| dc.description.abstract | The Farming Herders: Irrigation, Reciprocity and
This dissertation is based on a study of over
552 formerly
nomadic families within a total population of over 10,000 people
living around the
Katilu Irrigation Scheme in Turkana District of
Kenya.
These former nomads were forced out of
their indigenous
pastoral economy by loss of all their livestock (their major means
of
subsistence) through droughts, fatal livestock diseases and cattle
rustling.
By admitting them into the irrigation scheme, the Kenya
Government and charitable
organizations hoped to convert them from
nomads into farmers, and eventually create a self-reliant
agricultural community. To develop commitment to modern settled
agriculture, the
nomads were expected to give up their pastoral
values. This study questions the extent to which
this goal has been
achieved.
The problems of the expected value and behavioural adjustments
have been examined through
analysis of reciprocity and marriage.
The transactional behaviour involved in marriage and
reciprocity is
important in the examination of the social and economic relationships
between the
farmers and their herding kin, and also among the farmers
themselves. As social and economic
institutions, reciprocity and
marriage serve as vehicles of
adaptation to the nomads' hostile
environment by providing security in times of need e.g. during
major livestock losses.
The major findings of this study include reinvestment into the
pastoral sector by the farmers;
devaluation of the Turkana women;
increased incidence of polygamy; family instability;
concubinage and
an overall threat of population explosion in the settlement scheme.
The data for the study were collected through participant
observation, surveys, reading and
analysis of ethnographic
materials and examination of historical records from the Kenya
National Archives | |
