Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on mechanisms of endurance done by the Turkana in order to socially “grow older”. In a context of scarce resources and change of community values, the Turkana face fears of being unable to achieve traditional life stages: entering adulthood, marriage and becoming parents. I argue that Turkana endure in time, space and the body in order to grow older and gain status and leadership in the community.

Paper long abstract:

The Turkana of Northern Kenya are traditionally a pastoralist semi-nomadic group, they are an acephalous and generally a gerontocratic group. In fact, those Turkana (men and women) who, through personal achievements and through proper traditional accomplishment of asapan (rite of passage for boys) and marriage and through begetting of children, are called "the elders", detain the highest status and are the real leaders of the community.

To fulfill such traditional life stages is becoming extremely problematic for the Turkana. Lack of economic resources, frequent droughts and chronic poverty trigger loss of livestock, which is the paramount means for forming alliances, for making social exchanges and thus for allowing age passages.

Moreover, the new ideologies, namely the Christian religion and the State institutions like schools and hospitals, give different guidelines for what it means to grow older, like through the sacraments, school attendance, and physiological assessments.

Against such background, my paper focuses on the concept of endurance. Even in a context of lack of resources, chronic poverty and illness, urbanization, and disruption of social values and family relations, Turkana people try to cope. To socially "grow older" they endure in time (waiting), in space (settling down), and in the body (starving and fasting).

This argument is based on the collection of life stories, narratives and participant observation done in a six months long fieldwork in Turkana in 2009.