Pastoralists

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Pastoralists Agriculturalists in Africa
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Pastoralists

• Specialized adaptation to environments that
  cannot support a human population through
  agriculture (hilly terrain, dry climate, or
  unsuitable soil) but produces grass (which humans
  cannot eat).
• Six most popular species around the world sheep,
  goats, cattle, horses, donkeys, and camels
• Main source of food is meat and milk grains and
  manufactured items are traded

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Pastoralism

• Key to pastoralist economy is herd growth
• Animals are the form of wealth
• Risky because of drought, disease, theft
• Pastoralists need to know the carrying capacity
  of the land as well as how many animals needed to
  support a family

• Maasai donating cows to the US after 9/11

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Pastoralists

• Pastoralist societies tend to be based on
  patrilineal kinship.
• Why do you think this is?

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Horticulturalists

• Production of domesticated plants using handheld
  tools
• Rain as the source of moisture
• Major crops yams, corns, beans, grains such as
  millet and sorghum, and root crops
• Cultivated fields not used permanently, year
  after year, but remain fallow

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Horticulturalists

• Lower yield per acre than intensive agriculture
  but less human labor also
• Average plot size are less than an acre 2.5
  acres can support 5-8 people a year.
• Population densities are low, but villages may be
  large (100-1,000 people)

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Slash-and-Burn Farming

• A field is cleared by felling the trees and
  burning the brush
• The burned vegetation is left on the land,
  preventing drying out of the soil
• Ash serves as fertilizer
• Very little weeding required because of the ash
  cover
• Fields used for a few years and then allowed to
  lie fallow (up to 20 years) so that the forest
  cover can be rebuilt and soil fertility restored

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Horticulture and the Environment

• So long as the land is allowed to remain fallow
  until it rejuvenates, the system is sustainable.
• However, access to land by ranchers, miners,
  tourists, and farmers horticulturalists desire
  to increase production for cash and population
  growth can mean that the land becomes degraded.

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Agriculturalists Gender

• Mens and womens work roles often clearly
  defined
• A common pattern is for women to grow staple
  crops and men to grow the prestige crops
• The differences in work roles have implications
  for the status of men and women.

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Agriculturalists Gender

• With an increase in crops grown for sale (cash
  crops like cotton, cocoa, etc) rather than crops
  grown for household use (staples or food crops),
  men tend to dominate in farming
• The introduction of the market economy has thus
  tended to benefit men, not women.

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Agriculturalists

• Associated with the rise of
• sedentary villages
• cities and the state
• occupational diversity
• social stratification

• Downtown Yaounde, Cameroon

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Agriculturalists

• Surplus food production goes to
  non-food-producing occupational specialists, such
  as those in religious or ruling elites
• Importance of credit and debt (money-lenders)

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Characteristics of Agriculturalists

• Importance of household in production children
  work harder in farming communities than in any
  other mode of production
• Use of a supplementary labor supply outside of
  household
• Need of farmers to depend on part-time
  non-farming work to supplement income
• Surplus extracted from the state in the form of
  rents, taxes, and free labor

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The State and Agriculture

• The state is heavily involved in agriculture
• Sets price at which farm products are sold
• Subsidizes farmers and farm inputs (fertilizer,
  pesticides)
• Markets farm products overseas and imports other
  products that affect local farm products

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The State and Agriculture

• Sets land ownership policy and rules regarding
  land tenancy
• Affects labor markets by controlling migration
  from outside the country, which creates large
  pools of migrant labor
• Also allows surplus rural labor to migrate and
  benefits from remittances sent home