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Paper short abstract

Pastoralism fundamentally involves the reciprocal cooperation between herders and livestock. Herders care for their animals who in turn provide the necessary means for human survival. What forms can pastoralist cooperation take other than those primarily motivated by subsistence or survival?

Paper long abstract

This paper considers cooperation in the context of increased diversity of livelihoods among Maasai pastoralists located in northern Tanzania. Herders care for their livestock who in turn produce the means necessary for human existence; ‘people and cattle are bound together in a symbiosis of survival’ (Evans-Pritchard 1969). Certain pressures – environmental, political, economic – are challenging the feasibility of small-scale pastoralism. Many pastoralists have increasingly diversified their livelihood strategies, meaning that the reciprocal cooperation often ascribed to small-scale pastoralism no longer defines their survival. What becomes of this kind of cooperation when the means for survival can be, and often must be, found elsewhere?

Historically, the anthropology of East African pastoralist societies has noted the central role of livestock in the making and perpetuation of social life, emphasising the cultural significance of livestock beyond subsistence and survival. It has especially presented livestock as figures that help mediate uncertainty and misfortune. Given the current context of the climate crisis and various political pressures that challenge the lifeworlds of Maasai pastoralists, such a role of livestock appears critical. The paper thus focuses on the ways that this kind of significance manifests itself in current contexts and how this might help to think about cooperation. Drawing from an ethnographic case study of livelihood diversification among Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania, this paper ultimately asks, what forms can pastoralist cooperation take other than those primarily motivated by subsistence or survival and how are these expressed in the lives of pastoralists today?