In the last century, many mobile pastoralists have transitioned to more sedentary lifestyles. Mobile people can be both pushed into a more settled existence by environmental or political forces, or pulled by new economic opportunities. While researchers have examined the causes and consequences of growing sedentarization, few contemporary studies have examined the patterns of settlement among mobile groups who are shifting to sedentary lifestyles and how these patterns may be related to socio-economic outcomes. This research examines settlement site selection by using GIS and remote sensing techniques to quantify settlement patterns in four Maasai villages in northern Tanzania, exploring the environmental and infrastructure correlates of settlement locations. A subset of these geographic variables is used with social survey data for 111 Maasai households in the study site to test the hypothesis that settlement location impacts livelihood strategies and economic outcomes by creating and constraining access to important resources and infrastructure. Landscape level evaluation of settlement pat-terns show that certain soil types limit occupation and the potential for agricultural expansion in 30% of the study area. Settlement density and existing agriculture are also clustered in certain parts of the landscape. The spatial models support the hypothesis that proximity to roads and village centers plays an important role in shaping overall settlement patterns. However, models that combine these factors with environmental and geophysical elements show improved explanatory performance, suggesting that competing factors are at play in influencing settlement patterns. Spatial models also indicate that agricultural development may be limiting land available for settlement in some parts of the study area. Results of the household level outcomes are more ambiguous, with few relationships between geographic variables and household livestock holdings, land under cultivation, annual income. Rather, these factors are influenced largely by demographic variables such as household size, age of the household head, and asset allocation. However, there appears to be less income diversity in households more distant from permanent water sources. / Master of Science / Around the world, many people who traditionally have moved from place to place on a seasonal or annual basis have become much more settled, often no longer moving at all. These formally mobile people can be both pushed into a more settled existence by environmental or political forces, or drawn by new opportunities presented by being more settled. While researchers have studied the reasons for these changes and how being more settled affects people, not many studies have examined the patterns of settlement of people who are becoming more settled or how these patterns may be related to how people do economically once they become settled. This study is focused on settlement patterns in four Maasai villages in northern Tanzania. The study used geographic information systems and data collected by satellites to map the location of Maasai households, called bomas, in the four villages, and the environmental characteristic of where people do and do not live on the landscape. This study also looked at measures of income and economic activity for 111 households to see if the location of a household on the landscape effects people’s economic choices and outcomes. This study found that certain environmental factors in the area do influence where people live, particularly soils types and climate, but did not find that where people live has strong influence on how they do economically.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/77961 |
| Date | 08 June 2017 |
| Creators | Fox, David Nathan |
| Contributors | Geography, Baird, Timothy D., Prisley, Stephen P., Stern, Marc J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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