Skip to main content
Log in

Gender, ecology, and the science of survival: Stories and lessons from Kenya

  • Published:
Agriculture and Human Values Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Sustainable development and biodiversity initiatives increasingly include ethnoscience, yet the gendered nature of rural people's knowledge goes largely unrecognized. The paper notes the current resurgence of ethnoscience research and states the case for including gendered knowledge and skills, supported by a brief review of relevant cultural ecology and ecofeminist field studies. The author argues the case from the point of view of better, more complete science as well as from the ethical imperative to serve women's interests as the “daily managers of the living environment”. In the interests of both objectives the paper advocates an ethnoscience research approach based on empowerment of rural people, rather than simple extraction of their knowledge. The Kenyan case study of women's agroforestry work follows their response to the drought and famine of 1985 and chronicles the unfolding discovery of women's ecological, political, and social science as gendered survival skills. The case is re-counted as a story, in keeping with an explicit choice to learn through participation and to report through storytelling. The experience of rural women and researchers during the drought provides several lessons for both groups about their respective knowledge systems, their agroforestry work, and the relationship of both to local and national political economy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bebbington, Tony. 1990. “Farmer Knowledge, Institutional Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Strategies: A Case Study from the Eastern Slopes of the Peruvian Andes.”Bulletin of Latin American Research. 9 (2). Forthcoming.

  • Brokensha, David, D. M. Warren and O. Werner. (eds.) 1980.Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Development. University Press of America. Lanham, Maryland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromley, D. 1986. “The common property challenge.” InNational Academcy of Science Proceedings of the Conferences on Common Property Resource Management. National Academy Press.

  • Carney, Judith. 1988. “Struggles over land and crops in an irrigated rice scheme: The Gambia.” In J. Davison.Women and Land Tenure in Africa. Westview. Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, Robert. 1986. “Normal Professionalism, New Paradigms and Development.” IDS Discussion Paper 227. IDS Sussex.

  • Chavangi, N.A. 1984. “Cultural aspects of fuelwood procurement in Kakamega District, KWDP“Working Paper No. 4. Kenya Wood Fuel Development Project. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dankelman, Irene and Joan Davidson. 1988.Women and Environment in the Third World: Alliance for the Future. Earthscan Publications Ltd. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandez, Maria. 1988. “Technological domains of women in mixed farming systems of Andean peasant communities.” In S. Poats, M. Schmink and A. Spring. Eds.Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension. Westview Press. Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleuret, Ann. 1979. “Methods for evaluation of the role of fruits and wild greens in Shambaa diet: a case study.”Medical Anthropology. Spring, 1979.

  • Guha, Ramachandra. 1989. “Radical American environmentalism and wildemess preservation: a Third World critique.”Environmental Ethics. 11(1) 71–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht, Susanna and Alexander Cockburn. 1988.The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon. Verso. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins, Marilyn. 1983.Rural Women, Forest Outputs and Forestry Projects. F.A.O.Rome..

    Google Scholar 

  • Jain, Shobita. 1984. “Standing up for trees: Women's role in the Chipko movement.”Unasylva 36(146): 12–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiggins, Janice. 1986. “Problems of Understanding and Communication at the Interface of Knowledge Systems.” In S. Poats, M. Schmink, and A. Spring. Eds.Gender Issues in Farming Systems Research and Extension. Westview Press, Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jiggins, Janice. 1986. “Women and Seasonality: Coping with Crisis and Calamity.” In R. Longhurst Ed.Seasonality and Poverty. IDS Bulletin 17(3):9–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Douglas H. and D.M. Anderson. 1988.The Ecology of Survival: Case studies from Northesat African history. Westview Press, Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, G. 1982.Menpropose, women oppose the destruction of forests. Information Service on Science and Society-Related Issues. Centre for Science and Environment. Delhi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juma, Calestous. 1988.The Gene Hunters: Biotechnology and the Scramble for Seeds. Princeton University Press. Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juma, Calestous. 1989.Biological Diversity and Innovation: Conserving and Utilizing Genetic Resources in Kenya. African Centre for Technology Studies. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, Ynestra. 1989. “The ecology of feminism and the feminism of ecology.” In Judith Plant. Ed.Healing the Wounds. New Society Publishers. Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiriro, Amos and C. Juma. Eds. 1989.Gaining Ground: Institutional Innovations in Land use Management in Kenya. African Centre for Technology Studies. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matthai, Wangari. 1985. The Green Belt Movement. Wangari Matthai, P.O.Box 14832, Nairobi.

  • Mendes, C. 1989. Fight for the Forest:Chico Mendes in His Own Words. Latin America Bureau. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, Carolyn. 1980.The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. Harper and Row. San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, Carolyn. 1989.Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender and Science in New England. The University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyerhoff, Elizabeth. 1982.The Socio-economic and Ritual Roles of Pokot Women. Anthropology Ph.D. Thesis. Cambridge University.

  • Moore, Henrietta. 1988.Feminism and Anthropology. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, Henrietta. 1986.Space, Text and Gender: An Anthropological Study of the Marakwet of Kenya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, Henrietta, and Megan Vaughan. 1987. “Cutting down trees: women, nutrition and agricultural change in the Northern Province of Zambia, 1920–1986.”African Affairs 86(345):523–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mortimer, Michael. 1989.Adapting to Drought. Cambridge University. Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munyao, P. 1987. “The importance of gathered food and medicinal plant species in Kakuyuni and Kathama are as in Machakos.” Annex 1 in K.K. Wachira (ed.)Women's Use of Off-Farm and Boundary Lands: Agroforestry Potentials. Final Project Report. ICRAF. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, Yolanda and Robert Murphy. 1974.Women of the Forest. Columbia University Press. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, Norman. 1979.The Sinking Ark. Oxford. Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyerere, Julius. 1989. Testimony before World Commission on Environment and Development, October, 1986. Harare, Zimabawe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parkipuny, M.S. Ole. 1988. “The Ngorongoro Crater Issue: The Point of View of the Indigenous Maasai Community of Ngorongoro.” Paper presented to the International Congress on Nature Management and Sustainable Development. University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Dec. 6–9, 1988.

  • Posey, Daryl. 1985. “Indigenous management of tropical forest ecosystems: the case of the Kayapo Indians of the Brazilian Amazon.”Agrofor estry Systems 3(2):139–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redclift, Michael. 1987.Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions. Methuen and Co. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, Paul. 1985.Indigenous Agricultural Revolution: Ecology and Food Production in West Africa. Hutchinson: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, Paul. 1986.Coping with Hunger: Hazard and Experiment in an African Rice-Farming System. Allen and Unwin. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D. 1991. “Participatory research in agroforestry; Learning from experience and expanding our repetoire.”Agroforestry Systems: 9(1).

  • Rocheleau, D. 1989. “The gender division of work, resources and rewards in agroforestry systems.” In A.E. Kilewe, K.M. Kealey and K.K. Kebaara eds.Agroforestry Development in Kenya. ICRAF. Nairobi. pp. 228–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D. 1987. “A Land User Perspective for Agroforestry Research and Action.” In H. Gholz ed.Agroforestry: Realities, Possibilities and Potentials. Martinus Nijhoff. Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D. 1988. “Women, trees and tenure.” In L. Fortmann and J. Bruce eds.Whose Trees? Proprietary dimensions offorestry. Westview. Boulder. pp. 254–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D.E. 1985 “Criteria for re-appraisal and re-design: intra-household and between-household aspects of FSRE in three Kenyan agroforestry projects.” ICRAF Working Paper No. 37. ICRAF, Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D.E., K.K. Wachira, L. Malaret and B. Wanjohi, 1989. “Ethnoecological methods to complement local knowledge and farmer innov ations in agroforestry.” In A Pacey, R. Chambers and L. Thrupp eds.Farmer First. Intermediate Technology. London.

  • Rocheleau, D., P. Khasiala, M. Munyao, M. Mutiso, E. Opala, B. Wanjohi and A. Wanjuana. 1985.Women's use of off-farm lands: Implications for agroforestry research. Projectreport to the Ford Foundation. Mimeo. ICRAF. Nairobi.

  • Rocheleau, D. and A. Hoek. 1984. “The Application of Ecosystems and Landscape Analysis in Agroforestry Diagnosis and Design: A Case Study from Kathama Sublocation, Machakos District, Kenya.” Working Paper No. 11. ICRAF. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D. and L. Fortmann. 1988. “Women's spaces and women's places in rural food production systems: The spatial distribution of women's rights, responsibilities and activities.” Paper presented to the 7th World Congress of Rural Sociology. 25 June–1 July. Bologna, Italy.

  • Rocheleau, D., F. Weber, and A. Field-Juma. 1988.Agroforestry in Dryland Africa. ICRAF. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocheleau, D. and M. Jama. 1989.Annual Report of Farming Systems and Ethnoecology Research Project. Summary of interview with elders at Kathama. manuscript. IDS. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roe, Emery and Louise Fortmann. 1981. Season and Strategy:The changing or ganization of the rural water sector in Botswana. Rural Development Committee. Cornell University. Ithaca.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarukhan, Jose. 1985. “Ecological and social overviews of ethnobotanical research.”Economic Botany. 39:431–435.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmink, Marianne and Charles Wood. 1990. “Contested Frontiers in Amazonia.” Manuscript. Center for Latin American Studies. University of Florida. Gainesville.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiva, Vandana. 1988.Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Zed Press. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shostak, Marjorie. 1981.Nisa: The Life and Words of a!Kung Woman. Vintage Books. New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamp, Patricia. 1989.Technology, Gender and Power in Africa. International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Ottawa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Talle, Aude. 1988.Women at a Loss: Changes in Maasai Pastor alism and Their Effectson Gender Relations. University of Stockholm. Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toledo, Victor M. 1989. “The ecological rationality of peasant production.” In M. Altieri and S. Hecht Eds.Agroecology and Small Farm Development. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thrupp, L.A. 1989. “Legitimizing Local Knowledge: From Displacement to Empowerment for Third World People.”Agriculture and Human Values. 6(3): 13–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wachira, K.K. 1987.Women's use of off-farm and boundary lands: agroforestry potentials. Project report to the Ford Foundation. Mimeo. Nairobi. ICRAF. 137 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wamalwa, Betty Nafuna. 1989. “Indigenous knowledge and natural resources.” In Kiriro, Amos and C. Juma. Eds.Gaining Ground: Institutional Innovations in Land Use Management in Kenya. African Centre for Technology Studies. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wanjohi, B. 1987. Women's groups' gathered plants and their potentials in the Kathama area. Annex 1 in K.K. Wachira, (ed.) Women's Use of Off-Farm and Boundary Lands: Agroforestry Potentials. Final Project Report. ICRAF. Nairobi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, D.M. 1988. “Linking scientific and indigenous agricultural systems.” In J. Lin Compton Ed.The Transformation of International Agricultural Research and Development. Westview. Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, Michael. 1983.Silent Violence: Food Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. University of California Press. Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, Michael. 1988. “Struggles over land, struggles over meaining: some thoughts on naming, peasant resistance and the politics of place.” In R. Golledge, H. Coucelis and P. Gould Eds.A Ground for Common Search. Geographical Press. Santa Barbara.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Additional information

Dianne E. Rocheleau is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University in Worcester, MA. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Systems Ecology from the University of Florida. She teaches courses on social forestry, tropical ecology, political ecology, gender and development. Her research focuses on social and ecological dimensions of forestry and rural landscape change in East Africa and Central America. She conducted research on land use and watershed management in the Dominican Republic from 1979 to 1981, worked as a senior scientist at the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi from 1983 to 1986, and was a Forestry and Agricultural Program Officer for the Ford Foundation in Eastern and Southern Africa from 1986 to 1989.

Dr. Rocheleau is senior author ofAgroforestry in Dryland Africa and has authored several articles and book chapters on women, trees, tenure and land use. She serves on the advisory boards of the Land Tenure Center, the Wildlife and Human Needs Program of the World Wildlife Fund, andSociety and Natural Resources Journal. She is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NRC/BOSTID) review panel on International Forestry Research.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rocheleau, D.E. Gender, ecology, and the science of survival: Stories and lessons from Kenya. Agric Hum Values 8, 156–165 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01579669

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01579669

Keywords

Navigation