'Beautiful beasts' and brave warriors: the longevity of a Maasai stereotype

This chapter (in the fourth edition of a widely respected anthropological textbook) traces the production by imperial explorers and others of a stereotypical image of the Maasai people of Kenya, the continuities to the present day, and the uses to which this stereotype has been put

Les racines historiques des conflits sociopolitiques en pays maasai, Kenya

This book is in French only. Abstract not available

Moving the Maasai: A Colonial Misadventure

The history of the Maasai moves, land alienation and resistance in colonial British East Africa. In 1904, in order to make way for white settlers in what was to become Kenya, the Maasai were forcibly moved into two reserves, robbing them of the best part of their land in British East Africa. Using unique oral testimony and archival evidence, this book tells the true story behind the making of the 'White Highlands', and the repercussions of these events to the present day

Rough Time in Paradise: Claims, blames and memory making around some protected areas in Kenya

This is a shorter version of an article with the same title that was published previously in the sister journal Conservation and Society. It discusses forced human displacement from protected areas (game reserves and national parks) in Africa and India. The author argues for a more nuanced, interdisciplinary approach to the subject, which should also examine constructions of social memory

Alternative Rites of Passage in FGM/C Abandonment Campaigns in Africa: A research opportunity

Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) are a relatively recent invention, and a key element in female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) abandonment strategies organised by NGOs in some regions of Africa, particularly East Africa. They aim to replicate traditional initiation rituals for pubescent girls who are transitioning to womanhood, but without FGM/C. This paper briefly describes the genesis of ARP in Kenya since 1996, and discusses its significance as a hybridised cultural assemblage that forms part of new cultural and relational processes. It emphasises the importance of examining the deep context in which ARP takes place, including the traditional ritual that it aims to replace. The paper identifies lacunae in the literature, and potential lines of enquiry for future research. The Appendix includes summaries of a selection of the literature on ARP

Drunk and Disorganised: Relationships between Bar Characteristics and Customer Intoxication in European Drinking Environments

Preventing alcohol-related harm in drinking environments is a growing international priority. Factors relating to the physical, social and staffing environments in bars can contribute to increased alcohol consumption and harm. Understanding the relationships between such factors and intoxication in European drinking environments is critical to developing appropriate interventions. We undertook a quantitative observational study in 60 bars in four European cities, in The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the UK (n = 237 observational visits). Using a structured observational schedule, researchers recorded characteristics of the bar environment and rated customer intoxication levels. All physical bar characteristics showed associations with intoxication before interactions between them were controlled for. Hierarchical modelling found significant independent associations between intoxication and use of plastic glassware, promotion of non-alcoholic drinks (often energy drinks), permissive environments, poor washroom facilities, the presence of a dance floor, customer sexual activity/competitiveness and later observational time. Findings suggest that prevention efforts should focus on raising and enforcing managerial standards in bars. While harm reduction measures such as plastic glassware are often promoted for high risk bars, such measures are inadequate to address public health concerns and insufficient to demonstrate social responsibility

The brain's response to pleasant touch: an EEG investigation of tactile caressing

Somatosensation as a proximal sense can have a strong impact on our attitude toward physical objects and other human beings. However, relatively little is known about how hedonic valence of touch is processed at the cortical level. Here we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of affective tactile sensation during caressing of the right forearm with pleasant and unpleasant textile fabrics. We show dissociation between more physically driven differential brain responses to the different fabrics in early somatosensory cortex - the well-known mu-suppression (10-20 Hz) - and a beta-band response (25-30 Hz) in presumably higher-order somatosensory areas in the right hemisphere that correlated well with the subjective valence of tactile caressing. Importantly, when using single trial classification techniques, beta-power significantly distinguished between pleasant and unpleasant stimulation on a single trial basis with high accuracy. Our results therefore suggest a dissociation of the sensory and affective aspects of touch in the somatosensory system and may provide features that may be used for single trial decoding of affective mental states from simple electroencephalographic measurements

A CEP104-CSPP1 Complex Is Required for Formation of Primary Cilia Competent in Hedgehog Signaling

CEP104 is an evolutionarily conserved centrosomal and ciliary tip protein. CEP104 loss-of-function mutations are reported in patients with Joubert syndrome, but their function in the etiology of ciliopathies is poorly understood. Here, we show that cep104 silencing in zebrafish causes cilia-related manifestations: shortened cilia in Kupffer's vesicle, heart laterality, and cranial nerve development defects. We show that another Joubert syndrome-associated cilia tip protein, CSPP1, interacts with CEP104 at microtubules for the regulation of axoneme length. We demonstrate in human telomerase reverse transcriptase-immortalized retinal pigmented epithelium (hTERT-RPE1) cells that ciliary translocation of Smoothened in response to Hedgehog pathway stimulation is both CEP104 and CSPP1 dependent. However, CEP104 is not required for the ciliary recruitment of CSPP1, indicating that an intra-ciliary CEP104-CSPP1 complex controls axoneme length and Hedgehog signaling competence. Our in vivo and in vitro analyses of CEP104 define its interaction with CSPP1 as a requirement for the formation of Hedgehog signaling-competent cilia, defects that underlie Joubert syndrome

The beginning of time? Evidence for catastrophic drought in Baringo in the early nineteenth century

New developments in the collection of palaeo-data over the past two decades have transformed our understanding of climate and environmental history in eastern Africa. This article utilises instrumental and proxy evidence of historical lake-level fluctuations from Baringo and Bogoria, along with other Rift Valley lakes, to document the timing and magnitude of hydroclimate variability at decadal to century time scales since 1750. These data allow us to construct a record of past climate variation not only for the Baringo basin proper, but also across a sizable portion of central and northern Kenya. This record is then set alongside historical evidence, from oral histories gathered amongst the peoples of northern Kenya and the Rift Valley and from contemporary observations recorded by travellers through the region, to offer a reinterpretation of human activity and its relationship to environmental history in the nineteenth century. The results reveal strong evidence of a catastrophic drought in the early nineteenth century, the effects of which radically alters our historical understanding of the character of settlement, mobility and identity within the Baringo–Bogoria basin