US-Tanzania Dissertation Enhancement: An Examination of the Role of Tourism in Pastoral People's Livelihoods

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0097074McCabe & DeLucaThis dissertation enhancement grant supports a US graduate student, Ms. Laura DeLuca, working under the guidance of Professor Terrence McCabe, in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, to conduct a comparative research study on livelihood diversification, especially the role of tourism work, among Maasai groups of northern Tanzania. In the past, raising livestock was the primary subsistence strategy of pastoralists living in the arid lands of Subsaharan Africa. But the past few decades have seen large tracts of rangeland transformed into cultivated land, and many African countries are now faced with the often competing desires to protect their wildlife while also affording their populations a sustainable livelihood. Tanzania has placed approximately one-fourth of its land in protected wildlife conservation areas, and tourism is now being promoted as a way that its indigenous peoples can economically benefit from these conservation programs. While community conservationists may argue that tourism can provide economic benefits for the local community and may be more compatible with wildlife conservation than other livelihoods, pastoralists may perceive tourism as a threat to their culture, environment, and local pastoral economy. Ms. DeLuca hypothesizes that pastoralists: 1) engage in tourism only when their other livelihood options have been compromised; and 2) will only view their livelihoods, including tourism, as sustainable if they allow for maintenance of a pastoral means of production. Using a political ecology approach, Ms. DeLuca will conduct an ethnographic study to investigate how local livelihood choices intersect with larger geopolitical and economic spheres. The study will also consider such variables as gender, social status, education, and heritage. Ms. DeLuca will conduct archival work on tourism and sustainable development policies and programs at the Tanzanian National Archives. Ethnographic information will be collected through surveys (such as free listing), participant observations, interviews, and focus groups. Dr. Sosovele, with the Institute of Resource Assessment at the University of Dar es Salaam, will provide guidance on this project to Ms. DeLuca. The results are expected to increase current knowledge about sustainable livelihoods, especially in Africa, and will be of value to anthropologists, resource managers, and policy makers. It is also expected to advance anthropological theory by identifying the connections between global policies and local livelihood options. This project will also support an international research experience very early in the career of an outstanding graduate student. The project also includes a Tanzanian graduate student who will serve as a research assistant.