political economy of resource use in northern Kenya

Cited by 78 publications

References 9 publications

Sedentism, seasonality, and economic status: A multivariate analysis of maternal dietary and health statuses between pastoral and agricultural Ariaal and Rendille communities in northern Kenya

Sedentism, seasonality, and economic status: A multivariate analysis of maternal dietary and health statuses between pastoral and agricultural Ariaal and Rendille communities in northern Kenya

Nutritional ecology of pastoralists in dry tropical Africa

From kin to contract: labor, work and the production of authority in rural Mongolia

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