Cattle, co-wives, children, and calabashes: Material context for symbol use among the II Chamus of West-Central Kenya

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 107-136

  Osborn, Alan J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0030170745     PISSN: 02784165     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1006/jaar.1996.0004     Document Type: Article

References (134)

1. Alexander, Richard D. 1979 Darwinism and human affairs. Univ. of Washington Press, Seattle.
2. Anderson, David M. 1981 Herder, Settler, and colonial rule: A history of the peoples of the Baringo Plains, Kenya, c. 1890-1940. Ph.D. Thesis, Cambridge University.
3. 1984 Some thoughts on the nineteenth century history of the Il Charnus of Baringo District. Mila 7:107-125.
4. 1988 Cultivating pastoralists: Ecology and economy of the II Chamus of Baringo, 1840-1980. In The ecology of survival: Case studies from Northeast African history, edited by Douglas H. Johnson and David M. Anderson, pp. 241-260. Lester Crook Academic, London.
5. Arhem, Kaj 1985 Pastoral man in the Garden of Eden: The Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Uppsala Research Reports in Cultural Anthropology. Uppsala, Sweden.
6. Barfield, Thomas J. 1993 The nomadic alternative. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
7. Binford, Lewis R. 1962 Archaeology as anthropology. American Antiguity 28(2):217-225.
8. Bledsoe, Caroline H., Douglas C. Ewbank, and Uche C. Isiugo-Abanihe 1988 The effect of child fostering on feeding practices and access to health services in rural Sierra Leone. Social Science and Medicine 27(6):627-636.
9. Bohannon, Paul 1964 Africa and the Africans. The Natural History Press, Garden City, NY.
10. Bonte, Pierre, and John G. Galaty 1991 Introduction. In Herders, warriors, and traders: Pastoralism in Africa, edited by John G. Galaty and Pierre Bonte, pp. 1-30. Westview Press, Boulder.
11. Brown, L. H. 1971 The Biology of Pastoral Man as a Factor in Conservation. Biological Conservation 3:93-100.
12. Cashdan, E. 1990 Information Costs and Customary Prices. In Risk and uncertainty in tribal and peasant economies, edited by Elizabeth Cashdan, pp. 259-278. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
13. Chappel T. J. H. 1977 Decorated gourds in North-Eastern Nigeria. Ethnographica Limited, London.
14. Clignet, Remi 1970 Many wives, many powers: Authority and power in polygynous families. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL.
15. Codol, J. P. 1981 Une Approche Cognitive du Sentiment D'identite. Social Science Information 20:111-136.
16. Conkey, Margaret W. 1990 Experimenting with style in Archaeology: Some Historical and Theoretical Issues. In The uses of style in archaeology, edited by Margaret Conkey and Christine Hastorf, pp. 5-17. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
17. Conkey, Margaret W. and Christine Hastorf (Editors) 1990 The uses of style in archaeology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
18. Coppock, D. L., D. M. Swift, and J. E. Ellis 1986 Seasonal nutritional characteristics of livestock diets in a nomadic pastoral ecosystem. Journal of Applied Ecology 23:585-595.
19. Coughenour, M. B., J. E. Ellis, D. M. Swift, D. L. Coppock, K. Galvin, J. T. McCabe, and T. C. Hart 1985 Energy extraction and use in a nomadic pastoral ecosystem. Science 230(4726):619-625.
20. Dahl, Gudrun 1981 Production in pastoral societies. In The future of pastoral peoples, Proceedings of a Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya, 4-8 August 1980, edited by John G. Galaty, Dan Aronson, Philip Carl Salzman, and Amy Chouinard, pp. 200-209. IDRC-175e.
21. Dahl, G., and A. Hjort 1976 Having herds: Pastoral herd growth and household economy. Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology No. 2. Department of Social Anthropology, University of Stockholm, Stockholm.
22. Dawkins, Richard, and John B. Krebs 1978 Animal signals: Information or manipulation? In Behavioral ecology: An evolutionary approach. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA.
23. Dundas, K. R. 1910 Notes on the tribes inhabiting the Baringo District, East Africa Protectorate. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 40:49-72.
24. Dyson-Hudson, Rada 1989 Ecological influences on systems of food production and social organization of South Turkana pastoralists. In Comparative socioecology: The behavioral ecology of humans and other animals, edited by V. Standen and R. A. Foley. Blackwell Sci., Oxford.
25. Dyson-Hudson, Rada, and Neville Dyson-Hudson 1980 Nomadic pastoralism. Annual Review of Anthropology 9:15-61.
26. Eibl-Eibesfedlt, I. 1979 Human ethology: Concepts and implications for the sciences of man. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2:1-57.
27. Elam, Y. 1973 The social and sexual roles of Hima women. Univ. of Manchester Press, Manchester.
28. Ellen, R. 1982 Environment, subsistence and system: The ecology of small-scale social formations. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
29. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940 The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a nilotic people. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
30. 1951 Kinship and marriage among the Nuer. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
31. Fratkin, E. 1991 Surviving drought and development: Ariaal pastoralists of Northern Kenya. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
32. Galaty, John G. 1991 Pastoral orbits and deadly jousts: Factors in the Maasai expansion. In Herders, warriors, and traders: Pastoralism in Africa, edited by John G. Galaty and Pierre Bonte, pp. 171-198. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
33. Galvin, Kathleen A. 1985 Food procurement, diet, activities, and nutrition of Ngisonyoka Turkana pastoralists in an ecological and social context. Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York, Binghamton.
34. Galvin, Kathleen A., D. Layne Coppock, and Paul W. Leslie 1994 Diet, nutrition, and the pastoral strategy. In African Pastoralist Systems, edited by Elliot Fratkin, Kathleen A. Galvin, and Eric Abella Roth, pp. 113-132. Lynne Rienner, London.
35. Goldschmidt, Walter 1986 The Sebei: A study in adaptation. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.
36. Goody, E. N. 1974 Contexts of Kinship. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
37. Goody, Jack 1958 The fission of domestic groups among the Lodagaba. In The developmental cycle of domestic groups, edited by Jack Goody, pp. 53-91. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
38. Grandin, Barbara E. 1988 Wealth and pastoral dairy production: A case study from Maasailand. Human Ecology 16(1):1-21.
39. Gulliver, P. H. 1955 The family herds: A study of two pastoral tribes in East Africa, the Jie and the Turkana. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
40. Harris, Marvin 1974 Why a perfect knowledge of all the rules one must know to act like a native cannot lead to the knowledge of how natives act. Journal of Anthropological Research 30(4):242-251.
41. 1979 Cultural materialism: The struggle for a science of culture. Random House, New York.
42. 1990 Emics and etics Revisited. In Emics and etics: The insider/outsider debate, edited by Thomas Headland, Kenneth L. Pike, and Marvin Harris, pp. 48-61. Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
43. Hartley, Ralph J. 1992 Rock art on the Colorado plateau: Variability in content and context. Avebury Press, Aldershot.
44. Hegmon, Michelle 1992 Archaeological research on style. Annual Review of Anthropology 21:517-536.
45. Hill, J. N. 1985 Style: A conceptual evolutionary framework. In Decoding prehistoric ceramics, edited by B. A. Nelson, pp. 362-385. Southern Illinois Univ. Press, Carbondale.
46. Hjort, Anders 1981 Herds, trade, and grain: pastoralism in a regional perspective. In The future of pastoral peoples, edited by John G. Galaty, Dan Aronson, Philip Carl Salzman, and Amy Chouinard, pp. 135-143. International Development Centre, Ottawa.
47. Hodder, Ian 1977a A study in ethnoarchaeology in Western Kenya. In Archaeology and anthropology: Areas of mutual interest, edited by Mathew Spriggs, pp. 117-142. Oxford, BAR Supplementary Series 19.
48. 1977b The distribution of material culture items in the Baringo District, W. Kenya. Man 12:239-269.
49. 1982 Symbols in action: Ethnoarchaeological studies of material culture. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
50. 1985a Boundaries as strategies: An ethnoarchaeological study. In The archaeology of frontiers and boundaries, edited by Stanton W. Green and Stephen M. Perlman, pp. 141-159. Academic Press, New York.
51. 1985b Postprocessual archaeology. In Advances in archaeological method and theory, Vol. 8, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 1-25. Academic Press, New York.
52. 1987a The meaning of discard: Ash and domestic space in Baringo. In Method and theory for activity area research, edited by Susan Kent, pp. 424-448. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.
53. 1987b The contextual analysis of symbolic meanings. In The archaeology of contextual meanings, edited by Ian Hodder, pp. 1-10. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
54. 1991a The decoration of containers: An ethnographic and historical study. In Ceramic ethnoarcheology, edited by William A. Longacre, pp. 71-94. Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ.
55. 1991b Postprocessual archaeology and the current debate. In Processual and postprocessual archaeologies: Multiple was of knowing the past, edited by Robert W. Preucel, pp. 30-41. Southern Illinois Univ. Press, Carbondale, IL.
56. Homewood, Katherine, W. A. Rodgers, and K. Arhem 1987 Ecology of pastoralism in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Journal of Agricultural Science 108:47-72.
57. Homewood, Katherine, and J. Lewis 1987 Impact of drought on pastoral livestock in Baringo, Kenya 1983-85. Journal of Applied Ecology 24:615-631.
58. Homewood, Katherine, and W. A. Rodgers (editors) 1991 Maasailand ecology: Pastoralist development and wildlife conservation in Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
59. Jacobs, Alan H. 1965 The traditional political organization of the pastoral Maasai. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Oxford University.
60. 1975 Maasai pastoralism in historical perspective. In Pastoralism in tropical Africa, edited by Theodore Monod, pp. 406-422. Oxford University Press, London.
61. Jewell, P. A. 1980 Ecology and management of game animals and domestic livestock in African Savannas. In Human ecology in Savanna environments, edited by D. R. Harris, pp. 353-381. Academic Press, London.
62. Johnson, Gregory A. 1978 Information sources and the development of decision-making organizations. In Social archaeology: Beyond subsistence and dating, edited by C. L. Redman, J. M. Berman, E. V. Curtin, W. T. Langhorne, N. M. Versaggi, and J. C. Wanser, pp. 87-112. New York, Academic Press.
63. Kerven, Carol 1992 Customary commerce: A historical reassessment of pastoral livestock marketing in Africa. ODI Agricultural Occasional Paper 15. London.
64. King, Barbara J. 1994 The information continuum: Evolution of social information transfer in monkeys, apes, and hominids. SAR Press, Santa Fe, NM.
65. Klima, George J. 1970 The Barabaig: East African cattle herders. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York.
66. Krebs, J. R., and N. B. Davies 1978 Behavioral ecology: An evolutionary approach. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA.
67. Krippendorff, K. 1986 Information theory: Structural models for qualitative data. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
68. Larrick, Roy 1987 The circulation of spears among Loikop cattle pastoralists of Samburu District, Kenya. Research in Economic Anthropology 9:143-166.
69. 1991 Warriors and blacksmiths: mediating ethnicity in East African spears. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10:299-331.
70. Leone, Mark 1986 Symbolic, structural, and critical archaeology. In American archaeology past and future, edited by David J. Meltzer, Don D. Fowler, and Jeremy A. Sabloff, pp. 415-438. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
71. Leslie, Paul W., P. H. Fry, K. Galvin, and J. T. McCabe 1988 Biological, behavioral and ecological influences on fertility in Turkana pastoralists. In Arid lands: Today and tomorrow, edited by E. E. Whitehead, Charles F. Hutchinson, Barbara N. Timmermann, and Robert G. Varady pp. 705-711. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
72. LeVine, Robert A. 1962 Witchcraft and co-wife proximity in Southwestern Kenya. Ethnology 1:39-45.
73. Little, Michael A. 1980 Designs for human-biological research among Savanna pastoralists. In Human ecology in Savanna environments, edited by David R. Harris, pp. 479-504. Academic Press, London.
74. 1989 Human biology of African pastoralists. Yearbook of physical anthropology 32:215-247.
75. Little, Michael A., Katherine Galvin, Broke R. Johnson, Jr., Karen Shelley, and Mutana Mugambi 1988 Resources, biology and health of pastoralists. In Arid lands: Today and tomorrow, edited by E. E. Whitehead, Charles F. Hutchinson, Barbara N. Timmermann, and Robert G. Varady, pp. 713-726. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
76. Little, Michael A., Neville Dyson-Hudson, Rada Dyson-Hudson, James E. Ellis, Kathleen A. Galvin, Paul W. Leslie, and David M. Swift 1990 Ecosystem approaches in human biology: Their history and a case study of the South Turkana ecosystem project. In The ecosystem approach in anthropology, edited by Emilio F. Moran, pp. 389-434. Univ. of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI.
77. Little, P. D. 1981 A sociological report on the Il Chamus of Baringo District, Kenya. Consultant Report to Baringo Semi-Arid Area Project. Ministry of Agriculture, Nairobi.
78. 1983 The livestock-grain connection in Northern Kenya: An analysis of pastoral economics and semi-arid development. Rural Africa 15-16:91-108.
79. 1992 The elusive granary: Herder, farmer, and state in Northern Kenya. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
80. Losey, Jr., G. S. 1978 Information theory and communication. In Quantitative ethology, edited by P. W. Calgan, pp. 43-78. Wiley, New York.
81. Margalef, R. 1968 Perspectives in ecological theory. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press.
82. McCabe, J. Terrence 1985 Livestock management among the Turkana: A social and ecological analysis of herding in an East African pastoralist population. Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York, Binghamton.
83. 1987 Drought and recovery: Livestock dynamics among the Ngisonyoka Turkana of Kenya. Human Ecology 15:371-389.
84. McCabe, J. Terrence, Rada Dyson-Hudson, Paul W. Leslie, Peggy H. Fry, and Jan Wienphal 1988 Movement and migration as pastoral responses to limited and unpredictable resources. In Arid lands: Today and tomorrow, edited by E. E. Whitehead, Charles F. Hutchinson, Barbara N. Timmermann, and Robert G. Varady, pp. 727-734. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
85. Michael, Barbara J. 1987 Milk production and sales by the Hawazma (Baggara) of Sudan: Implications for gender roles. In Research in economic anthropology, Vol. 9, pp. 105-141 JAI Press, Greenwich, CT.
86. Moore, James A. 1981 The effects of information networks in hunter-gatherer societies. In Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies, edited by B. Winterhalder and E. A. Smith, pp. 194-217. Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press.
87. Nathan, Martha A., Buchanan Anne V., Fratkin Elliot Wood, James, and A. Aliayaro 1991 Health and nutritional consequences of recent sedentism of Rendille pastoralists in Northern Kenya. Paper presented at the 1991 American Public Health Association Meeting.
88. Nestel, Penelope S. 1985 Nutrition of Maasai women and children in relation to subsistence food production. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London.
89. 1986 A society in transition: Development and seasonal influences on the nutrition of Maasai women and children. Food and Nutrition Bulletin 8(1):2-18.
90. 1989 Food intake and growth in the Maasai. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 17-30.
91. Nestel, Penelope S., and C. Geissler 1986 Potential deficiencies of pastoral diet: A case study of the Maasai. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 19:1-10.
92. Ohta, Itaru 1987 Livestock individual identification among the Turkana: The animal classification and naming in the pastoral livestock management. African Studies Monographs 8(1):1-69.
93. Pennington, Renee 1991 Child fostering as a reproductive strategy among Southern African pastoralists. Ethology and Sociobiology 12:83-104.
94. Pianka, Eric R. 1983 Evolutionary ecology. Harper and Row, New York.
95. Plog, Stephen 1980 Stylistic variation in prehistoric ceramics. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
96. Rappaport, Roy A. 1968 Pigs for the ancestors: Ritual in the ecology of a New Guinea people. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT.
97. 1971 Ritual, sanctity, and cybernetics. American Anthropologist 73:59-76.
98. Reynolds, R. C. 1978 On modeling the evolution of hunter-gatherer decision-making systems. Geographical Analysis 10(1):31-46.
99. Rigby, Peter 1969 Cattle and kinship among the Gogo. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.
100. 1985 Persistent pastoralists: Nomadic societies in transition. Zed, London.
101. Saitoti, Teplit Ole 1980 Maasai. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
102. Schneider, Harold K. 1957 The subsistence role of cattle among the Pakot and in East Africa. American Anthropologist 59(2):278-300.
103. 1981 Livestock as food and money. In The future of pastoral peoples, edited by John G. Galaty, Dan Aronson, Philip C. Salzman, and Amy Chouinard, pp. 210-223. Ottawa, Canada, International Development Centre.
104. 1984 Livestock in African culture and society: A historical perspective. In Livestock Development in Subsaharan Africa: Constraints, Prospects, Policy, edited by James R. Simpson and Phylo Evangelou. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
105. Shanks, M., and C. Tilley 1985 Ideology, Symbolic Power and Ritual Communication: A Reinterpretation of Neolithic Mortuary Practices. In Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, edited by Ian Hodder, pp. 129-154. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
106. 1987 Social theory and archaeology. Polity Press, London.
107. Shannon, C. E., and W. Weaver 1949 The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.
108. Shell-Duncan, Betina K. 1994 Child fostering among nomadic Turkana pastoralists: Demographic and health consequences. In African pastoralist systems: An integrated approach, edited by Elliot Fratkin, Kathleen A. Galvin, and Eric A. Roth, pp. 147-164. Lynne Rienner, London.
109. Smith, E. A. 1981 The application of optimal foraging theory to the analysis of hunter-gatherer group size. In Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies, edited by B. Winterhalder and E. A. Smith, pp. 36-65. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
110. Smith, E. A. and B. Winterhalder (editors) 1992 Evolutionary ecology and human behavior. Aldine de Gruyter, Chicago.
111. Sperling, Louise 1987 The adoption of camels by the Samburu cattle herders. Nomadic Peoples 23:1-17.
112. Sperling, Louise, and John G. Galaty 1990 Cattle, culture, and economy: Dynamics in East African pastoralism. In The world of pastoralism: Herding systems in comparative perspective, edited by John G. Galaty and Douglas L. Johnson, pp. 69-98. The Guilford Press, New York.
113. Smith, Eric A. 1981 The application of optimal foraging theory to the analysis of hunter-gatherer group size. In Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies, edited by B. Winterhalder and E. A. Smith, pp. 36-65. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.
114. Smith, Eric A. and Bruce Winterhalder (editors) 1992 Evolutionary ecology and human behavior. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
115. Stephens, D. W. 1990 Risk and incomplete information in behavioral ecology. In Risk and uncertainty in tribal and peasant economies, edited by Elizabeth Cashdan, pp. 19-46. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
116. Stephens, David W., and John R. Krebs 1986 Foraging theory. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ.
117. Sudre, P., M. Serdula, N. Binkin, N. Staehling, and M. Kramer 1990 Child fostering, health and nutritional status: The experience of Swaziland. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 24:181-188.
118. Taifel, Henri (editor) 1978 Differentiation between social groups. Academic Press, New York.
119. 1982 Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
120. Turner, J. 1982 Towards redefinition of the social group. In Social identity and intergroup relations, edited by H. Taifel, pp. 15-39. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
121. van den Berghe, Pierre L. 1979 Human family systems: An evolutionary view. Elsevier, New York.
122. Vedeld, P. 1990 Household viability and change among the Tugens: A case study of household resource allocation in the semi-arid Baringo district. Nomadic Peoples 25-27:133-152.
123. Wienphal, J. 1984 Women's roles in livestock production among the Turkana of Kenya. Research in Economic Anthropology 6:193-216.
124. Wiessner, Polly 1983 Style and social information in Kalahari San projectile points. American Antiquity 48(2): 253-276.
125. 1984 Reconsidering the behavioral basis for style: A case study among the Kalahari San. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3:190-234.
126. 1990 Is there a unity to style? In The uses of style in archaeology, edited by Meargaret Conkey and Christine Hastorf, pp. 105-112. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.
127. Wilson, Edward O. 1975 Sociobiology: A new synthesis. Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA.
128. Winterhalder, B., and Eric A. Smith, 1981 Hunter-gatherer foraging strategies: Ethnographies and archeological analyses. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
129. Wobst, H. M. 1977 Stylistic behavior and information exchange. In For the directors: Essays in honor of James B. Griffin. University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers No. 61.
130. Yagil, Reuven, and Zipora Etzion 1988 Survival and production in the desert camel. In Arid lands - Today and tomorrow, edited by E. E. Whitehead, C. F. Hutchison, B. N. Timmermann and R. G. Varady, pp. 373-379. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
131. Yengoyan, Aram A. 1968 Demographic and ecological influences on aboriginal Australian marriage sections. In Man the hunter, edited by Richard Lee and I. DeVore, pp. 185-199. Aldine, Chicago.
132. 1975 Demographic factors in Pitjandjara social organization. In Australian aboriginal anthropology: Modern studies in the social anthropology of Australian aborigines, edited by Ronald M. Berndt, pp. 70-91. University of Western Australia Press, Perth.
133. 1972 Biological and demographic components in aboriginal Australian socioeconomic organization. Oceania 43:85-96.
134. Ziman, John 1978 Reliable knowledge: An exploration of the grounds for belief in science. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K.