Comparative nutritional indicators as markers for resilience: the impacts of low-intensity violence among three pastoralist communities of northern Kenya

ABSTRACT

We present results from a collaborative project on the consequences of endemic violence in the pastoralist zone of Northern Kenya. Drawing on our ethnographically driven epidemiological approach, we examine the differential cost of violence by examining household nutrition. The case/control approach we employ draws data from six sites that are culturally similar but differ in the degree of exposure to, or relative insulation from, violence. As one of many lenses through which to examine the consequences of endemic violence, nutritional status offers a different story than assessing livestock holdings or access to land. Our data suggest that despite the different strategies that the pastoralist communities employ to contend with the violence, each one comes with nutritional consequences. Measuring the direct and indirect effects of violence in communities already compromised by poverty and episodic drought challenges researchers, policy-makers, and humanitarian organizations. Our goal is to offer insights into reasonable pathways for understanding these intersections of insecurity for policy and humanitarian organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Conflict settings
• food security
• nutrition
• low-intensity violence
• pastoralist resilience

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the communities who participated in this research for their hospitality and cooperation. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers. Finally, we offer a note of thanks to Michael Bollig and David Anderson for all of their efforts in organizing this volume and asking us all to think more precisely about resilience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Bilinda Straight http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1387-5514

Notes

1 Bollig et al., “Inscribing Identity,” 57–9; Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle; Greiner, “Unexpected Consequences,” 420–4.

2 Bollig et al., “Inscribing Identity,” 57–9.

3 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned our Enemies,” 23–51; Broch-Due, “Remembered Cattle,” 50–88; Gray, “A Memory of Loss,” 401–18; Pike et al., “Documenting,” 45–52.

4 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned our Enemies,” 23–51; Gray et al., “Cross-sectional Growth,” 193–202; McCabe, Cattle Bring Us; Mirzeler and Young, “Pastoral politics,” 407–29.

5 Österle, “Armed Economies,” 193–222.

6 Baro and Duebel, “Persistent Hunger,” 521–38.

7 Galvin, “Transitions,” 185–98; Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–32; Gray et al., “Mixed-longitudinal Growth,” 499–509; Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Animal Milk,” 66–76; Thorton et al., “Coping Strategies,” 461–76.

8 Pike et al., “Documenting,” 45–52.

9 Scheper-Hughes, “Small Wars,” 889–900; Desjarlais and Kleinman “Violence and Well-being,” 1143–5.

10 MLE Interview 2010, Pike data.

11 For a useful example: Lind and Eriksen, “Impacts of Conflict,” 249–70.

12 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned our Enemies,” 23–51; Broch-Due, “Remembered Cattle,” 50–88; Eaton, “The Business of Peace,” 89–110; Lind and Eriksen, “Impacts of Conflict,” 249–70; McCabe, Cattle Bring Us; Straight “Making Sense of Violence,” 31–40.

13 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned our Enemies,” 23–51.

14 For example: Straight et al., “Suicide,” 557–8.

15 Eaton, “The Business of Peace,” 89–110.

16 Ibid.; McCabe, Cattle Bring Us.

17 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned Our Enemies,” 23–51; Eaton, “The Business of Peace,” 89–110; Greiner, “Unexpected Consequences,” 420–4.

18 McCabe, Cattle Bring Us, 283.

19 De Waal et al., “Epidemiology,” 368–77.

20 Pike et al., “Documenting,” 45–52.

21 Greiner, “Unexpected Consequences,” 420–4.

22 Catley et al., Pastoralism and Development.

23 Lohman et al., Anthropometric Standardization.

24 de Onis et al., “Development,” 660–7.

25 Ibid.

26 Myatt et al., “The Effect of Body Shape,” 5–20.

27 WHO, “Physical Status,” 183–212.

28 In more detailed, unpublished analyses of youth, wealth predicts variation in body fat levels for both girls and boys.

29 Gray et al., “Cross-sectional Growth,” 193–202; Gray et al., “Mixed-longitudinal Growth,” 499–509.

30 Gray et al., “Mixed-longitudinal Growth,” 499–509.

31 Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Animal Milk,” 66–76.

32 Galvin, “Nutritional Ecology,” 209–21; Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–32; Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Animal Milk,” 66–76; Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Dietary Intakes,” 475–82; McCabe, Cattle Bring Us; Pike, “Maternal Body Composition,” 658–72.

33 Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–32; Gray, “Ecology,” 437–65.

34 Pike, “Biosocial Consequences,” 729–40; Pike and Williams, “Incorporating Psychosocial Health,” 729–40.

35 NLE 2012 Interview, Straight data.

36 NKTL 2012 Interview, Straight data.

37 Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–32; Lind and Eriksen, “Impacts of Conflict,” 249–70; McCabe, Cattle Bring Us.

38 Pike, “Biosocial Consequences,” 729–40; Pike and Williams, “Incorporating Psychosocial Health,” 729–40; Straight et al., “Suicide,” 21–30.

39 McCabe, Cattle Bring Us, 112.

40 Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–132; Galvin and Little, “Dietary Intake,” 125–46.

41 Gray, “A Memory of Loss,” 437–65; Little et al., “Infant,” 187–206; Sadler et al., “Milk Matters”; Sellen, “Polygyny,” 329–71; Sellen, “Weaning,” 233–44.

42 Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Animal Milk,” 66–76.

43 Baro and Duebel, “Persistent Hunger,” 521–38.

44 Roncoli et al., “The Costs and Risks,” 119–32.

45 Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Dietary Intakes,” 475–82.

46 Lind and Eriksen, “Impacts of Conflict,” 249–70.

47 Galvin et al., “Diet,” 113–32; Iannotti and Lesorogol, “Animal Milk,” 66–76; Sadler et al., “Milk Matters.”

48 Bollig and Österle, “We Turned our Enemies,” 23–51; Broch-Due, “Remembered Cattle,” 50–88; Gray, “A Memory of Loss,” 401–18; Pike et al., “Documenting,” 45–52.

49 Frankenberger, Managing Risks.

50 Little et al., “Infant,” 187–206; Straight, “Sense of War Songs,” 71–78.

51 Panter-Brick and Leckman, “Editorial Commentary,” 12.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by a National Science Foundation Collaborative Grant [BCS 0822915 Straight /0822951 Pike], with additional support from the NSF Office of Science and Engineering Education. Other sources of support include Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute (SBSRI) at the University of Arizona, and Western Michigan University's Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award, with a new award from the National Science Foundation [BCS 1430860/1430790] for continued work among teens.