Synopses & Reviews
Throughout the world's arid regions, and particularly in northern and eastern Africa, formerly nomadic pastoralists are undergoing a transition to settled life. Pastoral sedentarization represents a response to multiple factors, including loss of livestock due to drought and famine, increased competition for range land due to growing populations, land privatization or appropriation for commercial farms, ranches, and tourist game parks, and to fear of increasing violence, ethnic conflict, and civil war. Although pastoral settlement is often encouraged by international development agencies and national governments as solutions to food insecurity, poor health care and problems of governance, the social, economic and health concomitants of sedentism are not inevitably beneficial. Biosocial studies presented in this volume, for example, point to greater nutritional and health benefits among nomadic livestock keepers, but increased opportunities in education, employment, and food security in towns. This book examines from an interdisciplinary perspective pastoral sedentarization in one region of Africa - Marsabit District in northern Kenya - an isolated and arid region bordering Ethiopia and which contains multiple pastoral groups including Rendille, Samburu, Ariaal, Borana and Gabra peoples. Within this locale, we present recent studies conducted by cultural and biological anthropologists, veterinary biologists, economists, geographers and medical and community health personnel, linked by the common goal of delineating the consequences, both positive and negative, of settlement for formerly nomadic pastoral populations. For many of these former pastoralists, settled life does not necessarily constitute a break with their pastoral kin and neighbors, but represents one more opportunity with which to survive in a difficult physical and social environment. This edited work is a collection of international contributors from North America, Africa and Europe and focuses on a dilemma that affects many parts of the indigenous world. This book will be essential reading for professionals and students of social change in the developing world particularly in applied anthropology, development economics, rural sociology, environment and ecology, and medicine and public health
Review
From the reviews of the first edition: "This book brings together chapters on various research projects in the semi-arid Marsabit district in northern Kenya. ... The chapters cover a variety of issues on aspects of human welfare ... . Overall the book is a set of fascinating accounts that demonstrate the difficulties in conceptualizing and measuring 'development' let alone in devising interventions to improve people's lives in marginal semi-arid lands." (Sara Randall, Population Studies, Vol. 60 (3), 2006) "This book is a compendium of studies on the pastoralists of Northern Kenya ... . This book combines state of the art review with primary research ... . is a milestone in our knowledge and understanding of contemporary pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa in general, and of the biosocial correlates of sedentarization for women and children in Northern Kenyan pastoralist groups in particular. It will be of importance to researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners in African drylands development." (Katherine Homewood, Human Ecology, 2006)
Synopsis
The Social, Health, and Economic Consequences of Pastoral Sedentarization in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya ERICABELLA ROTH AND ELLIOT FRATKIN 1. INTRODUCTION Formerly nomadic livestock-keeping pastoralists have settled in many regions of the world in the past century. Some groups, including those in the former Soviet Union, Iran, and Israel, have settled in response to state-enforced measures; others including Saami in Norway or Bedouins in Saudi Arabia, in response to changing economic opportunities. East Africa, home to many cattle- and camel-keeping pastoral societies, has been among the most recent to change. The shift to sedentism by East African pastoralists increased d- matically in the late 20th century as a result of sharp economic, political, demographic, and environmental changes. Prolonged drought, population growth, increased reliance on ag- culture, and political insecurities including civil war and ethnic conflict have all affected the ability of pastoralists to keep their herds. Still, the majority of pastoralist households in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Tanzania remain committed to raising livestock, even as they adapt to farming or urban residence. Pastoral production remains a major economic focus in the savannas and scrub deserts of Africa, due to both its ecological adaptability and the economic incentive to market livestock and their products (Fratkin, 2001). Pastoralists settle for a variety of reasons, some in response to pushes away from the pastoral economy, others to the pulls of urban or agricultural life."
Synopsis
Throughout the world's arid regions, and particularly in northern and eastern Africa, formerly nomadic pastoralists are undergoing a transition to settled life. This reference shows that although pastoral settlement is often encouraged by international development agencies and national governments, the social, economic and health consequences of sedentism are not inevitably beneficial.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Social, Health, and Economic Consequences of Pastoral Sedentarization in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya.- The Setting: Pastoral Sedentarization in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya.- Time, Terror, and Pastoral Inertia: Sedentarization and Conflict in Northern Kenya.- Ecological and Economic Consequences of Reduced Mobility in Pastoral Livestock Production Systems.- Cursed if you do, Cursed if You Don't: The contradictory Processes of Pastoral Sedentarization in Northern Kenya.- Once Nomads Settle: Assessing the Process, Motives, and Welfare Changes of Settlements on Mount Marsabit.- From Milk to Maize: The Transition to Agriculture for Rendille and Ariaal Pastoralists.- Women's Changing Economic Roles with Pastoral Sedentarization: Varying Strategies in Alternate Rendille Communities.- The Effects of Pastoral Sedentarization on Children's Growth and Nutrition among Ariaal and Rendille in Northern Kenya.- Health and Morbidity among Rendille Pastoralist Children: Effects of Sedentarization.- Sedentarization and Seasonality: Maternal Dietary and Health Consequences in Ariaal and Rendille Communities in Northern Kenya.- Development, Modernization, and Medicalization: Influences on the Changing Nature of Female "Circumcision" in Rendille Society.- Female Education in a Sedentary Ariaal Rendille Community: Paternal Decision-Making and Biosocial Pathways.