Risk and uncertainty dominate life in the semiarid tropics where most of the world's pastoralists live. Scientific approaches to risk in semiarid zones have been dominated by agroecology and... Show moreRisk and uncertainty dominate life in the semiarid tropics where most of the world's pastoralists live. Scientific approaches to risk in semiarid zones have been dominated by agroecology and agroeconomics. Within these paradigms risk is treated as a stochastic occurrence, and decisionmaking strategies are analysed with the help of simulation models, which are based on assumptions from rational choice decisionmaking theory, and presume that people are either geared towards profit maximization or towards risk minimization. The author shows that this approach is too narrow, because people operate not only in an ecological and economic environment, but also in social and cultural environments. He argues that an understanding of individual behaviour and cultural dynamics in high risk environments may be furthered by treating risk and uncertainty as total events, i.e. that more can be learned by tracing the consequences of single events across space and time, as well as the tracks people follow to deal with calamities. The argument is illustrated by a case study of Riimaybe cultivators and Fulbe herdsmen in an agropastoral community in the centre of the Niger Bend, central Mali. Fieldwork was carried out in the area in 1990-1992. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in French and Spanish Show less
This thesis deals with the ways in which the agropastoral Fulbe in the Sahel deal with ecological, social and political insecurities. It is based on field research carried out in the Hayre dryland... Show moreThis thesis deals with the ways in which the agropastoral Fulbe in the Sahel deal with ecological, social and political insecurities. It is based on field research carried out in the Hayre dryland region of central Mali, notably in the villages of Dalla and Serma, from March 1990 until February 1992. The first part of the study examines the history of natural resource management and ideologies in the Hayre (1400-1985). The second part is about the role of the past in the present. It analyses the spatial organization, ecological environment, economic organization, and division of labour in the area, as well as the normative complexes typical of Fulbe society. Part three focuses on the use and management of natural resources, paying attention to farming and herding practices, agricultural and pastoral production, the circulation of property, and land tenure. Part four is concerned with the way in which people who have been pushed out of agricultural production survive. It focuses in particular on how people manage social and cultural resources. Part five deals with the interactions of the Fulbe pastoralists with the State and the outside world in a situation of drought Show less
This paper focuses on the interaction of the cultivation of cereals and the keeping of livestock among the Fulbe in a dryland region in central Mali in the district of Douentza. This interaction is... Show moreThis paper focuses on the interaction of the cultivation of cereals and the keeping of livestock among the Fulbe in a dryland region in central Mali in the district of Douentza. This interaction is shown to be crucial for understanding the impact of variable ecological conditions, notably the Sahelian droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, on the land use strategies of the Fulbe and their former slaves, nowadays labelled Riimaybe. There are not only physical interactions between livestock keeping and cereal cultivation in the form of flows of manure and crop residues, but also institutional and social interactions. The institutional interactions take the form of land tenure arrangements which allow people to make efficient use of soil fertility and agricultural production and appropriate the manure produced by their own livestock, and which also permit the careful spacing and timing of herding and cultivation. In times of crisis the cultivation of cereals becomes the most important means of survival. In principle, temporary cultivation would allow people to rebuild their herds, and reenter the pastoral economy after some time. However, the combined effects of droughts and changes in resource tenure have had a disastrous effect on the productivity of the land use system. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Spanish. Show less
