Cattle and inequality: herd size differences and pastoral production among the Fulani of northeastern Senegal

Abstract

Opening Paragraph: There is a growing body of research that addresses issues of income distribution and the mechanisms of inequality in rural farming communities in Africa (see, for example, Hill, 1972; Matlon, 1981; Kitching, 1980; Sutter, 1981; Watts, 1983). Unfortunately a recognition of the importance of economic inequality in African societies dependent on animal husbandry has lagged behind. Much of the research on pastoral systems of production of the past several decades has been carried out by anthropologists whose work, to the extent that it addresses issues of economic heterogeneity at all, has emphasised the types of ‘levelling’ and ‘adaptive’ mechanisms common to pastoral systems. Recurrent issues of focus have been the ideology of equality which tends to predominate in pastoral societies, the limited development of political hierarchies, the limitations on herd size imposed by family labour and ecology, the wide-spread transfer of assets at critical moments in the life cycle, and the apparent similarities in consumption levels of different households (see, for example, Barth, 1961; Goldschmidt, 1971; Dahl, 1979a; Schneider, 1979).