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Browsing by Author "Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor"

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    Drought and Samburu pastoralism: a collaborative effort to examine the causes, adaptation process, and grazing innovations in northern Kenya
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Pickering, Tomas, author; Reid, Robin S., advisor; Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor; Boone, Randall B., committee member; Jones, Kelly W., committee member; Worden, Jeffrey S., committee member
    To view the abstract, please see the full text of the document.
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    Pathways of continuity and change: diversification, intensification and mobility in Maasailand, Kenya
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) BurnSilver, Shauna B., author; Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor
    In recent decades multiple drivers have been acting on Maasai pastoralists in the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem (GAE). The Kenyan government and international policymakers have made a systematic effort to modernize the Kenyan pastoral sector based on prescriptions of livestock intensification and a process of land tenure change that moves herders from communal land use to privatized land ownership. Additional drivers including population growth, competition for territory, greater engagement in the Kenyan economy, and frequent drought, are also pushing and pulling pastoralists to adjust their livelihood strategies. These drivers have created an atmosphere of unprecedented change in Maasailand, Kenya -- a situation with negative implications for pastoral well-being and resilience. How pastoral households cope with these challenges is the central question of this PhD study. Three key responses are identified and analyzed: economic diversification, livestock intensification and livestock mobility.
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    Political dimensions of livelihood transformation of the Indigenous Ata Modo people in Komodo National Park, Indonesia
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Afioma, Gregorius, author; Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Stevis, Dimitris, committee member
    This paper examines the political dimensions of the livelihood changes of the Indigenous Ata Modo people in Komodo National Park (KNP), Indonesia. Established in 1980, KNP is well-known as the natural habitat of the renowned Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). What is less known is that KNP is also the home of the local communities of Ata Modo. The Ata Modo people have changed their livelihoods from hunting, gathering, and farming to fishing and the tourism economy in response to processes of enclosure, dispossession, and dissolution of the protected area through various interventions from colonial times to recent years. Political economy critique tends to overlook the local dynamic, while the institutional framework of livelihood analysis tends to depoliticize livelihood adaptation as the economic survival mechanism. Using the framework of political ecology, this paper explores the political dimensions of livelihood transformation and the subject-making process of the Ata Modo people. Through livelihood adaptations, I emphasize the individual and collective agency in navigating their access and control over the resources around the park. This research is based on the ethnographic materials I collected during 2016-2022. Through the study of Indigenous Ata Modo's agency and their engagement with various regimes of conservation in KNP, I argue that the Indigenous Ata Modo's livelihood adaptation is an act of positioning in relation to the power dynamics of conservation and neoliberal conservation and ecotourism project. While continuously marginalized by the fortress and neoliberal models of conservation, the Indigenous Ata Modo continue to define and build their livelihoods through everyday and spectacular acts of resistance, occupation, and incorporation. By focusing on the struggle and livelihood adaptations of the Indigenous Ata Modo, this paper contributes to the study of the interlinkage between conservation, ecotourism, and community engagement in development.
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    "Staying together": people-wildlife relationships in a pastoral society in transition, Amboseli ecosystem, southern Kenya
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Ferreira de Lima Roque de Pinho, Maria Joana, author; Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor
    This study looks at three dimensions of the relationship between Maasai and wildlife: attitudes towards wildlife; cultural models of human-wildlife relationships; the aesthetic value of wildlife and its relation to support for wildlife conservation. First, I found that attitudes varied with land tenure, formal education, religion and gender. I used a regression analysis to identify predictors of positive attitudes towards wildlife. Being a Christian is the strongest predictor, followed by being male and residing on communal land. Second, I followed a cognitive anthropology approach to analyze how Maasai relate to wildlife. "Cultural models" are implicit, shared cognitive representation of a conceptual domain that mediate our understanding of the world and are differentially distributed, socially transmitted and correlated with behavior. I investigated content and distribution of Maasai models of their relationship with wildlife. With discourse analysis, I identified two contrasting models of human-wildlife relationships. In the "traditional" model, wildlife are seen as different from cows in everything but as having the right to be on the land since God meant for humans, cows and wildlife to "stay together". In contrast, in the "modern" model, wild animals are useful and income-generating like cows, but people wish to be separated from them. I used cultural consensus analysis to determine the distribution of agreement with each model. It shows that there is one consensual model that is close to the "modern" model. This study shows a shift towards models of human-wildlife relationships that are informed by western culture, the market economy and conservation. The consensual model contrasts with the vision that conservationists have for the ecosystem. Investigating stakeholders' cultural models is a step towards addressing such conflicts. Lastly, I examine the role of aesthetic value in human-wildlife relationships. I show that Maasai appreciate visual beauty in wild animals and enjoy the sight of wild animals. Then, I determine that there is an association between how Maasai aesthetically value species, preferences thereof and support for their conservation. The community-based conservation approach emphasizes the economic value of wildlife to local communities. This study suggests that these strategies would benefit from considering non-economic dimensions of human-wildlife relationships.