This dissertation research will investigate how, when, and to what effect the children of pastoralist herders in the drylands of East Africa forage for their own food. It will measure the value and effects of children's subsistence contributions for themselves, their peers, and their households. Children in many societies sometimes begin to contribute to household production at early ages, depending on the subsistence mode of their society and the environment in which they live. Children's contributions to subsistence have been studied among agriculturalists and more recently, among hunter-gatherers. This will be one of the first studies to study the contributions of pastoralist children.
This research combines nutrition, health, and ethnographic methodologies. Earlier studies of subsistence strategies found that returns should be measured not only in relation to energy costs of food procurement, but also in relation to nutritional returns and health consequences within cultural and environmental contexts. Therefore, the researcher will inventory children's work and also take anthropomorphic measurements of them and their families to measure their development and monitor health over time.
Meta-analyses of subsistence risk management research within anthropology reveal a lack of empirical data with which to test models. This project will collect empirical data to begin the process of rigorously testing hypotheses about children's roles within households and communities, the reasons children forage, especially in non-foraging societies, and risk management. Results of this research will be valuable to the development of theory in anthropology and to assist government and non-government organizations producing policy for children, education, food security, and development among dryland pastoralists.
