Land Use among the Pastoral Turkana

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Periodical article

Title:	Land Use among the Pastoral Turkana
Author:	McCabe, J. Terrence
Year:	1983
Periodical:	Rural Africana
Issue:	15-16
Period:	Winter-Spring
Pages:	109-126
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Turkana nomads Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology
Abstract:	The Turkana population subsists by means of livestock production in their arid and unpredictable environment. The field work upon which this article is based was conducted by the author from May 1980 to September 1982 in conjunction with the South Turkana Ecosystem Project, a joint United States-Kenya contribution to UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program. An interdisciplinary team of anthropologists, ecologists and physicians has been actively engaged in the attempt to 1) understand and evaluate how Turkana pastoralists survive and adapt to an arid and unpredictable environment and 2) determine the impacts that Turkana subsistence strategies and techniques of resource exploitation have had on their environment. The present discussion is directed toward an understanding of the pastoral production system of the Turkana and how that relates to the exploitation of natural resources and the general pattern of land use. Fig., notes, ref., tab.