Risk-Pooling and Herd Survival: An Agent-Based Model of a Maasai Gift-Giving System

Abstract

We use agent-based modeling to study osotua, a gift giving system used by the Maasai of East Africa. Osotua's literal meaning is "umbilical cord," but it is used metaphorically to refer to a specific type of gift-giving relationship. Osotua relationships are characterized by respect, responsibility and restraint. Osotua partners ask each other for help only if they are in need and provide help only when asked and only if they are able. We hypothesize that under the ecologically volatile conditions in which Maasai pastoralists have traditionally lived, such a system is particularly suited to risk pooling. Here we explore whether osotua increases the viability of herds by comparing herd survivorship and stability under osotua rules to a) no exchange and b) probabilistic rules for requesting and giving livestock. Results from this model suggest that this gift-giving system can dramatically increase herd longevity through a limited pooling of risk.

Pastoralist societies in flux: A conceptual framework analysis of herding and land use among the Mukugodo Maasai of Kenya

“…This may indicate a breakdown in traditional practices in this system (Aktipis et al 2011;Cronk 1991;Cronk 2007;Herren 1987). This result is not surprising since stratification and inequality usually appear in areas where there are alternative forms of resource and labour acquisition, such as access to land rights, permanent wells or dams, and cash (Dahl and Hjort 1976).…”

“…First, there was limited previous material on decision-making and livelihood strategies in this particular pastoral system (Aktipis et al 2011;Cronk 1991 andHerren 1988 and1989), making it difficult to contextualize the social, economic, and ecological problems that have arisen in recent years due to a long history of confinement isolation and marginalization. Secondly, there has been rapid market integration in this particular region of Kenya since the 1980s (Gertel and LeHeron 2011;Herren 1989;Huysentruyt et al 2009;McPeak 2004 and, leading to widespread changes in the character of production and the potential for food production, such as shifting production focus away from dairy cattle to trade in goats with urban meat houses.…”

“…Weaving wealth differences into this analysis allows us to also evaluate existing social welfare systems, such as osutua and paran, and where and when they fail (Aktipis et al 2011;Godoy et al 2007;Smith 2011). Osutua literally means 'umbilical cord' in Maa, making it a term that describes a 'tied' relationship between two individuals (Cronk 2007).…”

Cross-cultural regularities in the cognitive architecture of pride

“…Indeed, over the last half-century, evolutionary biologists have developed theories of how a number of different selection pressures favor the evolution of mechanisms designed to value the welfare of others and to (within limits) sacrifice self for others. These theories include kin selection (11), reciprocation (12,13), reputation (14-16), riskpooling (1,17,18), externality management (19), and (substituting deference for valuation) the asymmetric war of attrition (20). These theories in aggregate require the existence of an evolved, human-universal neurocognitive architecture for computing the social value of others to oneself, and an architecture that governs the extent to which the self will trade his or her welfare in favor of others' welfare (21)(22)(23).…”

‘Knowledge Making’: Issues in Modelling Local and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

“…The models can effectively explore how complexity and emergent properties can arise from simple rules, but although inspired by complex biological and social systems, much past ABM research has not engaged with empirical data (Janssen and Ostrom 2006). More recent initiatives have incorporated 'stakeholder' perspectives and responses in researcher-driven models (Huigen et al 2006;Aktipis et al 2011) and in cases where engagement by local participants is high, they have been able to produce ABMs with a significant degree of local participation and validation (Castella et al 2005). ABM offers significant opportunities for novel insights in modelling, but the existing literature suggests that it has not been extensively used as the primary tool for generating visual representations of local or indigenous knowledge in its own terms.…”