.
Pastoralism in Kenya
As you may or may not know, Pastoralists live and profit off of the livestock they raise. Because of different harvest times and droughts, Pastoralists are forced to migrate. This would mean that Pastoralists lead nomadic lifestyles. One could imagine the dangers of entering a strangers territory; the Pastoralists could be interpreted as enemies attempting to attack, when they are simply looking for water and a grazing pasture. Like Malkki (1992) suggests, the state of liminality Pastoralists fall into is a consequence of their lack of "place within a space".
Also, an interesting ethnography that ties in with an idea presented in Malkki's article, where indigenous people become the land, as apposed to the land becoming people. Malkki raises the question: if an indigenous person wanted to leave their "homeland" would their identity be left behind as well?
The article is titled "The Shifting Middle Ground: Amazonian Indians and Eco-Politics", (Conklin & Graham, 1995).
Commonly, pastoralists will be familiar with the territory they are moving around. For instance, there are two types of migratory patterns that tend to be prevalent among pastoralists: transhumance and horizontal migration. Transhumance being travelling to a destination of a different altitude during seasonal fluctuations. Horizontal would be moving in a selected plain or area. Although pastoralists are nomadic, they do communicate with other pastorialist groups that they may run into, that way they can learn areas that are abundant and know where everyone is! Pastorialists tend to have a very patterned lifestyle where the weather determines when they travel. The state of liminality is an interesting concept, perhaps it can be seen as when they are transferring spaces within the place.
ReplyDeleteThe use of Saints to cross over into neighbouring territories is widely used to combat potential rivalaries, however things such as climate change are seemingly effecting Pastorialists. Drought for example, leaving areas in the Sahel dry due to the rise in temperature.
ReplyDeleteThe state of Liminality may be one of the most powerful states a person may occupy, but it also leaves a real sense of ambiguity.