Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa

The trend in pastoralist studies assumes that pastoralism and pastoral gender relations are inherently patriarchal. The contributors to this collection demonstrate that pastoralist gender relations are dynamic, relational, historical and produced through complex local-translocal interactions.The dominant trend in pastoralist studies has long assumed that pastoralism and pastoral gender relations are inherently patriarchal. The contributors to this collection, in contrast, use diverse analytic approaches to demonstratethat pastoralist genderrelations are dynamic, relational, historical and produced through complex local-translocal interactions. Combining theoretically sophisticated analysis with detailed case studies, this collection should appeal to those doing research and teaching in African studies, gender studies, anthropology and history. North America: Ohio U Press; Kenya: EAEP

... opens new comparative perspectives and compels us to think again about familiar assumptions and to make unfamiliar connections between elements that have hitherto remained discrete. Otherwise, we too will end up, like colonial administrators, as the last pastoral patriarchs, long since left behind by our putative subjects.' - Richard Waller in IJAHS 'Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa is an important contribution to the scholarly literature on gender relations in cattle-keeping communities. This volume, in fact, is the first book-length work on the subject...The eleven chapters...all contribute to the book's central thesis that scholars who rely on, and often valorize, men as both informants and true pastoralists, have consistently overlooked women's roles in pastoralist society. For this point alone, Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa is welcome, as it will surely provoke fruitful debate and further enquiry...provides a wealth of rich case studies, advancing our appreciation not only for women in pastoralist societies, but for pastoralism in general.' - Christian Jennings in Journal of African History '...reflects the emergence of a generation of scholars who since the early 1980s have challenged the existing literature on pastoral societies for itsfailure to recognise the significance of gender relations in pastoral life; and Hodgsons's introductory chapter provides a critical overview of the anthropological and ethnographic literature from this perspective. ...a significant emphasis on the cultural and social elements of pastoral life as well as material expressions of poverty which brings to life the complex patterns of gender relations including at the household level. ...In challenging conventional understandings of gender relationships withinpastoral societies Hodgson rejects the notion of pastoral culture as determined solely by ecological and economic systems; arguing instead that pastoralist culture and gender relations are complex historical products of the actions and ideas on men and women and reactions to external influences...add important insights into the pastoral condition.