Risk management in a hazardous environment : a comparative study of two pastoral societies

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A research focus on hazards, risk perception and risk minimizing strategies is relatively new in the social and environmental sciences. This volume by a prominent scholar of East African societies is a powerful example of this growing interest. Earlier theory and research tended to describe social and economic systems in some form of equilibrium. However recent thinking in human ecology, evolutionary biology, not to mention in economic and political theory has come to assign to "risk" a prominent role in predictive modeling of behavior. It turns out that risk minimalization is central to the understanding of individual strategies and numerous social institutions. It is not simply a peripheral and transient moment in a group's history. Anthropologists interested in forager societies have emphasized risk management strategies as a major force shaping hunting and gathering routines and structuring institutions of food sharing and territorial behavior. This book builds on some of these developments but through the analysis of quite complex pastoral and farming peoples and in populations with substantial known histories. The method of analysis depends heavily on the controlled comparisons of different populations sharing some cultural characteristics but differing in exposure to certain risks or hazards.

The central questions guiding this approach are: 1) How are hazards generated through environmental variation and degradation, through increasing internal stratification, violent conflicts and marginalization? 2) How do these hazards result in damages to single households or to individual actors and how do these costs vary within one society? 3) How are hazards perceived by the people affected? 4) How do actors of different wealth, social status, age and gender try to minimize risks by delimiting the effect of damages during an on-going crisis and what kind of institutionalized measures do they design to insure themselves against hazards, preventing theiroccurrence or limiting their effects? 5) How is risk minimization affected by cultural innovation and how can the importance of the quest for enhanced security as a driving force of cultural evolution be estimated?

List of Tables	p. xvii
List of Figures	p. xix
List of Maps	p. xxi
List of Photographs	p. xxiii
1 Introduction - Studying Hazard and Risk in Pastoral Societies	p. 1
1.1 Discarded Boreholes and Protected Pastures: the Way to the Subject of the Study	p. 2
1.2 Research on Risk Management in Anthropology and the Social Sciences -an Overview	p. 3
1.2.1 Actor-Oriented Approaches to the Study of Risk	p. 4
1.2.2 Ethnographic Approaches	p. 5
1.2.3 Interpretative Approaches	p. 6
1.3 Theoretical Scope of this Study	p. 6
1.4 Key Concepts: Hazard, Risk, and Uncertainty	p. 7
1.4.1 Hazards and Damage	p. 10
1.4.2 The Perception of Hazards	p. 11
1.4.3 Risk Minimisation	p. 13
1.5 On Conducting Fieldwork in Two Societies	p. 14
1.6 Comparative Research	p. 16
2 An Outline of Pokot and Himba Societies: Environment, Political Economy and Cultural Beliefs	p. 19
2.1 The Pastoral Pokot	p. 20
2.1.1 The Ecology of the Northern Baringo Plains	p. 20
2.1.2 Pastoral Expansion and Colonial Domination: The Historical Developments of the Pastoral Pokot	p. 22
2.1.3 The Family Herds: the Household based Economy of the Pastoral Pokot	p. 28
2.1.4 Descent and Age: Social Organisation amongst the Pastoral Pokot	p. 33
2.1.5 Councils, Ritual Experts and Chiefs: Political Organisation amongst the Pastoral Pokot	p. 35
2.1.6 Solidarity and Respect: The Belief System of the Pastoral Pokot	p. 36
2.2 The Himba of Kaokoland	p. 37
2.2.1 The Ecology of Northern Kaokoland	p. 38
2.2.2 From Early Integration into the World System to Colonial Encapsulation: The Historical Development of the Pastoral Himba	p. 39
2.2.3 Household Economy and Pastoral Production	p. 43
2.2.4 Double-Descent and Patron-Client Networks: Social Organisation amongst the Pastoral Himba	p. 51
2.2.5 Chiefs and Councillors: Political Organisation amongst the Pastoral Himba	p. 52
2.2.6 Death, Commemoration and Ancestor Worship: The Himba Belief System	p. 53
2.3 Comparing Himba and Pokot Societies	p. 54
3 Hazards and Damages	p. 65
3.1 Demographic Growth and a Narrowing Resource Base	p. 65
3.1.1 Rapid Growth: Demographic Development of the Pokot	p. 66
3.1.2 Slow Growth: Demographic Development in Kaokoland	p. 70
3.1.3 Comparative Discussion of Pokot/Himba Demographic Trends in Relation to the Resource Base	p. 74
3.2 Environmental Degradation	p. 76
3.2.1 Degradation in Nginyang Division	p. 77
3.2.2 Degradation in Northern Kaokoland	p. 83
3.2.3 A Comparison of Degradation in the Two Pastoral Areas	p. 89
3.3 Regional Marginalisation, Emergent Internal Stratifications and the Loss of Entitlements	p. 90
3.3.1 Capricious Relations: Colonial Encapsulation and Trade in Pokot Land	p. 91
3.3.2 Unmaking a Market:The Repression of Trade in Kaokoland	p. 96
3.3.3 A Comparative Perspective on Marginalisation, Stratification and the Loss of Entitlements	p. 109
3.4 Short Term Climatic Variability - Drought and its Effect on Livestock Herds	p. 110
3.4.1 Rainfall Variability	p. 111
3.4.2 The Effects of Droughts on Fodder Production	p. 114
3.4.3 The Effects of Reduced Fodder Production on Livestock Mortality	p. 115
3.4.4 The Distribution of Losses amongst Households	p. 117
3.5 Livestock Diseases and their Effect on Livestock Mortality	p. 122
3.5.1 Livestock Mortality due to Diseases amongst the Pokot	p. 122
3.5.2 Livestock Mortality due to Diseases amongst the Himba	p. 125
3.5.3 Comparison of Livestock Mortality due to Diseases	p. 127
3.6 Violent Conflict	p. 129
3.6.1 The Gains and Spoils of Violence: Interethnic Violence in North-western Kenya	p. 129
3.6.2 Caught in the Middle: Raiders, Administrators and the Military	p. 136
3.6.3 Violence as a Hazard to Pastoral Viability: Pokot and Himba Compared	p. 137
4 The Perception of Droughts and Disasters	p. 145
4.1 The Enemy is us: The Social Appropriation of Drought and Disasters among the Pokot	p. 146
4.2 ""In the neck of a person there is a bone"" - Traditions of Drought and Disaster amongst the Himba	p. 157
4.3 A Comparative Account of Pokot and Himba Perceptions of Disasters	p. 170
5 Coping Strategies during a Drought and Disaster	p. 175
5.1 Changing Food Habits: Slaughter, Sharing, Substituting	p. 175
5.1.1 Pokot Foodways during Famines	p. 176
5.1.1.1 Increased Slaughter	p. 176
5.1.1.2 The Sharing of Food	p. 181
5.1.1.3 Living on Meagre Resources: Substituting Food	p. 186
5.1.2 Himba Food Ways during Famines	p. 188
5.1.2.1 Increased Slaughter	p. 188
5.1.2.2 The Sharing of Food	p. 191
5.1.2.3 In Praise of Palm Nuts: Substituting Food	p. 192
5.1.3 A Comparison of Pokot and Himba Foodways during Famines	p. 197
5.2 Increased Sales of Livestock	p. 199
5.2.1 Taking from Meagre Accounts: Pokot Livestock Sales during a Drought	p. 199
5.2.2 Taking from Full Accounts: Himba Sales Strategies	p. 205
5.2.3 A Comparison between Pokot and Himba Sales Strategies	p. 207
5.3 Increased Mobility	p. 210
5.3.1 Erratic Moves: Pokot Mobility Patterns during a Drought	p. 211
5.3.2 Moving to Survive: Himba Mobility Patterns during a Drought	p. 223
5.3.3 A Comparative Account of Mobility Patterns during a Drought	p. 229
5.4 Diversifying Income Generating and Food Producing Strategies During a Crisis	p. 231
5.4.1 Ten Cent Jobs and New Niches: Pokot Attempts at Diversifying their Economy	p. 231
5.4.2 The Failure to Diversify? The Himba Approach to Diversification	p. 234
5.4.3 A Comparative View on Diversification during Periods of Stress	p. 236
5.5 Crisis Management through Ritual	p. 237
5.5.1 Reducing Uncertainty and Fighting Hazards through the use of Oracles and Ritual among the Pokot	p. 238
5.5.1.1 Oracles: From Reading Intestines to Prophetic Visions	p. 239
5.5.1.2 Individual and Household-Based Rituals	p. 241
5.5.1.3 Community-Based Rituals	p. 246
5.5.2 Co-Opting the Ancestors: Himba Attempts at Reducing Uncertainty and Reducing Hazards	p. 259
5.5.2.1 Oracles	p. 259
5.5.2.2 Protective Magic (okuvindika)	p. 262
5.5.2.3 Family-Based Magic	p. 263
5.5.2.4 Community-Based Magic	p. 264
5.5.3 A Comparative Account of Ritual Approaches to Crisis Management	p. 264
6 Buffering Mechanisms: Minimising Vulnerability	p. 269
6.1 The Diversification of the Economy and Flexible Property Rights	p. 270
6.1.1 Diversification at the Margins: Pokot Attempts at Herd Diversification and Agriculture	p. 270
6.1.2 Sharing Meagre Resources: Pokot Inheritance and the Splitting of Property Rights	p. 274
6.1.3 Standing on Two Legs: Himba Herd Diversification and Small-Scale Agriculture	p. 276
6.1.4 Concentrating Resources: Himba Livestock Ownership Rights and Inheritance	p. 279
6.1.5 Comparing Property Rights and Diversification	p. 282
6.2 Networks of Security, Networks of Dominance	p. 283
6.2.1 Kinship, Friendship and Exchange among the Pokot	p. 283
6.2.1.1 Structural, Emotive, and Normative Correlates to Reciprocal Exchange	p. 289
6.2.1.2 The Exchange Network Put to the Test:Transactions during a Drought	p. 292
6.2.2 Networks of Dominance among the Himba of Northwest Namibia	p. 294
6.2.2.1 Inheritance and Livestock Loans among the Himba of Northwest Namibia	p. 294
6.2.2.2 The Exchange Network Put to the Test:Exchange and Recovery after the Drought of 1981	p. 302
6.2.3 Comparing Exchange Networks	p. 310
6.2.3.1 A formal Comparative Account of Livestock Exchange Networks	p. 310
6.2.3.1 a Structural Qualities of Networks (Density, Clusters)	p. 310
6.2.3.1 b Structural Properties of Single Actors: Degree, Closeness and Betweeness Centrality	p. 312
6.2.3.1 c Relational Analysis: Cliques, Clusters and Factions	p. 313
6.2.3.2 A Qualitative Comparative Account of Exchange Networks in Two Pastoral Societies	p. 314
6.3 Resource Protection in Two Pastoral Societies	p. 316
6.3.1 From Communal Resource Management to Open-Access Resource Management among the Pokot	p. 316
6.3.1.1 The Development of Pokot Land Tenure in Pre-Colonial and Colonial Times	p. 317
6.3.1.2 The Failure of the 'Traditional' System of Resource Protection: Pokot Rangelands as Open-Access Resource	p. 318
6.3.2 Communal Resource Management among the Himba	p. 325
6.3.2.1 Resource Protection in a Historical Context	p. 325
6.3.2.2 Pasture Management in the 1990s	p. 325
6.3.2.3 The Protection of Trees	p. 336
6.3.3 Resource Protection in Two Pastoral Societies:the Comparative Perspective	p. 337
6.4 Foundations of Moral Economies: Solidarity and Patronage	p. 339
6.4.1 Pokot - The Ethos of Egalitarian Exchange	p. 340
6.4.1.1 Solidarity, Respect and Internal Peace: Norms and Values	p. 340
6.4.1.2 Strong Brotherly Bonds: the Reification of Identity in Rituals	p. 344
6.4.1.3 Being Surrounded by Enemies: Visualising Ethnic Boundaries	p. 346
6.4.2 Himba Morality: Patronage, Kinship and Ethnicity	p. 350
6.4.2.1 Authority and Generosity: Norms and Values	p. 350
6.4.2.2 From Kinship-Based Rituals to Communal Rituals	p. 351
6.4.2.3 Boundary Maintenance and Cross-Cutting Ties: Ethnic Identity and Economic Exchange	p. 356
6.4.3 A Comparative Approach to Moral Economies	p. 360
7 Hazards, Risk and Risk Minimisation in African Pastoral Societies	p. 365
7.1 Changing Hazards: the Interplay between Ecologyand Political Economy	p. 365
7.1.1 Demographic growth and Environmental Change	p. 366
7.1.2 Independent Factors of Stress: Droughts, Epidemics and Violent Conflicts	p. 371
7.1.3 The Nature and Distribution of Damages	p. 372
7.2 The Perception of Hazards	p. 373
7.3 The Development of Risk Minimising Strategies and Buffering Institutions	p. 378
7.3.1 Crisis Management: From Local Resources to Food Aid	p. 378
7.3.2 Economic Change and the Development of Buffering Institutions	p. 384
7.4 Risk Minimisation and Economic Change	p. 389
References	p. 399
Appendix	p. 000
Photographs	p. 000
Literature	p. 000

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