Elliot Fratkin, professor of anthropology at Smith College, will lecture on "East African Pastoralism Under Stress: Threats to Livestock, Land and Way of Life" on Friday, October 5 at 10:30 a.m. in 0115 Ramseyer Hall. A reception will be held in 4012 Smith Laboratory following Fratkin's lecture, which is presented by the Ohio State Department of Anthropology and the Center for African Studies.

In the last half century, many former nomads have settled in small towns or farms to take up other types of lives. Much of Fratkin’s work focuses on Ariaal pastoralists of northern Kenya. Ariaal are a cultural mix of two larger groups, cattle-keeping Samburu and camel-keeping Rendille, and are related to the larger cluster of Maasai peoples of East Africa.

Elliot Fratkin

Elliot Fratkin received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, his master's from the London School of Economics and Political Science and his PhD from the Catholic University of America, all in cultural anthropology. The central focus of Fratkin's current research is development and social change among the nomadic Ariaal pastoralists of northern Kenya; this research includes a three-year study examining the health and nutritional effects of settling on the Ariaal and Rendille peoples. Fratkin has held Fulbrights at the University of Asmara in Eritrea and Hawassa University in Ethiopia, and has served as a consultant on the World Bank Inspection Panel on the building of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline and the India Coal Sector Environmental and Social Migration Project. In addition to his faculty position at Smith College, he is a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, as well as editor of African Studies Review.