The Elusive Granary: Herder, Farmer, and State in Northern Kenya (African Studies, Series Number 73) - Softcover

Little, Peter D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521105366 ISBN 13: 9780521105361

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

First published in 1992, this book examines the social and political dimensions of Africa's food and environmental crises. Written by an anthropologist, it focuses on the changes and the problems faced during the last century by one particular ethnic group, the Il Chamus of Kenya and traces the area's transformation from a food-surplus 'granary' to one that is dependent on food imports and aid. By documenting the history, social structure and ecology of the area, Peter Little is able to show that the crisis among the region's herders is rooted in processes that preceded the devastating droughts of the 1980s. Drought is in fact a 'normal' state of affairs in semiarid Kenya, but the processes that have inhibited herders from adequately coping with it are not. The author analyses the relationships between social, political and ecological variables and he treats topics such as land management, food production, marketing, state policy making and labour organisation in an integrated fashion. This is a book that challenges many of the stereotypes about African social life, agriculture and ecology and it will be of interest to anthropologists, academics and practitioners in development studies, historians, ecologists and geographers.

About this title

Book Description:

First published in 1992, this book examines the social and political dimensions of Africa's food and environmental crises. Written by an anthropologist, it focuses on the changes and the problems faced during the last century by one particular ethnic group, the Il Chamus of Kenya and traces the area's transformation from a food-surplus 'granary' to one that is dependent on food imports and aid.

About the Author:

Peter D. Little is chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. His research over the past twenty-three years falls into three general thematic areas: agrarian (pastoral) production systems, marketing, and social organization in East Africa; the social dimensions of environmental degradation and political ecology; and the social effects on rural communities of economic restructuring, globalization, and development. Within these research areas he has had a significant interest in: household and community organizations; social and class differentiation; and land and resource tenure systems.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0521105366
• ISBN 13: 9780521105361
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228