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