This project supports the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Michigan. The project is to study the effects of wage labor by junior males on patterns of authority and conflict among the pastoral Samburu of Kenya. It will address issues concerning how authority is structured in households in traditional societies where the economic basis of income is changing from a traditional pastoral to a wage labor economy. Both quantitative survey methods and qualitative methods of interviews and participant observation will be used. This research is important because patterns of authority have been changing in traditional societies in response to changes in income opportunities. Increased understanding of the household dynamics of these changes can help planners accommodate the problems which such shifts in authority entail.
