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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Demographic Growth and Resource Exploitation in Two Pastoral Communities |
| Authors: | Bollig, Michael Lang, Hubert |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Periodical: | Nomadic Peoples |
| Volume: | 3 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 16-34 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Kenya Namibia |
| Subjects: | Himba Suk population growth pastoralists agricultural productivity Miscellaneous (i.e. Demography, Refugees, Sports) Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.3167/082279499782409406 |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the population growth rate in pastoral populations and its consequences for pastoral production. Two fairly traditionalist pastoralist communities, the Pokot of Baringo District (northwestern Kenya) and the Himba of Kunene Province (northwestern Namibia) and across the border in southern Angola, serve as case studies. Both the Pokot and the Himba grew over the last century. However, while demographic growth amongst the Pokot was rapid and outstripped local sources, growth amongst the Himba was slow. Based on archival sources (available census data from the 1920s onward) and data on female fertility (from interviews with women), the paper traces trends in population figures and the changing ratios of people to land and people to livestock. The Pokot case shows that when stocking numbers cannot be increased, alternative social mechanisms are developed to cope with a steadily declining ratio of livestock to people. The contrasting case of the Namibian Himba shows that slow growth rates allow for a modest increase in herds. Himba communal tenure, patron-client networks and the Himba shepherd system are much more stable than those of the Pokot. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Spanish. |
