Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Studying Pastoralism, Drought, and Development in Africa s Arid Lands (Part of the Cultural Survival Studies in Ethnicity and Change Series) (2nd Edition)

Description

Based on over twenty-five years of research and fieldwork, the Second Edition of Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Studying Pastoralism, Drought, and Development in Africa s Arid Lands, offers a highly readable and often humorous ethnographic description of the Maasai-speaking society of East Africa. This unique text details the story of how one society of livestock herders in northern Kenya has adapted to and survived both natural and human-induced disasters of recent times, including drought and famine, inter-pastoralist warfare, and the wide-scale intervention of international development and relief organizations. The Ariaal s determination to maintain their pastoral lifestyle while taking advantage of new health, employment, marketing, and education opportunities offered in the growing Kenyan towns provides a fascinating study of the dynamics of cultural change and the threat to cultural survival among East African pastoralists. This small, accessible ethnography offers a detailed look at pastoral ecology, life in an Ariaal community, the trials and tribulations of anthropological fieldwork, and problems of development and social change for Ariaal people.