Missing "Links": Investigating the Age and Gender Dimensions of Development, Conservation, and Environmental Change in a Southern Zambian Frontier
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology Anthropology 2013 Missing "Links": Investigating the Age and Gender Dimensions of Development, Conservation, and Environmental Change in a Southern Zambian Frontier Allison Harnish University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Harnish, Allison, "Missing "Links": Investigating the Age and Gender Dimensions of Development, Conservation, and Environmental Change in a Southern Zambian Frontier" (2013). Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology. 8. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_etds/8 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Anthropology at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Allison Harnish, Student Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Major Professor Dr. Hsain Ilahiane, Director of Graduate Studies MISSING “LINKS”: INVESTIGATING THE AGE AND GENDER DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT, CONSERVATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN A SOUTHERN ZAMBIAN FRONTIER ___________________________________________ DISSERTATION ______________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Alliso n Harnish Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Lisa Cliggett, Professor of Anthropology Lexington, Kentucky 2013 Copyright © Allison Harnish 2013 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION MISSING “LINKS”: INVESTIGATING THE AGE AND GENDER DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT, CONSERVATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN A SOUTHERN ZAMBIAN FRONTIER This dissertation focuses on the lived, material realities of rural women, men, girls, and boys struggling to make a living in the context of changing national development priorities and changing environmental conditions in Southern Province, Zambia. Over the last 20 years, Gwembe Tonga migrants living in the frontier farming area of Kulaale have witnessed significant declines in non-cultivated “bush” resources due to the conversion of forest and grassland to agricultural uses. This dissertation seeks to understand how women, men, boys, and girls differe ntly experience these declines according to local gender- and age-based divisions of subsistence labor. Drawing on a variety of theoretical lenses—including Feminist Geography, Feminist Politica l Ecology, African Feminisms, the Anthropology of Childhood, and the Anthropology of the State— and utilizing a unique blend of qualitative/ethnographic and quantitative/geospatial research methods, this study finds that the “extractive workloads” (the average annual distance traveled for the collection of key bush resources) associated with women, men, girls, and boys are both unequal and contrary to recent speculations about the distinctive vulnerability of adult women to environmental change. The unequal labor burdens associated with the extraction of bush resources in this changing frontier landscape are but one of several missing “links” that this dissertation identifies within current theorizing about the gendered dimensions of environmental change. Other “links ” include the social organization and religious life of Gwembe Tonga migrants, the demographic structure of Kulaale homesteads (their organization on the landscape and their demographic composition), the interplay between agency and vulnerability in children’s daily lives, and the role of the state in shaping Kulaale residents’ perceptions of and interactions with the surrounding environment. This story of Gwembe Tonga migrants’ gendered and aged experiences of environmental change unfolds in the context of competing national economic strategies— frontier development wildlife conservation. This dissertatio n concludes that women, men, girls, and boys are all physically and economically vulnerable to the changes associated with frontier development, conservation policy, and environmental change, with social, political, and economic factors prompting them to experience vulnerability in aged and gendered ways. KEYWORDS: Gender, Labor, International Development, Wildlife Conservation, Land-Use/Land-Cover Change MISSING “LINKS”: INVESTIGATING THE AGE AND GENDER DIMENSIONS OF DEVELOPMENT, CONSERVATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN A SOUTHERN ZAMBIAN FRONTIER By Alliso n Harnish _____Dr. Lisa Cliggett_____ Director of Dissertation _____Dr. Hsaine Ilahiane___ Director of Graduate Studies ______ July 22, 2013______ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am especially grateful for the skilled and unwearied guidance of Professor Lisa Cliggett. Were it not for Dr. Cliggett’s generous invitation into the overarching research project, her emotional and tactical support, or her comments and constructive criticism, neither this dissertation nor the research from which it emerges could have been possible. I am also indebted to Dr. Deborah Crooks and Dr. Mary Anglin for the tremendous support they have shown throughout the many stages of my graduate career. From courses, to research assistantships, to job applications, Dr. Cliggett, Dr. Crooks, and Dr. Anglin have all nurtured my growth as a student, a scholar, and a teacher; I am lucky to have them as mentors and committee members. Dr. Morgan Robertson and Dr. Srimati Basu challenged me to consider the ways in which political ecology and feminist theory inform my research and the discipline of anthropology. I am thankful to have Dr. Robertson as a committee member and Dr. Basu as an external reader. I would like to express my immense gratitude to the people who so willingly particpated in and gave direction to my research, who housed me, hung out with me, and became my friends for the duration: Twalumba Kapati Admite, Alli, Angela, Beforetime, Brandina, Bridgette, Bruce, Christabell, Chriswell, Circle, Classic, Collins, Dalton, Debbie, Deze, Double, Ethel, Favorite, Formula, Future, Gift, Harriet, Idah, Irene, Jill, Judah, Junior, Kisten, Kisteria, Linette, Lisa, Luckwell, Luckson, Method, Nurse, Oscar, Oswell, Passwell, Phinias, Purity, Redith, Rybert, Sampson, Sheila, Staincorn, Stanford, iii Starncorn, Starnwell, Stanley, Stella, Valerie, Victor, Vienna, Wheaton, Wesley, the Kizito Pastoral Center, the Presentation Sisters of Monze, and the University of Zambia. I would like to acknowledge Alex Brooks and Tula Bonana for their patient support. Thanks, also, to Shannon Bell, Phil Berger, Tim Brock, Jordan Caddick, Costa Cheepa, Chilufya Chilangwa, Boni Chipembere, Immaculate Choongo, Elizabeth Colson, Drew Combs, Marybeth Chrostowsky, Matt Davidson, Alison Davidia n, Vicki Dekle, Mike Ferris, Anastazya Hanyinda, Ana Hasemann, Juli Hazelwood, Sarah Head, Andrew Hedrick, Travis Hedwig, Mark Hemsworth, Marja Hinfelaar, Hsain Ilahiane, Cindy Isenhour, Dick Jefferies, Jordan Kaddick, Diane King, Arthur Kong, Thankian Kusanthan, Rich Marsden, Ring Mulongo, Dustin McBride, Juliana McDonald, Patti Meyer, Phil Mink, Kristen Monroe, Maria Moreno, Florence Moyo, Kyle Mullen, Lastone Simweemba, Mr. Moyo, Mr. Munsaka, Obert Mwandu, Ilse Mwanza, Yvonne Ndaba, Lizz New, Chris Pappas, Rachel Peletz, Megan Poulette, Thea Savory, Heather Sawyer, Aeleka Schortman, Erin Sears, Tyler Smith, Nick Sitko, Vaughan Spethman, Monica Stephens, Karen Rignall, Ashley Rondini, Rick Wagner, Michelle Wallon, Colin West, and Dominique Zephyr. Most of all, thanks to Juanita, Bruce, Linda, and Miranda. Alex, Stacy, and Gus. Marya and Christie. Debbie and Joe and Ruby. Kelly and Trevor, Jamie and Jake. Jason, Shannon, Hannah, and Eva. Dennis, Elaine, Erica, and Theresa. Deb and Tom. Glen and Linda. Anita. And the rest of the Harnish and Jonas families. iv This project was supported by the Fulbright Program, The National Science Foundation, and by the Graduate School, the President’s Office, and the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................