ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes how spiralling "orbits" of pastoralism, involving the appropriation of critical swamp, water or dry-season pasture sources, have been involved in the long-term Maasai expansion. It discusses the value of cattle among the Tswana - by awareness of how both material and symbolic value is attributed to domestic animals, whose cultural utility is often expressed in condensed religious form. The book describes the herd movements of Nuer and Dinka through seasonal cycles and periodic catastrophes of rain, drought and flood, and how the exchanges of milk, grain and fish help make more secure the overall food economy within a regional subsistence system. In contrast to the belief that pastoral mobility in itself offers an expansionary advantage, links between expansion and characteristic social or religious institutions of expanding groups have been posited.