Katherine Homewood. Ecology of African Pastoralism

Abstract

Katharine Homewood has written a bold book of wide scope. Her objective is to bring together material on the ecology, in the broadest sense, of pastoral groups throughout Africa. She wants to show the diversity of pastoral systems, the ways they interact with other forms of land use, while analysing common characteristics across pastoral socie-ties as a whole. As Professor of Anthropology at University College London, a noted researcher on the Maasai, and the promoter of an excellent Masters degree in Anthro-pology which focuses on ecological issues, Homewood is well placed to do this. She covers an enormous field. In nomadic fashion she roams widely across the pastoral literature, covering pastoral groups in West Africa as well and Eastern and Southern Africa; she reports findings from several disciplines, and from specialist fields. The ecologi-cal focus of the book means that natural science and ecology occupy the most important place, but there is a solid social and political scaffolding. The book opens with a short summary of cross-cutting issues which underpin the analysis of African pastoral systems and provide a framework within which we can understand the trajectories of change in pastoral societies. Homewood's underlying idea is, first, to link dryland ecosystem dynamics to associated patterns of pastoralist use (especially mobility); second, to explore how management of and access to these resources interacts with the social, economic and political dimensions of pastoral society; and third, to present changes in resource tenure which in her view make it necessary to rethink theories of development, livelihoods and diversification. Chapter 2 covers the origins and spread of African pastoralism and the emergence of present-day pastoralist societies. Chapter 3 describes the environments inhabited by pastoralists, summarises the debate about equilibrium and non-equilibrium systems, and describes pastoral tenure arrangements. This chapter concludes with a discussion of pastoral production strategies. Chapter 4 then summarises the contemporary pastoral systems in both dry and more humid areas of Africa. Chapter 5 takes a more analytic look at pastoral livelihoods and economies. Chapter 6 describes herd biology and dynamics. Chapter 7 describes food systems, diets and nutrition. Chapter 8, by Sara Randall in Homewood's department at UCL, describes the little we know about pastoral demography, and concludes that contrary to what some have argued, there isn't a single pastoral demographic regime, but there are