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Turkana Children’s Contributions To Subsistence and Household Ecology in Kenya

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African Childhoods

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the findings of a research project conducted in 2006 and 2007 among Turkana, a pastoralist society in the arid and semiarid lands (ASALs) of northern Kenya. I focus on seminomadic Turkana of North Turkana District where diverse livelihood strategies are employed, seeking to identify how specific behaviors of children contribute to their well-being. For this research, well-being is measured using growth and nutritional status. Anthropological studies of children’s nutrition have focused on parents, for example, on parent’s feeding strategies (Gray 1998), or on malnutrition as the outcome of household food shortages (Sellen 2000). There is a growing realization that children’s own worldviews and actions may crucially shape individual nutritional status (Draper and Hames 2000) and health (Berman et al. 1994).

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Authors
  1. Tammy Y. Watkins
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Marisa O. Ensor

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© 2012 Marisa O. Ensor

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Watkins, T.Y. (2012). Turkana Children’s Contributions To Subsistence and Household Ecology in Kenya. In: Ensor, M.O. (eds) African Childhoods. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137024701_5

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