M.A. (Sociology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1979. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 522-527).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This thesis is the result of fieldwork in Tanzania alongside pastoralists. Since mobility is a condition of pastoral existence, the study followed patterns of livestock movements in several sites, along seasonal migratory routes, and in areas where pastoralists have relocated permanently. Large-scale land alienation from their customary territory by the government and the encroachment of agriculturalists threaten the integrity of the pastoralists' livestock economy. Most pastoralists now farm to supplement their dairy diet. Since agricultural development secures a stronger claim on land, pastoralists also pre-empt outsiders' claims for land by expanding their own farming activities. However, the study suggests that the transformation of key seasonal pastures into large commercial farms and subsistence farm plots has a cumulative effect on the availability of pastoral resources. The chronic scarcity of dry season grazing resources exacerbates competition among pastoralist groups. Large pastoral territories are fragmenting into less sustainable pastoral management units and strategies of exclusion are replacing earlier arrangements based on reciprocity of access to facilitate livestock mobility. As a last resort, some pastoralists relocate in agricultural areas where prejudices against pastoralism run high and livestock mobility is further constrained. Altogether, political constraints now shape livelihoods from livestock more so than ecological factors. The loss of livestock mobility increases the vulnerability of herd-owners to occasional droughts, and stationary herds are more likely to cause environmental damage. Pastoralism is often deemed economically unsustainable and environmentally destructive, but the examination of political and social constraints helps understand better the current state of mobile pastoralism.

Countries in the developing world, in attempts to promote investment in land and agricultural productivity, and to establish frameworks for economic development, have regularly embarked on extensive tenure reforms designed to replace customary forms of tenure with private individual forms. In the Kenya rangelands, the Group Ranch system: a hybrid tenure system that allows communal ownership and use of titled land, was created and implemented in the rangelands where private tenure was thought to be unsuitable. This thesis discusses the failure of the Group Ranch system in Kajiado District, and the parallel transformation of Maasai communal lands into private, individual holdings, which has eroded land security, facilitated land loss to non-residents, created local socio-economic disparities, and made difficult the sustainable practice of pastoral livelihoods. From this discussion it is suggested that communal tenure systems may be useful in preventing and addressing land and resource related problems, and that tailoring land policies and tenure reforms to clarify and strengthen customary systems can play a significant role in promoting land conservation and productivity in the African rangelands and enhance security for the people that depend on them.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1979. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 522-527). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1985. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-266).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [81-83]).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / "Workshop report." Includes bibliographical references.