Critical Transitions from Pastoralism to Ranching in Central Africa
| dc.contributor.author | Schareika, Nikolaus | |
| dc.contributor.author | Brown, Christopher | |
| dc.contributor.author | Moritz, Mark | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-03-10T17:31:15Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-03-10T17:31:15Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2021-02-15 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The goal of this paper is to explain why and how increasing commoditization and incorporation in the market economy are only now leading to a critical transition from pastoralism to ranching in Central Africa. While there are similarities between pastoralism and capitalism—in both systems, entrepreneurs are strategically maximizing their “stock”—there are also differences. We argue that these differences can be understood as two distinct types of logic that are embedded within larger sociocultural systems: cattle logic and capital logic. Understanding how these logics operate within different systems is critical for explaining the current shift from pastoralism to ranching in Central Africa. We outline a theoretical model that integrates concepts from practice theory and the literature on critical transitions in social-ecological systems to explain the shift. We illustrate the theoretical model using a case comparison of three different livestock husbandry systems: Woɗaaɓe pastoralists in southeastern Niger, peri-urban Fulani pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon, and Fulani ranchers in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. We then use these cases to explain the persistence of cattle logic among the Woɗaaɓe in Niger, as well as the shift from cattle logic to capital logic among Fulani in Cameroon. Studying the transition from pastoralism to ranching is important because it has major implications, including increasing economic inequality, weaker community relations, and potential degradation of grazing lands, for livestock husbandry systems in Central Africa. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | A number of colleagues have invested time and energy to critically examine drafts of this paper and share their highly valuable comments with us. We wish to thank Christina Gabbert, Elizabeth Gardiner, Marie Müller-Koné, and Jacques Pollini, as well as the organizers and participants of the workshop Transformations and Visions: Responses, Alternatives, and Resistances to Large-Scale Land Deals in the Global South, held at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale), Germany, May 23–25, 2018. We also want to thank the reviewers for their critical and supportive feedback. | en_US |
| dc.description.uri | https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713248 | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 24 pages | en_US |
| dc.genre | journal articles | en_US |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.13016/m2khaz-mtmu | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Nikolaus Schareika, Christopher Brown, and Mark Moritz, Critical Transitions from Pastoralism to Ranching in Central Africa, Current Anthropology, volume 62, number 1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/713248 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1086/713248 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11603/21140 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.publisher | The University of Chicago Press | en_US |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Global Studies | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Faculty Collection | |
| dc.rights | This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author. | |
| dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International | * |
| dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ | * |
| dc.title | Critical Transitions from Pastoralism to Ranching in Central Africa | en_US |
| dc.title.alternative | The Comparison of Cattle-Based Livelihoods | en_US |
| dc.type | Text | en_US |