Oziexplorer 3.95 4a6/10/2023 I used mixed methods, including structured household surveys, intra-household surveys, and semi-structured interviews with men and women to understand the gendered nature of livestock management. This dissertation is based on 14 months of fieldwork conducted from 2014 to 2015 in a Maasai community in southern Kenya. Given that milk is a primary food source for much of the year, I find that women’s decisions have crucial implications for food security and herd health. Specifically, I examine women’s considerations to balance output (milk offtake for household needs) with investment (milk allocated toward young animals) and the spaces in which such decisions occur. As such, I provide empirical evidence for pastoral women’s contributions to livestock management by examining milking activities in bomas (homesteads). Pastoral women’s caretaking roles at home have tended to be overlooked, yet they are integral to decision-making about household economy. Although there is a rich body of literature on human-livestock-environment interactions in sub- Saharan Africa, scholarship has tended to focus primarily on herding activities in rangelands where livestock graze under the supervision of men. This dissertation investigates pastoral women’s roles in managing livestock in southern Kenya.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |