Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rodent Commensals of Maasai Settlements: Ethnoarchaeology of Pastoral Mobility

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Under the direction of Dr. Fiona Marshall, Mr. Lior Weissbrod will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will study small rodent faunas in contemporary Maasai pastoralist villages to determine the relationship between faunal composition and the degree of sedentism. The Maasai are a pastoral people dependent on herds of cattle, sheep and goats for food. Based on the degree of seasonal change in the immediate environment, some groups can maintain year round residence in a single location while others must move seasonally. Through comparison of the rodent populations both across villages and between villages and the surrounding area Mr. Weissbrod will determine the relationship between mobility and species specific rodent population structure. The goal is to develop an archaeologically applicable tool which will permit archaeologists to reconstruct degree of prehistoric human mobility based on excavated rodent remains. Since bias can result through differential preservation and burial, and excavated remains may only indirect reflect the prior living population, Mr. Weissbrod will also conduct excavations in Maasai villages to determine the relationship between observed living and buried skeletal populations. He will then test his methods on collections from an excavated archaeological site.Mobile pastoralists were the earliest food producers in Africa. There was considerable variation in subsistence and in the organization of relations within and among prehistoric pastoral groups. An important underlying goal of the current research is to understand how varying social, economic and political factors contributed to these patterns and to the development and spread of food production in Africa. Mobility is an essential strategy used by pastoralists to cope with unpredictable resources in arid lands and with changing economic and political circumstances. Reconstructing the dimensions of mobility of prehistoric pastoral groups, including length of occupation and group size is central to understanding the nature of variability in social, economic and political organization and Mr. Weissbrod's research will provide a tool to help in this process. This award will also further the academic and intellectual development of a promising young scientist.