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“Milk Has Gone”: Dietary Change and Human Adaptability in Karamoja, Uganda
Author(s) -
Gray Sandra,
Sundal Mary B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/aman.12949
Subject(s) - pastoralism , livelihood , adaptability , psychological resilience , geography , famine , agriculture , socioeconomics , population , livestock , biology , environmental health , medicine , economics , ecology , psychology , archaeology , forestry , psychotherapist
This article examines changes in dietary strategies among Karimojong agropastoralists in northeast Uganda. We recorded food selection, procurement, processing, and consumption in twenty‐eight female‐headed Karimojong households during a four‐month period in 2004. Plant foods comprised the bulk of the diet, whereas less than 12 percent of dietary intake came from the herds. Milk contributed no more than 5 percent of total dietary energy. These findings present a striking contrast with ethnographic reports of the Karimojong and related Turkana pastoralists in the mid‐ to late twentieth century. We argue that dietary change, particularly the lack of milk and butterfat in most households, is symptomatic of a weakened pastoralist sector—a consequence of the convergence of multiple external and internal stressors. We conclude that the disruption of the pastoralist system, the lack of sustainable alternatives, and the growing dependency on agriculture have set the Karimojong on a trajectory toward permanent impoverishment, compromising human adaptability and population resilience. [ African pastoralists, livelihood change, dietary strategies ]