mandara trll'f. They were not ashamed to admit Department of Anthropology (PhD dissertation). their shortage of food. On the contrary, they were Moore, S.F. 1991. Inflicting harm righteously: turn­ proud of the fact that they had so many good rela­ ing a relative into a stranger: an African case. In: tions to rely upon for assistance. MTh. FOgen (ed.),Fremde der Gesell.schaft. Frank­ 14. For an elaborate example sec 'Umbu Hapi versus furt am Main: Klostennann. {'-'-t) Umbu Vmccnt. Legal pluralism as an arsenal in Raatgever, R. 1988. De verwantschappelijke The Sahelian crisis and the poor viUage combats' (Vel 1991). .zg;. ekonomie: essays in hislorisch-malerialislische The role of Islam in social security 15. Sally Falk Moore draws attention to the fact that antropologie. Brugge: Walleyndruk. .3ot.te '!".I 2./hw.P... a person cannot be deviant in general, but that Taussig, MT. 1980. The devil and commodity fetish­ among Fulbe pastoralists, central Mali* 'deviant' always "presupposes some conception ism in South America. Chapel HiU: University of 3e./JQ~.tt~ of 'the nonnal' to which the deviant person docs North Carolina Press. 3 .sg./2. not confinn" (Moore 1991: 115). Vel, I.A.C. 1991. Umbu Hapi versus Umbu Vmccnt. · Legal pluralism as an arsenal in village combats. Mirjam de Bruijn In: F. von Benda-Beckmann and M. van der Velde (eds.), Law as a resource in agrarian struggles. References Wa~eningen: Agricultural University Wageningen (Wageningsc Sociologische Studies no.33). Vel, I.A.C., L.R. van Veldhuizen and B. Petch 1991. The question of how the poor in Africa survive 1990). The sole strategy mentioned for these peo­ Adeyoju, S.K. 1976. Land usc and land tenure in the Beyond the PTD-approach. In: Joining fanners' ex­ in situations of crisis and famine is important, ple is migration to towns, which is only possible tropics: where conventional concepts do not apply. periments. London: Intennediate Technology Publi­ given the multitude of disasters that plague the if they have relatives living there (Dahl 1979). Unasylva, 28: pp. 2641. cations. continent. They may rely on age-old survival But not all the poor migrate to urban areas. Many Benda-Beckmann, F. von, K. von Benda-Beckmann, Wouden, F. van 1977. Local groups and:double strategies and self-help mechanisms. However, stay within their village in their own society. Are E. Casii'io, F. Hir1z, G.R. Woodman and H.F. Zacher descent in Kodi, west-Sumba. In: P.E. de Iosselin under the har8h circumstances, other ways of they looked after, do they find ways to survive? (eds,), 1988. Introduction. In: ibid., Between kinship de Iong (ed.), Structural anthropology in the crisis management have been developed in the Poverty in pastoral societies is nothing new. and the state: social seCIIrity and law in developing Netherlands. The Hague: Martinus N"Jjhotr. countries. Dordrecht Foris Publications. recent past. These are based on new strategies Poor people have always been present, because Booth, A 1993. Counting the poor in Indonesia. Bul­ and different types of social relations. While there disaster looms over the pastoral enterprise (Ingold letin ofIndonesian Economic Studies, 29(1): pp. 53- have been some historical and geographical stud­ 1980: 80), striking individuals regardless oftheir 83. ies of disaster situations in Africa (Watts 1983, wealth. Historical records show that pastoral so­ Comer, L. 1989. East and West Nusa Tenggara: isola­ Mortimore 1989, De Waal1989, Spittler 1992), cieties have developed several mechanisms to tion and poverty. In: Hal HiU (ed.), Unity and diver­ thelong-tenn effects of recurrent droughts dur­ cope with their poor (lliffe 1987). The 1\vareg, . sity: regional economic development in Indonesia .since 1970. Oxford University Press. ing the past decades on society and especially nomadic pastoralists, integrated the poor into the 1 Dammennan, K. W. 1926. Soembancesche Dieren- en the poor have rarely been studied. This article social hierarchy of society (lliffe 1987: 85-7; Plantennamen. Tijdschriflvoor 1ndische Taal-, aims to bridge this gap in our knowledge to some Bemus 1990). The institUtion of cattle loans to Land- en Volkenkunde. Koninklijk Bataviaasch extent by. highlighting how poor members of the poor is widespread among other pastoral so­ genootschap van Kunstcn en Wetcnschappen, 66: pp. Fulbe society, a group of agro-pastoralists in the cieties (see van Dijk, this volume). These kind 205-39. Sahel, central Mali, are surviving after two dec­ of mechanisms may be labelled 'traditional' so­ Dove, M.R. 1988. Introduction: traditional culture and ades of environmental disasters. cial security arrangements as opposed to Soc:ial development in contemporary Indonesia. In: M.R. The socio-economic situation of (agro-)pasto­ security provided by the state (Midgley 1984). A Dove (ed.), The real and imagined role ofculture in ral people after the droughts in Africa has been ciear definition of what is understood by 'tradi­ development: case studies from Indonesia. Hono­ lulu. described extensively, but always from the per­ tional' social security does not exist (Von Benda­ Forth, GL. 1981. Rindi, an ethnographic study of a spective of the relatively rich members of soci­ Beckmann et al 1988a, Ahmad et ai 1991). For traditional domain in eastern Indonesia. ety, the people who recovered from the crisis, who the moment I will define social security mecha­ Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor had access to land, cattle and labour. These stud­ nisms and institutions as those social relations Taal-, Land- en Vo/kenlcunde, nr. 93. The Hague: ies, therefore, concentrate on 'ecological' adap­ and institutions in society, that provide its mem­ Martinus Nijhoff. tation and survival strategies in which mobility, bers with protection against extreme poverty and Hoflinan, CL. 1988. The 'wild Punan' ofBomeo. In: sedentarization, herd composition and cultiva­ starvation, a guaranteed minimum subsistence M.R. Dove (ed.), The real and imagined role ofcul­ tion are key words (Swift 1977, Dyson-Hudson level, as defined by society. Social security mecha­ ture in development: case studies from Indonesia. Honolulu. & Dyson-Hudson 1980, Salzman 1980). Little nisms are embedded in culture. They are based Kapita, Oe.H. 1976. Masyarakat Sumba dan adat insight is given into the situation of those who on social relationships, networks and institutions istiadatnya. Waingapu: Gunung Mulia. did not make it, the poor and deprived members that are defined through cultural means, such as Keane, E.W. 1990. The social life of representations: of society. These are often women (Horowitz & kinship, religion and norms of solidarity. These ritual speech and exchange in Anakalang (Sumba, Jowkar 1992), and people who lost all their cat­ relationships and institutions are often not de­ Eastern Indonesia). Chicago: University of Chicago, tle (Turton 1977, Hogg 1985, Baxter & Hogg fined explicitly, but they are part of a value sys- 46 Focaal no.22123, 1994: pp. 47-63 47 tem that is prevalent in society (Elwert 1980, VOn the course ofhistory this Fulbe society developed Fulbe society in the Hayre is no longer sufficient works become more important under the changed Benda-Beckmann et al 1988b, Platteau 1991). into the chiefdoms of Dalla and Boni, with a to sustain all its members, not even if all the circumstances. What role the Islamic institutions Social security in the wider sense should not political hierarchy consisting of a political elite wealth were to be redistributed. This becomes and networks played in the past is difficult to merely be seen in the transfer of goods and serv­ (Weheebe), an Islamic elite (Moodibaabe), a clear if we look at the enormous migration of assess. In the present situation, however, these ices, it also includes a 'mental', 'psychological' group of pastoralists (Ja/loube), a slave group people over the last decade and the material base institutions have become essential for the sur­ aspect. By this I mean the ideological explana­ (Riimaybe), and castes like traders (Jaawambe) of most families in the form of cattle and har­ vival of a number of people within the Jalloube tion ofthe situation in which people live, a frame­ and craftsmen (Nyeeybe). 3 Although each ofthese vests. A wealth-ranking exercise executed in community. This increasing significance mani­ work to direct their actions, to find motivation, social categories depends for its survival on a Serma with the help of a methodology developed fests itself: in the changing significance of the and a feeling of security. This can be found in form of agro-pastoralism, and the political hier­ by Grandin (1988) indicated that only 3% of the zakat institution, and of social relationships that the religious, kinship and solidarity idiom of so­ archy has lost many of its historical :functions, households could subsist on livestock alone, ac­ are based on Islam; in the potential of Islamic ciety. Social security defined in this way is a heu­ the relatious as defined in this hierarchy play an cording to the criteria developed by Dahl & Hjort knowledge and status based on this knowledge; ristic concept, a problem field rather than an important role in the ideas about each other, and (1976). Still the poor and disabled people sur­ and in its role as a source of mental well-being. ontological entity. in the relations between, and the behaviour of, vive. Before considering the role of Islam in social Apart from food aid there are hardly any for­ the members of the various social categories of On the level ofFulbe society the political hier­ security relations and institutions, I will frrst mal, that is state based, social security arrange­ society (see De Bruijn & Van Dijk 1993, 1994). archy had a social security function in the past, describe the specific Jalloube variant oflslam. ments for rural people, and a fortiori for pasto­ The Jalloube live during the rainy season (July­ when raiding neighbouring groups was an im­ ral people, in Africa (Von Braun 1991).