Politics And Gastropolitics: Gender And The Power Of Food In Two African Pastoralist Societies

Male‐centred aspects of political behaviour have generally remained the explanatory and interpretive focuses in analyses of the social organization of African pastoralists. While recent work on African pastoralists has shed increasing light on the lives of women, I argue that key assumptions underlying anthropological models of male dominance in these societies have been insufficiently challenged. Drawing on recent approaches in gender and social organization that highlight the mutual constitution of domestic and political domains, I examine comparative material from two well‐known pastoralist societies: the Samburu of northern Kenya and the Nuer of southern Sudan. In doing so, I suggest strong linkages between male‐dominated ‘political spheres’ and areas of domestic life in which the role of women is more significant – particularly processes of domestic food distribution. In re‐examining central facets of Samburu politics – which are best known through Paul Spencer’s seminal analysis of the gerontocratic aspects of Samburu political life – I suggest that the status and identities of Samburu men are in fundamental ways defined through their relationship to women as providers of food within Samburu households. Comparative material from the Nuer suggests, additionally, the strategic use of food by women in influencing male ‘political spheres’. In comparing these cases, I suggest a more general model through which domestic processes of food allocation as realms of female‐centred social action may be seen to play a central role in the forms and processes of pastoral ‘political’ life.