Pastoralism
• animal husbandry
• Requirements
–environmental knowledge
–active herd management
–nomadism
• Adaptive advantages
–converts inedible plants
into food
–supports larger population
.E. E. Evans-Pritchard (1940:
90)1
• Some outstanding traits in Nuer
character may be said to be
consistent with their low technology
and scanty food supply. I emphasize
again the crudity and discomfort of
their lives. All who have lived with
Nuer would, I believe, agree that
though they are very poor in goods
they are very proud in spirit. Schooled
in hardship and hunger-for both they
express contempt—they accept the
direst calamities with resignation and
endure them with courage. Content
with few goods they despise all that
lies outside them; their derisive pride
amazes a stranger.
Somalia
Somalia: profile
• Population: 9.3 million (UN,
2010)
• Capital: Mogadishu
• Major languages: Somali,
Arabic, Italian, English
• Major religion: Islam
• Life expectancy: 50 years
(men), 53 years (women)
• Main exports: Livestock,
bananas, hides, fish
• GNI per capita: n/a
• Internet domain: .so
Time line
Emerged as Arab settlement in
10th century and bought by
Italy in 1905
• Capital of independent
Somalia from 1960
• 600s - Arab tribes establish
the sultanate of Adel on the
Gulf of Aden coast.
• 1500s-Sultanate of Adel
breaks into small states.
• 1875 - Egypt occupies towns
on Somali coast and parts of
the interior.
• 1860s - France acquires
foothold on the Somali coast,
later to become Djibouti.
Timeline
• 1887 - Britain proclaims
protectorate over Somaliland.
• 1888 - Anglo-French
agreement defines boundary
between Somali possessions
of the two countries.
• 1889 - Italy sets up a
protectorate in central
Somalia, later consolidated
with territory in the south
ceded by the sultan of
Zanzibar.
Timeline
• 1925 - Territory east of the
Jubba river detached from
Kenya to become the
westernmost part of the Italian
protectorate.
• 1936 - Italian Somaliland
combined with Somalispeaking parts of Ethiopia to
form a province of Italian East
Africa.
• 1940 - Italians occupy British
Somaliland.
• 1941 - British occupy Italian
Somalia.
Somalia:
Independence
• 1950 - Italian Somaliland
becomes a UN trust territory
under Italian control.
• 1956 - Italian Somaliland
renamed Somalia and
granted internal autonomy.
• 1960 - British and Italian
parts of Somalia become
independent, merge and
form the United Republic of
Somalia; Aden Abdullah
Osman Daar elected
president.
Pastoralism 2
• Cultural significance
–Symbiotic relations
–Social uses
–Food sources
–Other uses
• Herding work
• Animal complementarity
• Ecological issues
• Sources of conflict
Pastoralism 3
• Social organization
–Flexibility: dispersal, mutual
aid
– autonomous villages
–overlapping kin networks
• Kinship: blood and marriage
–Patrilineages
–Principles of fission/fusion
–Affects inheritance,
authority, nurturing, social
obligations, and
personal/social identity
Pastoralism
•
Household: women and
children associated with a
single adult male;
Homestead: group of related
men + families)
• Each household has large
variety of stock, with minimal
# of each (in traditional
subsistence regime) being
25-30 cattle, 10 camels, 100
small stock (goats & sheep),
& 10-12 donkeys
pastoralism
• Each species has to be
handled in certain way: e.g.,
cattle can be watered every
other day, small stock need
water every day, camels
every 3 days
• Hence, in dry season, must
have several herds & herding
parties -- very labor intensive
system
Family
• Nuclear families cannot be
economically independent -simply do not provide
enough labor, hence
• E. African pastoralists
generally organize labor via
patrilineal extended family
(with polygyny)
• Daughters married out at
young age
(patrilocal/virilocal
residence)
Men and Women
relation
• but sons stay with father's
homestead until they are 3040 years old, when 1) father
dies and son inherits cattle
allocated to his mother at
time of her marriage, or 2)
father grants son an
"advance" on his inheritance,
letting him marry and set up
his own homestead
Man-woman relation
• (This last option only
happens if father is very
successful, has lots of wives
& cattle, and therefore can
afford to let oldest sons "bud
off" and leave father's labor
force as well as reduce his
herds)
Somali Kinship
• Founding father Samaale,
connects to Prophet
• Six clan-families or “tribes”
(30 gen.)
• Clans = subunits (20 gen.)
• Primary lineages (6-10 gen.)
–Exogamous (marry out)
• Diya group
–4-8 generations
–Pay and receive “blood
money”
• Matrifocality
Somali society
• relatively homogenous
linguistically (Somali) and
religiously (Islam).
• Lineage based on clan and
sub clan lines.
• the main clan families of
• Darod, Dir, Issaq, Hawiye
and Rahanweyn, along with
minority clans, constituted
Somali society.
• Minorities (Bantu,Barawans,
and Bajuni), represent
Somalia.