Ethnicity and Child Health in Northern Tanzania: Maasai Pastoralists Are Disadvantaged Compared to Neighbouring Ethnic Groups

The Maasai of northern Tanzania, a semi-nomadic ethnic group predominantly reliant on pastoralism, face a number of challenges anticipated to have negative impacts on child health, including marginalisation, vulnerabilities to drought, substandard service provision and on-going land grabbing conflicts. Yet, stemming from a lack of appropriate national survey data, no large-scale comparative study of Maasai child health has been conducted. Savannas Forever Tanzania surveyed the health of over 3500 children from 56 villages in northern Tanzania between 2009 and 2011. The major ethnic groups sampled were the Maasai, Sukuma, Rangi, and the Meru. Using multilevel regression we compare each ethnic group on the basis of (i) measurements of child health, including anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and self-reported incidence of disease; and (ii) important proximate determinants of child health, including food insecurity, diet, breastfeeding behaviour and vaccination coverage. We then (iii) contrast households among the Maasai by the extent to which subsistence is reliant on livestock herding. Measures of both child nutritional status and disease confirm that the Maasai are substantially disadvantaged compared to neighbouring ethnic groups, Meru are relatively advantaged, and Rangi and Sukuma intermediate in most comparisons. However, Maasai children were less likely to report malaria and worm infections. Food insecurity was high throughout the study site, but particularly severe for the Maasai, and reflected in lower dietary intake of carbohydrate-rich staple foods, and fruits and vegetables. Breastfeeding was extended in the Maasai, despite higher reported consumption of cow''s milk, a potential weaning food. Vaccination coverage was lowest in Maasai and Sukuma. Maasai who rely primarily on livestock herding showed signs of further disadvantage compared to Maasai relying primarily on agriculture. We discuss the potential ecological, socioeconomic, demographic and cultural factors responsible for these differences and the implications for population health research and policy.     

Precarious Alliances: The Cultural Politics and Structural Predicaments of the Indigenous Rights Movement in Tanzania

Since 1990, over one hundred indigenous nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) have emerged in predominantly Maasai areas in Tanzania, attempting to organize people around diverse claims of a common "indigenous" identity based on ethnicity, mode of production, and a long history of political and economic disenfranchisement. Despite attempts to foster unity and promote common political agendas, the indigenous rights movement has been fractured by sometimes quite hostile disagreements over priorities, competition over resources, and tensions over membership and representation. This article explores the complicated causes and consequences of these tensions by focusing on the discussions, disagreements, and silences that occurred during a recent attempt to reconcile indigenous groups in Tanzania. The workshop offers a unique window on the cultural, political, and historical dynamics of the indigenous rights movement in northern Tanzania, the principles and practices of inclusion and exclusion that have defined and shaped the movement, and the internal and external stresses that have made alliances within and among the INGOs, donors, and the government precarious, at best. [Keywords: indigenous peoples, social movements, cultural politics, Maasai, Tanzania]     

Entrepreneurs, Elites, and Exclusion in Maasailand: Trends in Wildlife Conservation and Pastoralist Development

Maasai pastoralists in Kenya are rapidly diversifying. Maasai may now derive their main livelihoods (and sometimes considerable income) from farming, wildlife tourism, and/or the leasing of land for large-scale cereal cultivation. The spread of large-scale commercial cultivation competes with wildlife for grazing land, and wildlife populations around protected areas are rapidly declining as a result. This paper presents new data to analyse the way returns from different land uses, and the social structures affecting their distribution, influence the land-use choices being made by Maasai around the Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Returns to different interest groups from livestock, cultivation, and wildlife enterprises, seen in the light of current social, economic, and political trajectories, can help to clarify likely future land-use trends in the Mara. In particular, community conservation initiatives that seek to make conservation worthwhile to reserve-adjacent dwellers inevitably have a strong economic dimension. However, the choices made by Maasai landowners are not a simple function of the economic returns potentially accruing from a particular enterprise. They are as much or more influenced by who is able to control the different flows of returns from these different types of enterprise. These findings are relevant not only for the wider Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem, but also for pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Maasai Socioeconomic Conditions: A Cross-Border Comparison

A single round household survey was conducted between October 1997 and May 1998. Information was collected on 1545 Maasai households in Kenya and Tanzania using a standardized questionnaire. These data represent the first large-scale, cross-border comparable survey of socioeconomic indicators for the Maasai. The structure of the study is similar to that of a natural experiment: one ethnic group living in two very different nation-states. The survey results describe a current snapshot of Maasai livelihoods. Living arrangements are described at both the household (olmarei) and multihousehold (enkang) level, together with changes in housing type. The roles of cultivation, transhumant migration, and employment are described, including a consideration of the prevalence of murranism (warriorhood). The implications of rising levels of sedentarization and cash crop production for Maasai economic diversification are explored. Participation by Maasai in the tourism industry is extremely low despite the proximity of Maasai to major international tourist destinations in East Africa. Levels of formal education show a marked sex bias in completed primary school education in both countries, with far fewer women than men having attended school.     

Transition of Shifting Cultivation and its Impact on People’s Livelihoods in the Miombo Woodlands of Northern Zambia and South-Western Tanzania

Shifting cultivation has long been a major livelihood for people in the miombo woodlands of southern, central and eastern Africa. However, increasing deforestation and forest degradation throughout the region are resulting in growing pressure on traditional shifting agricultural systems. Indeed, agricultural intensification and expansion itself is considered the primary cause of miombo deterioration, which is driven by both endogenous and exogenous variables operating at various scales. On the basis of data collected in the 1990s and 2010 from two villages in Northern Province, Zambia and two in the Rukwa Region, Tanzania, the paper will document the transition of shifting cultivation towards more intensive land use practices. It is argued that the main drivers influencing miombo degradation, and thereby the transition process of traditional shifting cultivation practices, have been a growing population, government policies, and an increasing commercialization/market integration. Questionnaires, focus group meetings, and in-depth interviews reveal that despite the breakdown of the traditional shifting cultivation practices, a general improvement of livelihoods has taken place. This has happened through adaptation and diversification in both agricultural practices and livelihood activities. However, it is also seen that because of the often rapidly changing external factors (market conditions and policies), life in the shifting cultivation communities involves a continual shift of emphasis among a variety of livelihood strategies.     

Cultivation and Conservation in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania, contains renowned wildlife, an expanding human population, and cultivation by Maasai agro-pastoralists and non-Maasai agriculturalists. We used integrated assessments to explore some effects of cultivation on livestock, resident wildlife, and people. Using a Landsat image from 2000, we mapped 3,967 ha [9,803 acres (ac)] of cultivation within NCA, or 39.7 km² of the 8,283 km² conservation area. Using integrative ecosystem (Savanna) and household (PHEWS) models, we assessed effects of: up to 50,000 ac (20,234 ha) of cultivation; cultivation concentrated into two blocks totaling 10,000 ac (4,047 ha) and 20,000 ac (8,094 ha) that may be more palatable to tourists; and human population growth. Simulations with from 10,000 to 50,000 ac in cultivation showed no large changes in ungulate populations relative to there being no cultivation. When cultivation was altered to be in two blocks, some wildlife populations changed (≤15%) and ungulate biomass remained the same. When cultivation was increased linearly with human population, poor households needed 25% of their diets to come from relief as populations tripled, because livestock could not increase significantly. Our results indicate that having <1% of NCA in cultivation, in its current distribution, is not overly detrimental to wildlife or livestock populations, and is important to Maasai well-being.     

Livelihood diversification and implications on dryland resources of central Tanzania

The concern over sustainable livelihoods in African drylands is an issue that has received considerable attention from researchers and policy makers alike. Over the past two decades African rural areas have undergone rapid changes, whereby, rural income diversification has become the most salient feature. With a particular focus on dryland ecosystems, among the major challenges facing communities in these areas is recurrent drought leading to conditions of food insecurity. This paper draws on experience on coping mechanisms for food insecurity from an agro-pastoral community in Mvumi, located in the semiarid areas of central Tanzania. An understanding of livelihoods of people in this area has involved examining how communities have managed to adjust their livelihood in the midst of challenges resulting not only from drought but also from various forces such as socio–economic, political and ecological factors. It has been found out that, despite profound food crisis in this area, people are not always desperate and that there are possibilities for realizing some hidden potentials of dryland resources for livelihood diversification. The issue of sustainable natural resource management in such areas is, however, questionable because of some adverse environmental effects associated with some of the coping mechanisms.     

Navigating challenges and opportunities of land degradation and sustainable livelihood development in dryland social–ecological systems: a case study from Mexico

Drylands are one of the most diverse yet highly vulnerable social–ecological systems on Earth. Water scarcity has contributed to high levels of heterogeneity, variability and unpredictability, which together have shaped the long coadaptative process of coupling humans and nature. Land degradation and desertification in drylands are some of the largest and most far-reaching global environmental and social change problems, and thus are a daunting challenge for science and society. In this study, we merged the Drylands Development Paradigm, Holling''s adaptive cycle metaphor and resilience theory to assess the challenges and opportunities for livelihood development in the Amapola dryland social–ecological system (DSES), a small isolated village in the semi-arid region of Mexico. After 450 years of local social–ecological evolution, external drivers (neoliberal policies, change in land reform legislation) have become the most dominant force in livelihood development, at the cost of loss of natural and cultural capital and an increasingly dysfunctional landscape. Local DSESs have become increasingly coupled to dynamic larger-scale drivers. Hence, cross-scale connectedness feeds back on and transforms local self-sustaining subsistence farming conditions, causing loss of livelihood resilience and diversification in a globally changing world. Effective efforts to combat desertification and improve livelihood security in DSESs need to consider their cyclical rhythms. Hence, we advocate novel dryland stewardship strategies, which foster adaptive capacity, and continuous evaluation and social learning at all levels. Finally, we call for an effective, flexible and viable policy framework that enhances local biotic and cultural diversity of drylands to transform global drylands into a resilient biome in the context of global environmental and social change.     

Pastoralism Under Pressure: Tracking System Change in Southern Ethiopia

While economic development has proven elusive in African pastoral systems, change is pervasive. The majority of the Kajiado Maasai, for example, have endured marked declines in per capita livestock holdings and other aspects of human welfare over the past 50 years. We surveyed 317 Borana households to see if similar patterns occurred in southern Ethiopia, and our predictions were largely confirmed. Once viewed as the epitome of sustainable pastoralism, the Borana system now confronts numerous challenges. Decline in per capita cattle holdings has spurred household-level diversification to include maize cultivation and camel husbandry in some areas. Resource pressure has encouraged local annexation of some formerly common access grazing areas. Economic links between pastoral households and local towns still appear rare, however. Our results suggest that patterns of internally induced socioeconomic change due to population pressure in such semiarid systems are broadly predictable, and that development intervention priorities should reflect system dynamics and address emerging issues. A focus on improving risk management by facilitating household economic diversification and restoring some aspects of opportunistic resource use may be the most appropriate development options among the Ethiopian Boran at this time.     

Facial cues to physical strength increase attractiveness but decrease aggressiveness assessments in male Maasai of Northern Tanzania

Male physical formidability may reflect capacities to provision and protect, resource holding potential, and social status. Handgrip strength (HGS) is a robust measure of overall muscular strength and function that correlates positively with ratings of male facial attractiveness and dominance. Here, we examine strength, attractiveness, and aggressiveness assessments as a function of facial cues to HGS in a sample of male Maasai of Northern Tanzania. Adult Maasai (56 women, 40 men) rated three strength-calibrated facial morphs of Maasai men. These morphs were constructed by performing a geometric morphometric shape regression on HGS using digital images of 54 men (20–29 years). Participants judged facial morphs calibrated to greater HGS higher on strength and attractiveness, but lower on aggressiveness. The accurate assessment of male Maasai physical strength from facial cues and the corresponding attractiveness assessments of strength cues are consistent with evolutionary predictions and previous research. The situation is less clear for the association of facial strength cues with the assessment of aggression. Future research should consider the possibility of a (feature-based) perceptual overgeneralization, especially in the interpretation of facial aggressiveness judgments, in addition to population-specific influences, and distinguish them from facial cues that indicate behavioral dispositions. Collectively, the findings of the present study corroborate the suggestion that the Maasai are sensitive to facial cues of strength and use these cues in social assessments.     

Effects of Landscape Segregation on Livelihood Vulnerability: Moving From Extensive Shifting Cultivation to Rotational Agriculture and Natural Forests in Northern Laos

This study investigates four decades of socio-economic and environmental change in a shifting cultivation landscape in the northern uplands of Laos. Historical changes in land cover and land use were analyzed using a chronological series of remote sensing data. Impacts of landscape change on local livelihoods were investigated in seven villages through interviews with various stakeholders. The study reveals that the complex mosaics of agriculture and forest patches observed in the study area have long constituted key assets for the resilience of local livelihood systems in the face of environmental and socio-economic risks. However, over the past 20 years, a process of segregating agricultural and forest spaces has increased the vulnerability of local land users. This process is a direct outcome of policies aimed at increasing national forest cover, eradicating shifting cultivation and fostering the emergence of more intensive and commercial agricultural practices. We argue that agriculture-forest segregation should be buffered in such a way that a diversity of livelihood opportunities and economic development pathways can be maintained.     

Origins of Specialized Pastoral Production in East Africa

The results of recent archeological research in the Loita-Mara area of Kenya offer new information on the timing and process of the development of pastoralism in East Africa. They suggest that a pattern of specialized pastoral production, similar to that of contemporary East African pastoralists such as the Maasai, was present in parts of East Africa 2,000 years ago. It may have developed as a result of new opportunities for increased pastoral production. A bimodal pattern of rainfall with a short dry season, similar to the modern climatic regime, appeared about 3,000 years ago, which allowed year-round milk production from cattle herds. The development of pastoralism in East Africa preceded agriculture and took place in a social and economic context of relationships between hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. Environmental opportunity, combined with cultural competition, may have provided the impetus toward pastoral specialization.     

Native River Boats in ‘Irāq

The Maasai are cattle pastoralists, living on the grass savanna in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. This article, which deals with Kenya, describes Maasai women as “heads of houses”. The house as a physical structure shelters and symbolically embodies a matrofocal unit of consumption and resource sharing which is the smallest unit of Maasai society. In terms of livestock property, such units are subordinated to larger, patriarchal units. According to the author, the relative autonomy of Maasai houses, and in particular women's control over food resources is significantly decreasing. The reason for this is the present commercialization of Maasai production.     

Social scratch: Another custom in wild chimpanzees?

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, scratch other individual's bodies while they groom them. This behavioral pattern of “social scratch” is another example of locality-specific social behavior, or custom, as it is not found in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, about 150 km north of Mahale, nor has it been reported from any other sites of chimpanzee study. Frequency of social scratch was correlated with frequency of social grooming, but not with frequency of self-scratch. Frequencies of social scratch per grooming bout among adult and adoles-cent males, and from lactating females to infants or juveniles, were high, and among males, higher-ranking males especially received more. These facts indicate some social function of the behavior. Social scratch was directed mostly to the dorsal side of the body. However, when lactating females social scratched to infants or juveniles, they scratched other body parts. Social scratch was not lateralized to left or right. We present four hypotheses on the functional origin and on the learning process of this cultural behavioral pattern.     

A Co-Wife for the Cow: Gender Dimensions of Land Change and Livelihood Shift among Loita Maasai of Southern Kenya

Gender dimensions are fundamental to human/environment systems. I use gender to investigate land change in a forested area of conservation concern in the pastoral rangelands of Kenya Maasailand. Mixed methods reveal a narrative arc from the mid-1970s culminating in a transformation of land, livelihood, and culture by 2014. Empirical findings expand current understandings of livelihood shift in Maasailand to include gender dimensions critical to livelihood success. Remotely sensed satellite data and qualitative evidence expose simplistic narratives about environmental conditions in Loita Forest and Maasai women’s social status. I argue that gender deserves more attention in land-change studies because of its linkages to resource utilization and drivers of forest decline around the world.     

Investigating wildlife and grazing perspectives of Kenyan university students

Recent conservation efforts recognize that human needs cannot be ignored. One way to understand the social components of resource management is to evaluate stakeholder perspectives. Stakeholder perspectives are an important component of developing effective natural resource management plans, specifically in the developing world. However, most stakeholder research in Africa focuses on local communities in locales adjacent to protected areas. This research expands the stakeholder population by looking at university students’ perspectives regarding the Maasai Mara region of Kenya in relation to two complex and high profile issues: wildlife and grazing. Increased understanding of these topics in a diverse and urbanizing nation like Kenya can lead to better outcomes for conservation efforts. Using Photovoice, a qualitative research method, participants shared their perspective and built upon others’ ideas about wildlife and grazing. Results suggest that there was a wide array of perspective regarding wildlife and grazing. Economics played a large part in both wildlife and grazing perspectives. However, there was also concern for the aesthetic and cultural value of wildlife and grazing in Kenya, which is contrary to some previous findings. Due to the varying perspective and multiple stakeholder groups, research should continue to explore the social aspects of natural resource management regarding wildlife and grazing in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya.     

基于参与式方法的农牧户生计现状评估——以内蒙古太仆寺旗为例

运用参与式方法调查了内蒙古农牧交错区太仆寺旗不同类型农牧户的生计现状,分析了不同类型农牧户的生计策略、制约因素和提高途径.结果表明:纯农型家庭规模小,年龄结构偏大,整体文化水平低,生计策略单一,脆弱性和风险较大,引入非农生产活动是降低生计风险和提高生活水平的重要途径;纯牧型家庭以放牧为主要谋生方式,草场脆弱性对其生产活动影响很大,发展环境友好型高产农牧业是解决生计问题和环境问题的有效途径;农业兼业型和牧业兼业型家庭规模大,年龄结构轻,劳动力分工多样化,从事非农活动的比例较大,生活水平较好,尤以牧业兼业型家庭收入更高.     

Prion protein (PrP) gene polymorphism in Red Maasai and Black Head Persian sheep breeds in Tanzania: Consistent profile regardless of locations

The status of scrapie in Africa is largely unknown. The susceptibility to scrapie and its pathology is determined by amino acid polymorphisms at positions 136 (A/V), 154 (R/H) and 171 (Q/R/H) of the ovine PrP gene (PrP genotype) of the animals. Despite the widely studied PrP gene polymorphisms worldwide, limited data is available on PrP genotypes of sheep from the African continent. Previously, we have reported six PrP genotypes derived from four different alleles in Red Maasai and Black Herd Persian (BHP), the ARQ/ARQ genotype being more frequent in the Red Maasai than in the BHP sheep. The highly susceptible VRQ allele was not found in any of the sheep breeds; the ARR allele was absent in the Red Maasai or occurred at a low frequency in the BHP. The lack of the highly susceptible VRQ alleles among Tanzanian sheep examined, necessitated further examinations on genetic susceptibility in sheep of the same breeds, but originating from an entirely different part of Tanzania. Consistently, ARQ/ARQ genotype was observed in 88% of Red Maasai and 64% of BHP sheep, ARQ/AHQ genotype was present in 12% in Red Maasai and 36% in BHP. Neither the highly resistant (ARR/ARR), nor the highly susceptible (VRQ/VRQ) genotypes were found. The ARQ and AHQ were the only alleles observed. The ARQ allele constituted 94%, 82% and 67% in the Red Maasai, BHP and cross-bred sheep, respectively. The AHQ constituted 6%, 18% and 33%, respectively. Data reported here, provide additional information on genetic susceptibility of the Red Maasai, BHP and their crosses; they may be helpful in policy formulation for future prevention of scrapie.     

Need-Based Transfers Enhance Resilience to Shocks: An Agent-Based Model of a Maasai Risk-Pooling System

Human Ecology - Maasai and other Maa-speaking pastoralists in Kenya and Tanzania have a risk-pooling system that they refer to by their word for the umbilical cord (osotua). Gifts from one osotua...