Record Details
Producing pastoral power : territory, identity and rule in Tanzanian Maasailand
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Producing pastoral power : territory, identity and rule in Tanzanian Maasailand |
| Names |
Gardner, Benjamin Richard
(creator) |
| Date Issued | 2007 (iso8601) |
| Note | Access restricted to the OSU Community |
| Abstract | This dissertation begins with a question: why would Tanzanian Maasai with a history of struggle against national and international conservation efforts remake their landscapes to be compatible with conservation for ecotourism? I examine this question by tracing the historical-geographies of pastoral production, ecotourism investment and property rights through the contested spaces of Maasai villages in Loliondo and Monduli Tanzania. Through an ethnographic analysis of Maasai development in relationship to land, citizenship, and conservation from independence to the present, this dissertation provides the first major study as to how neoliberal policies and practices join together with ongoing struggles over land and education to remake landscapes and subjects in Tanzanian Maasailand. This dissertation concludes that the actions of Maasai in Loliondo to embrace ecotourism investors, in contrast to Maasai in the neighboring region Monduli, were the result of conjunctural formations of regional Maasai politics, identities, and interests. I show why leaders in Loliondo led their communities to challenge state ownership of wildlife, while leaders in Monduli argued for state involvement in wildlife management to safeguard local interests. Maasai intellectuals in Loliondo derived authority by effectively representing their identity as indigenous people to form partnerships with ecotourism investors and other transnational organizations. Ultimately, they argued for Maasai territorial rights in terms of ethnic belonging in order to question and challenge the premise that nature is a national commodity. Alternatively, leaders in Monduli largely rejected the ethnic group as an organizing principle, appealing instead to national citizenship to address political and economic marginalization. Weary of traditional leaders who might use their authority to sell village land for tourism, Monduli Maasai saw individual titling, buying, and selling of land as an exercise of their rights. I present information gathered through interviews, participant observation, archival analysis, and oral histories to show how the meanings of international tourism and local land rights are grounded in ongoing regional struggles over territory. I argue that Maasai claims to land and education are hinged to processes that rework the symbolic and material meanings of the nation, region, and village. In Monduli, strategies to mobilize the resources of the state to protect pastoral interests were shaped by legacies casting national development programs as a means to protect pastoral land rights. In contrast, Maasai in Loliondo have reworked the historical legacies of central planning, remaking villages as legitimate -- locally, nationally, and internationally -- rights bearing communities. Rather than serving as a mere entry point for the investment of outside capital, Maasai villages in Loliondo serve to organize social and spatial relationships, facilitate access to resources, and shape identities and rights. |
| Genre | Thesis |
| Topic | Maasai (African people) -- Tanzania -- Loliondo -- Attitudes |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/44975 |
