Politics And Gastropolitics: Gender And The Power Of Food In Two African Pastoralist Societies

Abstract

Male‐centred aspects of political behaviour have generally remained the explanatory and interpretive focuses in analyses of the social organization of African pastoralists. While recent work on African pastoralists has shed increasing light on the lives of women, I argue that key assumptions underlying anthropological models of male dominance in these societies have been insufficiently challenged. Drawing on recent approaches in gender and social organization that highlight the mutual constitution of domestic and political domains, I examine comparative material from two well‐known pastoralist societies: the Samburu of northern Kenya and the Nuer of southern Sudan. In doing so, I suggest strong linkages between male‐dominated ‘political spheres’ and areas of domestic life in which the role of women is more significant – particularly processes of domestic food distribution. In re‐examining central facets of Samburu politics – which are best known through Paul Spencer’s seminal analysis of the gerontocratic aspects of Samburu political life – I suggest that the status and identities of Samburu men are in fundamental ways defined through their relationship to women as providers of food within Samburu households. Comparative material from the Nuer suggests, additionally, the strategic use of food by women in influencing male ‘political spheres’. In comparing these cases, I suggest a more general model through which domestic processes of food allocation as realms of female‐centred social action may be seen to play a central role in the forms and processes of pastoral ‘political’ life.

Development interventions, changing livelihoods, and the making of female Maasai pastoralists

“…Recent research on African pastoralists has increasingly shed light on the lives of women in pastoralist societies (Baroin 1987;Bianco 2000;Broch-Due et al 1981;Dahl 1987;Ensminger 1987;Hodgson 2000Hodgson , 2001Hodgson and McCurdy 2001;Holtzman 2002;Kipury 1989;Kratz and Pido 2000;Little 1987;Loftsdottir 2001;Oboler 1985;Oxby 1987;Spencer 1988;Talle 1987Talle , 1994Turner 1999). These studies demonstrate the role of women's agency in shaping a variety of political, cultural and economic processes.…”

‘We are not eating our own food here’: food security and the cash economy in Eastern Uganda

“…At another level, collective consumption of emere expresses-each day-the successful outcome of a complex process of production stretching back over the previous year and based in a gendered division of labour and responsibility. This too is common for most of Africa (Fortes and Fortes, 1936;Goody, 1982;Holtzman, 2002). Family meals recapitulate the set of obligations (wives prepare food) and entitlements (husbands provide land and labour) which are themselves habitus-until they are challenged by events.…”

Colonial and post-colonial changes and impact on pastoral women’s roles and status

“…Similarly, through control of food resources, Samburu women have been shown to negotiate power issues within their community and even with the elders who enjoy exalted status ). 32 Additionally, Legesse elaborates that women's use of folk and work (Karile) songs not only lightens the burden of their chores but they use such songs to pass their remarks or direct criticisms about men's ill-advised decisions that they overheard in men's assemblies. 33 It can be argued that women's use of songs plays more of a role than simply calling males to conformity.…”