essay

Subsistence, activity patterns, and physical work capacity

Turkana herders of the dry savanna : ecology and biobehavioral response of nomads to an uncertain environmentOxfordPublished In 1999 • Pages: 146-163

By: Curran, Linda S., Galvin, Kathleen A..

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This document discusses interrelationships between health, nutrition, activity patterns, and physical work capacity among Ngisonyoka Turkana pastoral nomads. It shows that the Turkana suffer from relatively inadequate nutrition and low body fat. Yet they accomplish the hard tasks of herding in a very difficult environment by responding on two levels. First, they use day-to-day behavioral strategies to minimize exposure to heat and dehydration. Second, they use long-term cultural mechanism, tied to relative age and physical capabilities, to manage and distribute nutritional and work-related stress. Some age and occupational groups expected to, and did, bear a greater share of the stress than others.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Diet
Pastoral activities
Division of labor by gender
Gender status
Nutrition
Labor and leisure
Descriptive somatology
Anthropometry
Disasters
Instigation of war
Preservation and storage of food
Functional and adaptational interpretations
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Turkana
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2010
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Biologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Teferi Abate Adem; 2009
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1984-1986
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1984-1999
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Turkana, Kenya
NotesAdditional notes
Linda S. Curran and Kathleen A. Galvin
For bibliographical references see document 24: Little and Leslie
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
99219983
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Turkana (African people)