Variation and change amongst the kitui akamba: A comparative study of two vicinages
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Date
1979Author
O'Leary, Michael F.
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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The study is a comprehensive analysis of aspects of the economic and
social organisation of two vicinages (motui) inhabited by the Kitui
Akamba, but located in different ecological niches. Kitui District,
Kenya can be divided into two distinct physical regions, the highland
and lowland regions. The major environmental features of the
district, in particular the contrast between the climates or the lowlands
and the highlands, and the occurrence of periodic drought in
both regions, are described in Chapter 1, sections A,Band C.
Demographic growth in the district resulted in the pouring of the
Akamba from mountains and hills onto the plains and lower ground
during the colonial period: the cultivator began occupying pastoral
rangelands, the pastoralist wild life rangelands. The higher population
densities are found in the highlands, and the lower densities in
the lowlands. Population density influences the extent to which past- .r:
oralism is pr-act.Ised, (Chapter 1, sections D and E.)
Citation
Ph. D ThesisPublisher
University of Manchester