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This article explores the convergence of neoliberal development and mangrove conservation in marginal environments, which are becoming the new resource frontiers. We focus on Kutch, a border district in western India and highlight how the contested trajectories of accelerated and aggressive industrialisation and its convergence with state and corporate-led conservation programmes are shaping the social life of mangroves on the Kutchi coast. We focus on the discourses, practices and politics of value-making and un-making that constitute the multiple modalities of repair as mangroves are depleted and securitised simultaneously. Although these trends are augmenting capitalist accumulation on the coast, they are also giving rise to new kinds of alliances that seek to challenge the logic and practice of repair by highlighting the synergistic relationship of coastal communities with their mangrove habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Mongolia, where nomadic pastoralism is still practiced by around one-third of the population, increasing livestock numbers, socio-economic constraints and climate change raise concerns over rangeland health. Little empirical evidence explains what triggers camp moves of pastoralists in the Dzungarian Gobi in Mongolia, which factors influence grazing mobility around camps, and how altitudinal migration benefits small livestock. We combined GPS tracking data of 19 small livestock herds monitored from September 2018 to April 2020 with remotely sensed climate and environmental data. We used general linear-mixed models to analyse variables influencing camp use duration and daily mobility patterns. To understand the importance of the altitudinal migration, we compared climatic conditions along the elevation gradient and looked at seasonal body weight changes of small livestock. We found that available plant biomass and season best explained camp use duration. Daily walking distance and maximum distance from camp increased with camp use duration. Pasture time increased with increasing biomass and rising temperatures. We conclude that herders in the Dzungarian Gobi have optimized pasture use by reacting to changes in biomass availability at landscape and local scale, and by embracing altitudinal migration. Flexibility in grazing mobility seems to have enabled local herder communities to practise sustainable pasture use. Maintaining this mobility will most likely be the best strategy to deal with environmental change under the current climate change scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North Central Nigeria has experienced a series of deadly conflicts between Fulani herders and farmers. Contestation over ecological space and natural resources, prompted by climate-induced drought, has promoted a migratory form of pastoralism. The influx of Fulani herders in the region has triggered deadly eco-related conflicts between the host communities and the Fulani herders. Consequently, the RUGA settlement policy was unilaterally introduced to prevent migratory pastoralism, including, among others, to provide an immobile or stationary system of pastoralism in the host communities. This paper explains why and how host communities opposed the RUGA settlement policy in North Central Nigeria. As a significant contribution to the literature, its findings align with some theories that inform the possibility of host communities' resistance to top-down government policies, some of which are highlighted as implementation barriers to the RUGA settlement scheme. The paper acknowledges the relevance of participatory, inclusive, and consensus-based conflict resolution strategies, particularly at local community levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on microcredit programs has largely focused on positive socioeconomic outcomes and low accessibility issues in farming areas and has provided less insight into the effects of easily acquired microcredit in pastoral areas. Using a case study approach, and econometric models, this paper addresses this gap by examining why and how easily acquired microcredit loans in Inner Mongolian pastoral areas increase the risk to the financial security of households or livelihood risk. Results show that existing microcredit programs increase livelihood risk because loan and repayment requirements do not align with the husbandry production cycle of contemporary Inner Mongolian pastoralists. This misalignment forces pastoralists to borrow from usurers to repay bank loans. Furthermore, households that need to borrow from usurers typically own smaller numbers of livestock and are less likely to be able to repay the usurers by selling animals. Instead, they tend to increase their bank loans in the coming year to repay the previous year's debt, trapping them in a vicious and ultimately impoverishing circle of annual loans they cannot fully pay back, and feeding increasing debt. We suggest that microcredit programs in semiarid areas should be in sync with the local production cycle and recognize environmental constraints that cause high variation in production seasonally and year to year. Our results supplement previous findings on microcredit applications and are particularly pertinent for other semiarid areas of the world.

Abstract Background Domestication and introduction of dairy animals facilitated the permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau. Yet the history of dairy pastoralism in the Tibetan Plateau remains poorly understood. Little is known how Tibetans adapted to milk and dairy products. Results We integrated archeological evidence and genetic analysis to show the picture that the dairy ruminants, together with dogs, were introduced from West Eurasia into the Tibetan Plateau since ~ 3600 years ago. The genetic admixture between the exotic and indigenous dogs enriched the candidate lactase persistence (LP) allele 10974A > G of West Eurasian origin in Tibetan dogs. In vitro experiments demonstrate that − 13838G > A functions as a LP allele in Tibetans. Unlike multiple LP alleles presenting selective signatures in West Eurasians and South Asians, the de novo origin of Tibetan-specific LP allele − 13838G > A with low frequency (~ 6–7%) and absence of selection corresponds − 13910C > T in pastoralists across eastern Eurasia steppe. Conclusions Results depict a novel scenario of genetic and cultural adaptations to diet and expand current understanding of the establishment of dairy pastoralism in the Tibetan Plateau.

Authorities have often seen pastoralist mobility as a challenge for public health and veterinary disease control. While the movement of humans and animals can influence disease transmission, authorities often overlook the complexity of these epidemiological relations and ignore the ecological and economic trade-offs of restricting pastoral mobility. This study reviews the Covid-19 response at the border between Turkana County (Kenya) and Moroto District (Uganda), with particular focus on the Kenyan side. Drawing on interviews with Kenyan public health officials, NGOs’ practitioners and pastoral households, we examine the treatment of pastoralist mobility in the Covid-19 response. Our findings suggest that, while there is special attention to and investment in extending health services to pastoralists, most of the thinking focuses on their rural location and household dispersal, rather than their mobility. In fact, pastoral transhumance was at times treated as a threat to disease control and national public health while other forms of cross-border mobility continued. We apply the concept of ‘sedentist bias’ to suggest that this understanding of pastoral mobility has become entrenched in the technics of public health planning.

The recognition that pastoralism is well-suited to conditions of variability and uncertainty is growing among academics and policy-makers. With the notion that schooled individuals with pastoralist backgrounds could influence political decisions regarding support and providing services for mobile pastoralism, this paper questions the sedentist bias among schooled Tuareg in the Agadez region. In the first part, the history of schooling for nomads in Niger is discussed in the context of schooling for mobile people. Compared to experiences elsewhere, boarding schools can either encourage sedentarisation or support mobility. The same holds in the case of service centres for mobile populations, which are making their way back to regional planning. Ideas regarding the development of schooled Tuareg from caravan and gardening backgrounds in Aïr and from pastoralist communities in the west and south of Aïr are not only influenced by schooling, but relate to different development trends and depend on individual experiences, identity and affective relation to pastoralism. While on the one hand, certain schooled Tuaregs have embraced a sedentist vision of development, those who enjoy active relationships with nomadic pastoralists nonetheless recognise the value of their customary knowledge and practices, including herd mobility. Schools could participate in transmitting a favourable image of pastoralism as a productive system for sustainable futures and thereby equip future generations of diverse policymakers to engage meaningfully with mobile pastoralists.

Livestock identification and traceability systems (LITS) are an increasingly prominent component of national livestock development policies around the world. In theory, LITS allow governments to track and respond to disease and livestock theft efficiently. However, this paper argues that LITS are suffused with sedentist assumptions that are at odds with the livestock management practices of pastoralist communities. Drawing on qualitative interviews with implementing bureaucrats and affected pastoralist communities as well as one author’s experience of growing up and managing cattle in a pastoralist community, we review the sedentist assumptions that animate the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (NamLITS) and describe how pastoralists in north-western Namibia perceive that NamLITS has affected their economic, social and political lives. We then show the strategies that pastoralists use to comply and circumvent NamLITS, and conclude with lessons for governments and development practitioners considering livestock tracing systems and mobile communities affected by them.

The lack of pasture space in the Ferlo is nowadays the major concern of herders and various development actors in the sylvopastoral zone. It appears to be the main (re)known symptom, almost habitual, of the cyclical crises affecting pastoralism in Senegal. On the face of it, this situation can be interpreted as a banal ‘tragedy of the commons’, characterised by a significant increase in pressure on the resource, which is itself poorly managed since it belongs to everyone, and whose regeneration is furthermore hampered by both natural (climatic disruption) and anthropogenic (overgrazing, progression of the agricultural front) factors. However, in this situation as in others, the tragedy of the commons is a flawed, even simplistic, interpretative scheme, focusing mainly on the effects of animal demography and community management of grazing land, which are considered to be deleterious. A more detailed analysis of the various factors involved in this "grazing crisis" and the observation of the adaptive strategies of the farmers and the responses proposed by the differents organisations (ngos etc.) supporting the sector (fodder crops, food supplements in particular) lead to the formulation of other hypotheses: the fodder shortage might be the inevitable but underestimated consequence of a long series of interventions in the field of pastoral water supply. Also this crisis might reflect the exhaustion of the entire pastoral breeding model and the beginnings of a profound (and perhaps radical) transformation whose prospects remain uncertain. Rather than a tragedy with an inescapable end, should it not be seen as a turning point for the Ferlo and for pastoralist farming as it exists in the present conditions?

In the Changthang region of Ladakh, India, pastoralism serves as the cornerstone of both the local economy and the local way of life. However, recent socioeconomic shifts and environmental constraints put this economic structure, which has been expertly adapted to the difficult trans-Himalayan geography, in danger of becoming unsustainable. To explore methods for balancing development, ecology, and Indigenous culture, this review analyzes pastoralism in Changthang. The sole dependable method of food production for generations has been mobile pastoralism, supported by high-elevation rangelands. Breeds of native livestock adapted to scant vegetation and seasonal variation have been selectively bred by generations of pastoralists. Sale of wool and cashmere provides financial stability for pastoralist families, mitigating income vulnerability to climate shocks and market fluctuations that would otherwise disrupt predominantly livestock-rearing livelihoods. However, traditional transhumance cycles and collective resource management have been hampered by sedentarization, population growth, conservation constraints, and market integration. Climate change and unrestricted grazing contribute to grassland degradation. Promising programs combine conventional methods with innovations like mobile veterinary services and satellite forecasting to preserve breeds and grazing resources while increasing productivity and climate resilience. These initiatives seek to support regulated grazing practices. Comanagement practices that involve communities in conservation planning are essential. This production system and culture can be maintained through integrated strategies respecting pastoralists' stewardship.

Women's dietary diversity is often used as proxy for nutritional status as it has important implications for household food security. Karamoja's agriculture is mainly based on livestock production, with many ethnic groups in the region that have different beliefs and practices, the largest of those groups being the Karamojong and Pokot. This study aimed to characterize diets of women in Karamoja across the two largest ethnic groups and investigate which social factors might influence diets. The study collected data using a household questionnaire (n = 545) and the five domains of empowerment (5DE) questions (n = 95) from the validated Abbreviated Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. A log-transformed linear logistic regression model was used for the analysis of women's dietary diversity scores with the predicted variables. Factors such as being from the Pokot ethnic group, being less mobile, having some level of education, women's access to credit, consumption of self-produced animal source foods, and having livestock as a primary source of income were all significantly associated with an increase in women's dietary diversity. There was no association between dietary diversity and any of the 5DE. Important differences in the diets of women emerged by ethnicity, with Pokot having higher consumption of milk, but lower consumption of meats and greens. Findings could be used to formulate interventions to increase dietary diversity as a pathway to improve health.

AbstractPastoralism is used as a livelihood strategy across pastoral areas in Ethiopia, as it is in other parts of the world. However, studies on the pastoralism system in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia appear outdated. Therefore, a study was conducted to assess the current state of pastoralism in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia and identify the challenges faced by pastoralists. The study area and participants were then chosen using purposive and simple random selection approaches. Data from 156 respondents was collected using a mixed strategy, which included focus group discussions and an interview schedule. The result showed that 67.3%, 23.7%, and 9% of the respondents used the transhumance, nomadic, and semi-pastoral systems. Moreover, resource conflict (64.7%), floods (62.8%), livestock raiding (68%), poor infrastructure (65.4%), livestock diseases (64.1%), inadequate social services (50.6%), ignorance of the pastoral system (63.5%), and expansion of farm land (71.8%) were identified as the main constraints. The model result revealed that credit access, livestock size, household labor, and education status positively influenced pastoral practices, while dependency ratio, water access, and pasture access negatively affected pastoral practices in the study area. Therefore, pastoral practices were differently influenced in the study area.

Amidst climatic and economic volatility, agricultural development and climate adaptation policies have increasingly turned to weather microinsurance to manage uncertainties, particularly in dryland pastoral and agricultural settings. While the political embrace of insurance has been cause for concern amongst those who fear insurance will undermine embedded coping mechanisms and moral economies, economists have puzzled over low insurance adoption rates amongst target populations. This article argues for an approach that scrutinizes insurance in relation to dynamic social practices and norms for responding to uncertainty. We employ this approach to investigate pastoralists' encounters with index-based livestock insurance in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. Drawing on interview, ethnographic, and survey data, we demonstrate how insurance is understood within larger moral economies and collective imaginaries for living with and managing uncertainty in the drylands. Relational understandings shape pastoralists' participation in risk-sharing arrangements, collective and individual decisions about livestock insurance purchase, and eventual uses of insurance payouts. Payouts also support a broad array of social reproductive purposes and investments in social and political life. As we conclude, these findings upset the binary between formal and informal insurance, revealing how "formal" index insurance must be negotiated with embedded social affiliations, rights, obligations, and understandings of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historically unequal grazing industry in Cape York Peninsula, far northeast Queensland, gave rise to intercultural relationships between Aboriginal stock workers and settler-descended graziers. However, in recent decades, Aboriginal employment on cattle stations has fallen. Nowadays, many younger Aboriginal people work in government-funded jobs which settler-descended graziers frame as 'hand-out style' work. Settler-descended graziers have come to value an ethic of hard work related to both the Protestant work ethic and aspects of pioneer mythology which are entwined with graziers' senses of belonging. Contemporary Aboriginal people are positioned by settler-descended graziers as having a 'different' relationship to work and lacking the valuation of hard work that graziers deem a moral good. In their discussions of Aboriginal people as lacking a valuation for 'hard work', graziers seek to critique what they perceive as government overreach in the form of land rights and government-funded jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millet is a highly adaptable plant whose cultivation dramatically altered ancient economies in northern Asia. The adoption of millet is associated with increased subsistence reliability in semi-arid settings and perceived as a cultigen compatible with pastoralism. Here, we examine the pace of millet's transmission and locales of adoption by compiling stable carbon isotope data from humans and fauna, then comparing them to environmental variables. The Bayesian modelling of isotope data allows for the assessment of changes in dietary intake over time and space. Our results suggest variability in the pace of adoption and intensification of millet production across northern Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and Background Studies which have been conducted so far have focused on the processes of land use/cover changes in different areas at regional and global scale. Little is known about factors that influence land use/cover dynamics at finer scales such as Melela ward in Mvomero district, Morogoro, Tanzania. Goals and Objectives The overall objective of the study therefore was to evaluate the land use land cover dynamics and their impacts on pastoralism in Melela. Specifically, the study intended to examine land use/cover dynamics from 1991 to 2016, to identify socioeconomic factors that influence land use/cover dynamics and to determine the effects of land use/cover dynamics on pastoral communities and agricultural production. Methodology Remote sensed satellite data were used for change detection analysis to assess the spatial and temporal land use/cover change for the study area. Satellite images were processed and analysed to detect changes in land use/cover at the site by using change detection analysis technique to evaluate transition in land use/cover and to estimate changes in the area. A geographical positioning system (GPS) receiver was used for georeferencing the points for supervised classification and accuracy assessment. Change detection analysis and post classification comparison was used for the analysis of data. The analyses involved the application of an algorithm used to detect changes in spectral signature of the image. The products were the matrices and the categories of land use/cover changes at the site. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyse the social economic data. Results and Discussion The study findings indicated a significant change in LULC as evidenced by an increase in agriculture and a loss of woodland within the plain. The period 2000-2016 has shown gains of agriculture and losses of woodland areas. Changes in the crops grown, increased immigrants of pastoralists, population growth, charcoal burning and livestock keeping contributed to an overuse of the existing land resources, which resulted in significant variations in the spatiotemporal patterns of land use changes with respect to specific socio-economic drivers. The assessment of changes in grazing land in Melela has shown that the current patterns are going to increase the existence of pastoralists in the region. Farmers on the other hand feel the grazing pressure brought about by the pastoral immigrants on their farms. The results of this study quantify the dynamics of land use/cover and its drivers on sustainable use of land. In the face of increasing population, pastoralism, and charcoal burning, there is a need for sustainable utilization of land resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arid regions are especially vulnerable to climate change and land use. More than one-third of Earth's population relies on these ecosystems. Modern observations lack the temporal depth to determine vegetation responses to climate and human activity, but paleoecological and archaeological records can be used to investigate these relationships. Decreasing rainfall across the Late Holocene provides a case study for vegetation response to changing hydroclimate. Rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens preserve paleoenvironmental indicators in arid environments where traditional archives are unavailable. Pollen from modern middens collected in Dhofar, Oman, demonstrates the reliability of this archive. Pollen, stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N), and microcharcoal data from fossil middens reveal changes in vegetation, relative moisture, and fire from 4000 cal yr BP to the present. Trees limited to moister areas (e.g., Terminalia) today existed farther inland at ~3100 cal yr BP. After ~2900 cal yr BP, taxa with more xeric affiliations (e.g., Senegalia) had increased. Coprophilous fungal spores (Sporormiella) and grazing indicator pollen revealed an amplified signal of domesticate grazing at ~1000 cal yr BP. This indicates that trees associated with semiarid environments were maintained in the interior desert during ~3000-4000 yr of decreasing rainfall and that impacts of human activity intensified after the transition to a drier environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study sought to broaden the scope of inquiry into factors influencing human-wildlife coexistence beyond immediately tangible wildlife impacts and challenges with flagship wildlife species. Maasai pastoralists in Laikipia County, Kenya, were interviewed regarding challenges with wildlife, particularly perceptions of disease transmission from wildlife to domestic livestock. Responses revealed experiences with numerous diseases and multiple perceived associations between wildlife and livestock disease. Responses aligned with prior research that elephants severely compromise pastoralists' well-being, but concerns were overwhelmingly articulated as fear affecting daily activities rather than in more directly quantifiable terms. Findings did not indicate concerns with lions, despite their focus in scholarship and conservation initiatives. Responses indicated the need to view human-wildlife coexistence more broadly to include species beyond iconic wildlife, and to recognize that subjective concerns (e.g., fear, disease transmission to livestock) in addition to quantifiable events (e.g., human deaths, livestock predation) might affect attitudes toward wildlife conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human societies depend on the ability of their members to coordinate and cooperate with others. Yet, within-group conflict can threaten group stability. This threat is severe among humans due to the scale of our societies and the frequent low levels of relatedness between members. Our ability to resolve inter-individual conflicts is a key aspect of our species' success. Despite the importance of conflict resolution in human sociality, the socio-ecology of how within-group conflicts are resolved in naturalistic settings is underexplored. Using a sample of 160 inter-individual conflicts reported by 81 adults from an agro-pastoralist community in southwest Ethiopia, we identify the primary causes of interpersonal conflict and the features associated with third-party mediation and conflict outcomes. We find that both men and women experience relatively severe inter- and intra-gender conflicts; conflicts between women are more likely to be social in nature, while conflicts between men are more likely to be over resource control. Third-party mediation more often occurs in social conflicts rather than conflicts over material or subsistence resources and in conflicts between clan members and friends. Mediators in conflicts between women tend to be women while mediators for conflicts between men tend to be men. Women, however, are as equally likely as men to help mediate inter-gender conflicts, which suggests an important opportunity for female leadership in this patriarchal society. Although more than 80% of conflicts were resolved, social conflicts are more difficult to resolve than conflicts over resources. Conflict severity, clan membership, and the relationship between those in conflict are associated with severed relationships. These results underscore the importance of third-party mediators and inter-gender interactions in human societies and the importance of socio-economic structures in shaping interpersonal conflicts and their resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a re-assessment of Maasai history from 1800 to 1930, taking a critical look at both the existing historiography and the sources on which it is based. It examines how Maasai institutions and group identities adapted to long-term environmental and social challenges, including climate change, disease, conflicts over resources and the advent of colonial overrule, always with survival as the main imperative. What emerges is a more complex and dynamic account of developments in the Central Rift Valley since the end of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drylands, seen from the outside world, fall in the imaginary of the remote, the deserted, the unproductive; a powerful imaginary rooted in romantic narratives, as well as in political and economic interests. In this article, we review different waves of rural politics and development in the East African drylands, with a particular focus on Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands, in the context of climate change. We question the re-awakening of international and national attention paid to the drylands under the all-embracing framework of 'resilience building'. Unfortunately, tensions between climate change policies and local knowledge and practices remain. We show how such renewed attention retains old myths about drylands and leaves little space to the agency of pastoral communities that live in these territories, and what are the implications of mislead development efforts. On the contrary, we suggest learning from pastoral practices to unravel theoretical and policy alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In East Africa, pastoralist systems are undergoing rapid transformation due to land enclosures, benefit distributions associated with new land uses, shifting social relations, and changing authority and governance structures. We apply a critical analysis of the institutions that mediate access and benefits across a complex mosaic of property relations within Ilkisongo Maasai pastoralist land in southern Kenya. Our analysis elucidates how global and national influences have interacted with shifting dynamics of socio-cultural norms and rules regarding access to create new benefit pathways, cascading patterns of accumulation and social differentiation, and diffuse institutional controls over land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoralists depend on access to communal rangelands but ongoing privatisation of land threatens their access. Further, globally, proponents of pastoralism call for state-sanctioned communal land rights to secure pastoralists access. In Kenya, the government has enacted the Community Land Act to secure communal land rights. This article examines how the implementation of this law affects pastoralists access to communal rangelands in Samburu county. Contrary to expectations,the legislation undermines pastoralists' customary institutions and their authority in relation to land. It also speeds up subdivision of communal lands into private individual plots. This constrains rather than secures pastoralists access to communal rangelands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Domestication and introduction of dairy animals facilitated the permanent human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau. Yet the history of dairy pastoralism in the Tibetan Plateau remains poorly understood. Little is known how Tibetans adapted to milk and dairy products. Results: We integrated archeological evidence and genetic analysis to show the picture that the dairy ruminants, together with dogs, were introduced from West Eurasia into the Tibetan Plateau since ~ 3600 years ago. The genetic admixture between the exotic and indigenous dogs enriched the candidate lactase persistence (LP) allele 10974A > G of West Eurasian origin in Tibetan dogs. In vitro experiments demonstrate that − 13838G > A functions as a LP allele in Tibetans. Unlike multiple LP alleles presenting selective signatures in West Eurasians and South Asians, the de novo origin of Tibetan-specific LP allele − 13838G > A with low frequency (~ 6–7%) and absence of selection corresponds − 13910C > T in pastoralists across eastern Eurasia steppe. Conclusions: Results depict a novel scenario of genetic and cultural adaptations to diet and expand current understanding of the establishment of dairy pastoralism in the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details the gendered micro-politics of livestock management in a pastoralist community in southern Kenya. It centers on traditionally underemphasized women's spaces within homesteads and women's livestock caretaking activities therein, and in so doing demonstrates how gendered labor is co-constitutive of gendered norms and resource access norms. Moreover, in focusing on access to cattle, access to milk, milk use, and decision-making concerning these cornerstones of livestock-based economies, it illuminates the variety of women's responsibilities and challenges regarding resource management, food security, and wellbeing. Drawing from an ethnographic mixed methods research project, including an in-depth focal household study, household surveys, intra-household surveys, and interviews, this article also illuminates the norms, rules, and institutions governing gendered labor and resource management decisions in the gendered, multispecies spaces of milking. Findings presented here reveal how processes of rule-making and rule-breaking around milk management (access, use, and sales) come to be, why they are challenged or perpetuated, and their impacts on everyday gendered practices during rare times of plenty and more frequent times of hardship. These findings contribute to literatures that highlight the importance of understanding spatialized and gendered intra-household dynamics for reducing inequities in food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From time immemorial, the traditional practice of group work has contributed to the harmonious existence of various indigenous peoples. The Bakarwal pastoral nomads, who live in the Pir Panjal Range of the Great Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir, India, sustain their pastoral nomadic way of life by living and working in groups. They demonstrate the principles and values of social group work as they perform the transhumance or biannual seasonal migration, distribute tasks, reside in their summer and winter pastures, resolve conflicts, and provide reciprocal support and mutual aid. Available literature highlights the obstacles and challenges encountered by Bakarwal pastoral nomads, however, there is a dearth of literature that documents the self-sustaining practices that they use to overcome such complexities. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by comparing the traditional group work of the Bakarwals with professional social work with groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the dawn of Madagascar's independence in 1960, political entrepreneurs harnessed the enduring significance of Malagasy cattle, known as zebu , and declared them integral to the new national identity. From 1960–1972, President Philibert Tsiranana led the country through the period known as the First Republic, in which officials and technocrats launched development projects around breeding and constructing abattoirs and feedlots, in the hopes of creating a viable international meat export economy. For elites, zebu served as speculative vessels for remaking economic and political geographies and shifting away from dependence on French interests. Malagasy government officials and technical experts saw pastoralists as key to actualizing the economic potential of cattle and they sought to combat "peasant idleness" as a hindrance to Madagascar's flourishing. Pastoralists, though, challenged the bounds of top-down authority and debated the kinds of knowledge that could and should inform modernization projects in the new nation-state. Cattle ranchers' critiques of the logics and encroachment of prescriptive modernization schemes during the 1960s and 1970s can be understood as their insistence on sharing in the fruits of independence, and that they, with their deep knowledge of cattle behavior, had a role to play in forging meaningful, prosperous lives in broader ancestor-focused cosmologies. Investigating the twinned history of Madagascar's beef exportation and cattle modernization plans reveals how cattle were enlisted in the project of nation-making and a crucial moment of possibility, in which state-crafters ambitiously pursued a path toward self-determination while navigating oscillating geopolitics and asymmetrical global economic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000–4000 cal b.p. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed at least seven mortuary monuments with platforms, pillars, cairns, and stone circles. Three sites—Lothagam North, Manemanya, and Jarigole—have yielded assemblages of stone and ostrich eggshell beads that adorned interred individuals. Mineralogical identification of the stone beads reveals patterns of material selection, including notable differences among the pillar sites. Geological sourcing indicates use of many local raw materials and two (amazonite and fluorite) whose known sources lie > 200 km away. The data suggest that bead-making represented a significant investment by early pastoralists in personal ornamentation. New sociopolitical factors emerged, such as access to grazing grounds and water, and definitions of self and society manifested in novel mortuary traditions as people coped with a drying, cooling climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigeria has confronted several security conundrums in recent years, including armed banditry, which poses a severe threat to the north-west and the entire nation. North-west Nigeria has been hit by an unprecedented wave of kidnappings, maiming, killings, population displacements, cattle rustling, and disruption of socio-economic activities due to the rise of armed bandits in the region. These events have created a climate of uncertainty that has become a cause for concern for the government and the citizenry. Relying on secondary sources of data, this article examines the causes, manifestations, and dimensions of armed banditry in north-west Nigeria, and its security implications. It provides a survey of both the visible and less-visible actors in the conflict. The article argues that armed banditry in the north-west and other parts of Nigeria transcends pastoralist insurgency, as evident in the dominant narratives, considering the multiplicity of complexly connected causal factors, actors, manifestations, and dimensions that are present in the threats posed by this development. The article also shows the negative impacts of armed banditry on human and national security in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the Australian boab tree and its potential for research as living historical archaeology. Boab trees play an important role in the economy, culture, and cosmology of Indigenous people in northwest Australia and continue to hold a powerful presence in the Kimberley region today. Working with Nyikina and Mangala Traditional Owners we have undertaken to document examples of this iconic tree and its cultural and historical associations, particularly in the form of carvings and inscriptions embedded in the bark. Focusing on four individual trees located in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia, we propose that the modification of boab trees, as a practice undertaken by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, offers important insights into the everyday lives and historic events that shaped this cultural landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]