Seeing Cattle like a State: Sedentist Assumptions of the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System

Autor: Max Mauerman, Venomukona Tjiseua, Dylan W. Groves
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nomadic Peoples, Vol 27, Iss 2, Pp 171-197 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0822-7942
1752-2366
DOI: 10.3197/np.2023.270202
Popis: Livestock identification and traceability systems (LITS) are an increasingly prominent component of national livestock development policies around the world. In theory, LITS allow governments to track and respond to disease and livestock theft efficiently. However, this paper argues that LITS are suffused with sedentist assumptions that are at odds with the livestock management practices of pastoralist communities. Drawing on qualitative interviews with implementing bureaucrats and affected pastoralist communities as well as one author’s experience of growing up and managing cattle in a pastoralist community, we review the sedentist assumptions that animate the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (NamLITS) and describe how pastoralists in north-western Namibia perceive that NamLITS has affected their economic, social and political lives. We then show the strategies that pastoralists use to comply and circumvent NamLITS, and conclude with lessons for governments and development practitioners considering livestock tracing systems and mobile communities affected by them.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals