ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Pastoral livelihoods around the world are evolving. The majority of Africa’s pastoral populations have been settled for more than 30 years, and new studies generating old hypotheses about the consequences of settlement for pastoralists are no longer relevant. The emergence of globalized markets and the integration of globalized production in developing country settings have forced many pastoralists, along with the rest of the world’s consumers, to shift their economic strategies of production to accommodate these evolving markets. The aim of this dissertation is to illustrate the relationship between globalization and apparent transformations in pastoralist behavior (areas such as land use, herding, diet, disease patterns) in recent years. We specifically focus on the links among rainfall and vegetation, land use and herding, diets, and health for Mukugodo Maasai in rural northern Kenya. To do this, we use a novel conceptual framework that incorporates both traditional interactions between pastoral ecology and resource generation and modern opportunities. We accomplish this by linking pastoral families via their pastoral production and other economic activities to the cash economy, modern diets and nutritional status (health), and public and private assistance and programs (such as food aid)