Download or read book Kinship Networks and Exchange written by Thomas Schweizer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-13 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of articles aims at revitalizing the study of kinship and exchange in a social network perspective. It brings together studies of empirical systems of marriage and descent with investigations of the flow of material resources in societies of Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Europe. Restudies of classic ethnographic cases and fieldwork studies of kinship and exchange demonstrate how the social and material aspects of society are related, and address issues of concern to anthropology and the neighbouring disciplines of history, sociology and economics. This book marks the emergence of an era in the study of kinship and exchange using a productive combination of ethnographic substance with formal methods, one which leaves behind older structural-functionalist and culturalist assumptions.

Download or read book Pastoralism in Africa written by Michael Bollig and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastoralism has shaped livelihoods and landscapes on the African continent for millennia. Mobile livestock husbandry has generally been portrayed as an economic strategy that successfully met the challenges of low biomass productivity and environmental variability in arid and semi-arid environments. This volume focuses on the emergence, diversity, and inherent dynamics of pastoralism in Africa based on research during a twelve-year period on the southwest and northeast regions. Unraveling the complex prehistory, history, and contemporary political ecology of African pastoralism, results in insight into the ingenuity and flexibility of historical and contemporary herders.

Download or read book The Practice of War written by Aparna Rao and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fact is that war comes in many guises and its effects continue to be felt long after peace is proclaimed. This challenges the anthropologists who write of war as participant observers. Participant observation inevitably deals with the here and now, with the highly specific. It is only over the long view that one can begin to see the commonalities that emerge from the different forms of conflict and can begin to generalize. [From the Introduction] More needs to be understood about the ways of war and its effects. What implications does war have for people, their lived-in communities and larger political systems; how do they cope and adjust in war situations and how do they deal with the changed world that they inhabit once peace is declared? Through a series of essays that move from looking at the nature of violence to the peace processes that follow it, this important book provides some answers to these questions. It also analyzes those new dimensions of social interaction, such as the internet, which now provide a bridge between local concerns and global networks and are fundamentally altering the practices of war.

Download or read book Media Culture in Nomadic Communities written by Allison Hahn and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examination of international case studies, from a global assortment of rural, pastoral nomadic communities. Inclusion of evidence from many different new and social media platforms, ranging from WeChat to Twitter. Discussion of research ethics and guidance for conducting research with the most rural communities through new and social media.

Download or read book Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies written by J. Terrence McCabe and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at the ecology, history, and politics of land use among the Turkana pastoral people in Northern Kenya Based on sixteen years of fieldwork among the pastoral Turkana people, McCabe examines how individuals use the land and make decisions about mobility, livestock, and the use of natural resources in an environment characterized by aridity, unpredictability, insecurity, and violence. The Turkana are one of the world's most mobile peoples, but understanding why and how they move is a complex task influenced by politics, violence, historical relations among ethnic groups, and the government, as well as by the arid land they call home. As one of the original members of the South Turkana Ecosystem Project, McCabe draws on a wealth of ecological data in his analysis. His long-standing relationship with four Turkana families personalize his insights and conclusions, inviting readers into the lives of these individuals, their families, and the way they cope with their environment and political events in daily life. J. Terrence McCabe is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Download or read book Pastoralism in the New Millenium written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastoralism refers to the type of farming system which uses extensive grazing on grasslands for livestock production. This type of farming covers 25 per cent of the world's land area and supports 20 million households. It makes substantial contributions to the economies of developing countries, although agricultural encroachment, conflict and drought continue to erode this way of life. This publication considers key policy issues and trends involved in attempts to improve the livelihoods of pastoralist families and communities.

Download or read book Livestock and Disaster written by Michael M. Horowitz and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment written by Michael Bollig and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-05-10 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A research focus on hazards, risk perception and risk minimizing strategies is relatively new in the social and environmental sciences. This volume by a prominent scholar of East African societies is a powerful example of this growing interest. Earlier theory and research tended to describe social and economic systems in some form of equilibrium. However recent thinking in human ecology, evolutionary biology, not to mention in economic and political theory has come to assign to "risk" a prominent role in predictive modeling of behavior. It turns out that risk minimalization is central to the understanding of individual strategies and numerous social institutions. It is not simply a peripheral and transient moment in a group’s history. Anthropologists interested in forager societies have emphasized risk management strategies as a major force shaping hunting and gathering routines and structuring institutions of food sharing and territorial behavior. This book builds on some of these developments but through the analysis of quite complex pastoral and farming peoples and in populations with substantial known histories. The method of analysis depends heavily on the controlled comparisons of different populations sharing some cultural characteristics but differing in exposure to certain risks or hazards. The central questions guiding this approach are: 1) How are hazards generated through environmental variation and degradation, through increasing internal stratification, violent conflicts and marginalization? 2) How do these hazards result in damages to single households or to individual actors and how do these costs vary within one society? 3) How are hazards perceived by the people affected? 4) How do actors of different wealth, social status, age and gender try to minimize risks by delimiting the effect of damages during an on-going crisis and what kind of institutionalized measures do they design to insure themselves against hazards, preventing their occurrence or limiting their effects? 5) How is risk minimization affected by cultural innovation and how can the importance of the quest for enhanced security as a driving force of cultural evolution be estimated?

Download or read book Pastoralism and Development in Africa written by Andy Catley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A view of 'development at the margins' in the pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa highlights innovation and entrepreneurialism, cooperation and networking and diverse approaches rarely in line with standard development prescriptions. Through twenty detailed empirical chapters, the book highlights diverse pathways of development, going beyond the standard 'aid' and 'disaster' narratives.

Download or read book Impacts of Changing Pastoral Strategies on Environmental Resources and Livelihoods in Tanzania s Lake Victoria Basin written by Elliott Phillemons Niboye and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2010 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land tenure in pastoral and agro pastoral areas of Tanzania is under stress. The stress emanates mainly from changing natural and demographic environments. Other underlying causes are social, economic and political changes. In the past three to four decades, both pastoral and agro-pastoral areas have been experiencing rapid population increase, with a national mean population growth rate estimated at 3 per cent per annum (Kurian 1992). This has increased demand for cultivation lands, forcing pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to more marginal areas and triggering off in some cases environmental degradation process. These processes are paralleled by overall climatic changes with concomitant increasing droughts. The combined effect of these processes has culminated into a general decline of pastoral and agro-pastoral communityis welfare and increased livelihood insecurity. This study explored the impacts of these changes in agro-pastoral land use on the physical environment as well as livelihood and welfare of the community in Missungwi District.

Download or read book The Mongolian Ecosystem Network written by Norio Yamamura and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to describe what is currently occurring in the Mongolian grasslands, to analyze how various factors creating environmental problems interact, and to suggest solutions for sustainable management of the grasslands. The book has three parts. Part I is an introduction, explaining the key concept of an ecosystem network and providing background information on the general features of Mongolian nomadic pastoralism as well as distribution of vegetation in Mongolian grasslands. Part II describes the effects of natural environmental factors and nomadic activities on grassland conditions. Water dynamics that maintain the grassland system are analyzed in a steppe region with shrubs and in a forest-steppe region with trees. Part III describes the effects of economic and social factors on land-use and the livelihood of herders. As nomadic people moved closer to large cities for economic advantage in the 1990s, degradation of pastures by overgrazing resulted. Finally, the impacts of global warming and globalization on the Mongolian society and ecosystem are examined. This book analyzes environmental problems in Mongolian grasslands, but the contents contribute to consideration of environmental problems and sustainable pasture use in grassland areas worldwide.

Download or read book Development Projects in Tibetan Areas of China written by United States. Congressional-Executive Commission on China and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A roundtable discussion that contains prepared statements about the development projects in Tibetan areas of China from Daniel Miller (Agricultural officer) -- Melvyn C. Goldstein and John Reynold Harkness (Professors of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University) -- Arlene M. Samen (Founder and executive director of One H.E.A.R.T.).

Download or read book No Five Fingers are Alike written by Joseph C. Berland and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Snake charmers, bards, acrobats, magicians, trainers of performing animals, and other nomadic artisans and entertainers have been a colorful and enduring element in societies throughout the world. Their flexible social system, based on highly specialized individual skills and spatial mobility, contrasts sharply with the more rigid social system of sedentary peasants and traditional urban dwellers. Joseph Berland brings into focus the ethnographic and psychological differences between nomadic and sedentary groups by examining how the experiences of South Asian gypsies and their urban counterparts contribute to basic perceptual habits and skills. No Five Fingers Are Alike, based on three years of participant research among rural Pakistani groups, provides the first detailed description in print of Asian gypsies. By applying methods of anthropological observation as well as psychological experimentation, Berland develops a theory about the relationship between social experience and mental growth. He suggests that there are certain social conditions under which mental growth can be accelerated. His work promises to stand as an important contribution to the cross-cultural literature on cognitive development.

Download or read book Towards Social Stability and Democratic Governance in Central Eurasia written by I. Morozova and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2005-11-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through invasions, migrations, trade and cultural exchange, developments in Central Eurasia have, for millennia, impacted upon the history of both Europe and Asia. For the last three hundred years, Central Eurasia has been the stage upon which great empires clashed. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Central Eurasia has once again emerged as a region of geo-political concern with various new international actors involved: the USA, international monetary organizations, strategic alliances, TNCs, NGOs, regional blocks, as well as criminal groups and ethno-religious movements. The new ‘centrality’ of Central Eurasia brings new security threats to the region’s population, to Europe and to the rest of the world. Repressive political regimes and marginalization of whole groups of the population inflame conflicts that spill across national borders. Migration to Europe, both legal and illegal, the illicit production and trade of drugs are the direct outcome of social-economic destabilization in Central Eurasia. Territorial disputes, border conflicts and competition for resources among the Central Eurasian ethnicities have become the unfortunate reality. Post-Soviet Central Eurasia, as a direct neighbor to the turbulent Middle East, is a potential playground for extremist movements: radical Islamic groups and terrorist organizations. The contributors to this book, coming from various theoretical schools and presenting innovative interdisciplinary approaches, provide their views on the socio-political challenges confronting the nine Central Eurasian states - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The book presents scientific discussions on the historical development of Central Eurasia and its socio-cultural legacies; Soviet and contemporary state organization, social transformation and communal structures; the current economic conditions as a precursor to social stability and development; and geo-political arrangements and political changes over the last two decades.

Download or read book The Education of Nomadic Peoples written by Caroline Dyer and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2006-06-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Educational provision for nomadic peoples is a highly complex, as well as controversial and emotive, issue. For centuries, nomadic peoples educated their children by passing on from generation to generation the socio-cultural and economic knowledge required to pursue their traditional occupations. But over the last few decades, nomadic peoples have had to contend with rapid changes to their ways of life, often as a consequence of global patterns of development that are highly unsympathetic to spatially mobile groups. The need to provide modern education for nomadic groups is evident and urgent to all those concerned with achieving Education For All; yet how they can be included is highly controversial. This volume provides a series of international case studies, prefaced by a comprehensive literature review and concluding with an end note drawing themes together, that sets out key issues in relation to educational services for nomadic groups around the world.

Download or read book Arcticness written by Ilan Kelman and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change and globalisation are opening up the Arctic for exploitation by the world – or so we are told. But what about the views, interests and needs of the peoples who live in the region? This volume explores the opportunities and limitations in engaging with the Arctic under change, and the Arctic peoples experiencing the changes, socially and physically. With essays by both academics and Arctic peoples, integrating multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines, the book covers social, legal, political, geographical, scientific and creative questions related to Arcticness, to address the challenges faced by the Arctic as a region and specifically by local communities. As well as academic essays, the contributions to the book include personal reflections, a graphic Topics covered in the essays include indigenous identity and livelihoods such as reindeer herding, and adapting to modern identities; a graphic essay on the experience of Arctic indigenous peoples in residential schools; the effects of climate change; energy in the Arctic; and extractive industries and their impacts on local communities.essay, and poetry, to ensure wide and varied coverage of the Arctic experience – what the contributions all have in common is the fundamental human perspective.The book includes reflections on the future of Arcticness, engaging with communities to ensure meaningful representation and as a counterpoint to the primacy of environmental, national and global issues.

Download or read book 108 2 Roundtable Development Projects in Tibetan Areas of China Articulating Clear Goals and Achieving Sustainable Results March 19 2004 written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: