AN    INTERNATIONAL     JOURNAL     OF
CULTURAL  AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Volume 51, no. 1 (Winter 2012)

DANGEROUS GEOGRAPHY: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LIVESTOCK RAIDING IN NORTHWESTERN KENYA

Teferi Abate Adem
Human Relations Area Files , Yale University

Carol R. Ember
Human Relations Area Files , Yale University

Ian Skoggard
Human Relations Area Files , Yale University

Eric C. Jones
The University of Texas at El Paso

A. J. Faas
San Jose State University

In a previous study, Ember and associates (2012) found that livestock-related violence involving the Turkana was higher in dry months, drier years, and when months were drier than expected between the years of 1998–2009. This article has data on livestock-related violence from media reports, together with localized and georeferenced spatial and rainfall maps, to explore the question of whether and how strongly landscape variations (e.g., in topography, rainfall variability, and hydrology) predict the place and intensity of livestock raids. Our findings broadly replicate a longstanding land-use dilemma well documented in ethnographic accounts. During the wet season, Turkana herders camp in relatively safe areas at the center of the district. With the onset of the dry season, they must move away to access pasture in blocks along the boundaries with hostile ethnic groups. Much of the raiding by the Turkana on others occurs along the borders where the rainfall pattern is relatively reliable. By contrast, most of the raiding against the Turkana occurs while the herds are on transitional moves, splitting from, and coalescing at, the margins of expansive plains, en route to patches of dry-season ranges. While most of the results are consistent with ethnographic reports, we do find some spatial patterns that were not previously apparent, particularly regarding water. We suggest that policy interventions at mitigating livestock raids need to take account of links between spatial conditions and the onset of localized raiding incidents. (Livestock raiding, pastoral conflict, Turkana, Northwestern Kenya).

LISTENING TO THE ANCESTORS: KAVA AND THE LAPITA PEOPLES

James West Turner
University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu

The peoples of Oceania used various plant-derived drugs, the most widely spread being betel nut and kava. The current evidence is that the kava plant was first domesticated in Vanuatu, where the initial settlers brought with them Lapita traditions and developed a set of practices and beliefs centered on an association between kava and death. Kava was a medium for communication with ancestors as sources of power. At roughly the same time and in the same area a significant change occurred in the meaning of the Proto-Oceanic word mana. Drawing upon ethnology, archaeology, and linguistics, this article examines the origins and spread of this complex of belief and practice. (Non-literate religious traditions, kava, Lapita peoples, Proto-Oceanic language).

DISAPPOINTING INDIGENEITY: POWWOW AND PARTICIPATION AMONG THE PLAINS APACHE

Abigail Wightman
Mary Baldwin College

Based on ethnographic research in southwest Oklahoma between 2006 and 2009, this paper examines Plains Apache identity through the narrative of disappointment that is often associated with native nonparticipation in cultural activities, particularly powwow. While recent research on the Southern Plains focuses largely on powwow and powwow participants, this research explores the perspectives of Apache people who are rarely active in powwow. Rather than a rejection of native or Apache identity, the results suggest that nonparticipation is a reflection of a complex interplay between the participation requirements of material capital, cultural capital, and contemporary kinship obligations. (Indigeneity, powwow, kinship, Plains Apache).