Doctoral Dissertation Research: Testing theories of mutualism in the context of rapid culture change

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Human societies everywhere deal with adverse social and environmental conditions that put livelihoods at risk, but they also tend to develop traditions and institutions that help adapt to those conditions. In the American Southwest, for example, droughts and floods can threaten cattle ranchers. In response, ranchers have developed a social institution, called "neighboring," in which ranchers help neighbors in need. What would happen to institutions like neighboring, however, when the economy changes quickly? Around the world, herding can be a high-risk livelihood, with herd sizes routinely prone to sudden fluctuations due to drought, disease, and, in some countries, raids. Herders routinely have similar stock friendships, or networks of cattle lending and sharing. Some researchers suggest that stock friendships might be an example of informal insurance systems to protect against cattle losses, whereas others claim that they might be useful for accumulating cattle wealth and political influence among households over time.Aaron Lightner, under the supervision of Dr. Edward Hagen of Washington State University, investigates Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania, who have made their living by herding cattle for centuries. Recently, however, population growth, drought, and urbanization have forced many Maasai herders to turn to agriculture and cash economies, becoming less dependent on the high-risk business of herding cattle, a sudden, fundamental change to their local economy. This research will investigate how stock friendship institutions have adapted to the changing economy, collecting data on household-level income from cattle, agriculture, and other sources; partner preferences and reputations; past activity among stock friends; and social networks among stock friends. Social network analysis will help the researchers test existing ideas about how and why people are participating in stock friendships, and to understand how these reasons might vary among people who are highly impacted vs. less impacted by economic and environmental changes at the field site. This research provides a unique opportunity to investigate not only how stock friendships buffer economic risks, but also how stock friendships are adapting to changes that are affecting herders around the world.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.