Paper short abstract:

Through ethnographic research with Maasai peoples and scientists at Oldupai Gorge and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania), I show that Maasai and scientists enacted different versions of drought. While the legitimisation of scientific ontologies has been important, Maasai drought remains.

Paper long abstract:

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a protected area in Tanzania that is home to Maasai peoples. UNESCO has deemed the NCA a World Heritage Site, significantly because of its rich biodiversity and because it contains Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge, which is a renowned site for paleoanthropological research into human evolution and human origins. Resultingly, scientists (both conservationists and palaeoanthropologists) also have great interest in the Oldupai/NCA landscape. In this paper, I draw on Annemarie Mol’s concept of enacting multiple versions of reality, along with my own long-term ethnographic research at Oldupai Gorge, to compare daily life and realities for Maasai peoples and for scientists. I demonstrate that Maasai and scientists made large excavations in Oldupai Gorge as they enacted different versions of drought, which thereby multiplied reality and ontologies. Whereas Maasai excavated buried water as they enacted and countered contemporary drought, researchers excavated traces of ancient ecosystems as they recreated and enacted ancient drought that they said played a significant role in humanity’s evolutionary emergence. Ultimately, while the pursuit of scientific drought (and the legitimisation of scientific ontologies/realities) in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area has been a well-intentioned and important endeavour, Maasai drought unfortunately remains – and few resources have been mobilised to address it. I conclude by exploring the implications of the simultaneous existence of different (and differentially legitimised) realities and versions of drought within a Conservation Area that certain designations (as a “World Heritage Site” and as a “Cradle of Humankind”) portray as shared amongst all humanity.