M Moritz
Biographic Data
| ID | 13815 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Moritz |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Moritz |
| SIGNATURE | MORITZ M |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0644-0069 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 224 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Can enhanced street lighting improve public safety at scale
Research Summary Street crimes are thought to be influenced by changes in ambient lighting; yet, most studies have focused on small‐scale interventions in limited areas. It remains unclear whether enhanced lighting can improve safety on a larger, jurisdiction‐wide scale. This study examined the first 10 months of Philadelphia's citywide rollout of enhanced street lighting. Between August 2023 and May 2024, 34,374 streetlights were upgraded across…
Crime-associated inequality in geographical access to education: Insights from the municipality of Rio de Janeiro
Transformations in livestock systems: Beyond Ranching and Pastoralism
Livestock systems across the world are transformed by capitalist forces. Understanding these social, economic, and cultural transformations is important because it has major implications for rural populations across the world. Traditionally, the study of livestock systems has been organized along the conceptual classification of ranching in North America and Australia and pastoralism in Africa and Asia, but this intellectual division has limited …
Methods Training for Practicing Anthropologists: The NSF Camp Approach
It is imperative for anthropology Ph.D. programs to equip students with essential research skills applicable to both academic and non-academic careers. Here we highlight the NSF Cultural Anthropology Methods Program (CAMP), a 3-week intensive training initiative aimed at enhancing students' preparedness as research professionals. The program integrates intensive methodological instruction with personalized mentorship to guide students in refining…
How Teaching Research Design Advances Applied Anthropology
Mastery of research design options offers a powerful tool in the Applied Anthropologist's toolkit. Because policy makers depend upon reliable evidence – and not just debates – applied anthropologists need to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses in data collection methods and designs to offer reasonable and strong approaches to problem solving. Future applied anthropologists may find themselves in situations where a variety of data collection …
Facilitating Exchanges Between Applied & Academic Anthropologists: Working Together on Methods Innovations
Coupled Demographic Dynamics of Herds and Households Constrain Livestock Population Growth in Pastoral Systems
Effective climate change adaptation means supporting community autonomy
Teaching Ethnographic Methods: The State of the Art
Ethnography is a core methodology in anthropology and other disciplines. Yet, there is currently no scholarly consensus on how to teach ethnographic methods—or even what methods belong in the ethnographic toolkit. We report on a systematic analysis of syllabi to gauge how ethnographic methods are taught in the United States. We analyze 107 methods syllabi from a nationally elicited sample of university faculty who teach ethnography. Systematic co…
Of platforms and pastoralists
Training wicked scientists for a world of wicked problems
Humanity faces a number of wicked problems, from global climate change and the coronavirus pandemic to systemic racism and widening economic inequality. Since such complex and dynamic problems are plagued by disagreement among stakeholders over their nature and cause, they are notoriously difficult to solve. This commentary argues that if humanity truly aspires to address the grand challenges of today and tomorrow, then graduate education must be…
Critical Transitions from Pastoralism to Ranching in Central Africa
The goal of this paper is to explain why and how increasing commoditization and incorporation in the market economy are only now leading to a critical transition from pastoralism to ranching in Central Africa. While there are similarities between pastoralism and capitalism-in both systems, entrepreneurs are strategically maximizing their "stock"-there are also differences. We argue that these differences can be understood as two distinct types of…
Comparative Study of Territoriality across Forager Societies
Contemporary Pastoralism in the Dhofar Mountains of Oman
In the Dhofar Mountains of Oman stakeholders are concerned about the social and ecological sustainability of pastoralism. In this study we used interviews with pastoralists to examine the prevailing drivers of pastoralism and how they are changing. We find that people are committed to pastoralism for sociocultural reasons but also that this commitment is under pressure because of husbandry costs and changing values. We find that capital investmen…
Pastoralist refugee crisis tests the resilience of open property regime in the Logone Floodplain, Cameroon
Comparative Study of Pastoral Property Regimes in Africa Offers No Support for Economic Defensibility Model
The economic defensibility model explains human territoriality by considering the costs and benefits of defending resources that vary in density and predictability. We conducted a comparative study of 30 pastoral societies in Africa to explain the variation in tenure systems using the economic defensibility model. In particular, we examined under what environmental conditions we find open property regimes versus common property regimes. In additi…
The interplay of top-down planning and adaptive self-organization in an African floodplain
Hunters’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards wildlife diseases in Ohio
This article used ethnographic methods to examine how Ohio hunters’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices affect risk exposure to infectious disease. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with hunters from Southeast Ohio, and an online survey was distributed to a random sample of licensed Ohio hunters. Data analyses indicated that Ohio hunters learn about wildlife disease through word-of-mouth, hunting publications, and online sources. They per…
Not Seeing the Cattle for the Elephants: The Implications of Discursive Linkages between Boko Haram and Wildlife Poaching in Waza National Park, Cameroon
The decline of wildlife in Central and West African border parks has been directly linked to Islamic terrorism in the region in media and government discourse. Using Waza National Park in the Far North Region of Cameroon as a case study, we show that wildlife declines in the park long preceded the appearance of Boko Haram, the extremist group best known for kidnapping over 200 girls in northern Nigeria. We also show that there is no evidence that…
"Co-producing research in the "Red Zone: Adaptation to fieldwork constraints with a transdisciplinary approach
Fieldwork rarely goes to plan. In geography, anthropology, earth sciences and other research activities that rely on field data, trade-offs are required between planning and execution. This article addresses the adaptation of research projects to changing fieldwork conditions. It is based on a case study of interdisciplinary and international "Coupled Human and Natural Systems" research situated in the Far North of Cameroon. The research project …
No Magic Number: An Examination of the Herd-Size Threshold in Pastoral Systems Using Agent-Based Modeling
Bingo
Misreading a pastoral property regime in the Logone floodplain, Cameroon
This is a response to an article by In this response, I argue that Haller et al.'s description of the pastoralists' management of common-pool grazing resources in the Logone floodplain of Cameroon is incorrect in a number of ways. I summarize the findings from our longitudinal and interdisciplinary study to show that current pastoralists' management of common-pool grazing resources in the floodplain is efficient, equitable, and sustainable. Speci…
Simulating the Transmission of Foot-And-Mouth Disease Among Mobile Herds in the Far North Region, Cameroon
Animal and human movements can impact the transmission of infectious diseases. Modeling such impacts presents a significant challenge to disease transmission models because these models o en assume a fully mixing population where individuals have an equal chance to contact each other. Whereas movements result in populations that can be best represented as a dynamic networks whose structure changes over time as individual movements result in chang…
Practicing International
Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Nancy Romero-Daza, David Himmelgreen, Alissa Ruth, Amber Wutich, Alexandra Brewis, Bonnie Taub, Reza Jarrahy, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jennifer L. Syvertsen, Andy Guise, Jessica Healy-Profitós, Barbara A. Piperata, Mark Moritz, Jiyoung L…
Mobile Pastoralists in the Logone Floodplain Distribute Themselves in an Ideal Free Distribution
We examined whether mobile pastoralists in the Logone floodplain of Cameroon distribute themselves according to the ideal free distribution (IFD), which predicts that the number of individuals in each area is proportional to the quality and quantity of resources in each area and that all individuals have access to the same amount of resources. We used the concept to assess the distribution of grazing pressure over available common-pool resources …
Open Access, Open Systems: Pastoral Management of Common-Pool Resources in the Chad Basin
Critical Transitions from Pastoralism to Ranching in Central Africa
The goal of this paper is to explain why and how increasing commoditization and incorporation in the market economy are only now leading to a critical transition from pastoralism to ranching in Central Africa. While there are similarities between pastoralism and capitalism-in both systems, entrepreneurs are strategically maximizing their "stock"-there are also differences. We argue that these differences can be understood as two distinct types of…
Open property regimes
In the literature on the commons, open access is considered the absence of a property regime and equated with a tragedy of the commons. However, a longitudinal study of mobile pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon shows that open access is not the absence of rules and does not lead to a tragedy of the commons. Current theoretical models cannot explain this phenomenon of management of common-pool grazing resources in a situation of open…
Meta-studies in land use science: Current coverage and prospects
Land use science has traditionally used case-study approaches for in-depth investigation of land use change processes and impacts. Meta-studies synthesize findings across case-study evidence to identify general patterns. In this paper, we provide a review of meta-studies in land use science. Various meta-studies have been conducted, which synthesize deforestation and agricultural land use change processes, while other important changes, such as u…
Livestock Transfers, Risk Management, and Human Careers in a West African Pastoral System
An Integrated Approach to Modeling Grazing Pressure in Pastoral Systems: The Case of the Logone Floodplain (Cameroon)
A Critical Examination of Honor Cultures and Herding Societies in Africa
African pastoralists have historically used aggression strategically to restock after major losses. On the basis of anthropological studies of African pastoral societies, cultural psychologists have linked the psychological roots of pastoral aggression to the cultural complex of honor. This article is a critical examination of this link. It argues, first, that honor cultures are likely to be found among peasant pastoralists, but not among tribal …
The Demise of the Nomadic Contract: Arrangements and Rangelands under Pressure in the Far North of Cameroon
Introduction The discussion concerning the access pastoralists have to rangelands in West Africa has focused primarily on their complementary relations with agricultural populations (Breusers et al. 1998; Driel 1999). Descriptions of these relations have emphasised the symbiosis in which both parties benefited, differentiating little between villagers and their chiefs. The last decade, however, has witnessed increasing competition over natural re…
Competing Paradigms in Pastoral Development? A Perspective from the Far North of Cameroon
Pastoral intensification in West Africa: Implications for Sustainability
African pastoral systems have been under pressure from steady population growth and an expansion of agriculture into grazing lands. This neo-Malthusian predicament has been considered the beginning of the end for African pastoralism. The article describes how peri-urban FulBe pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon have adapted to population pressures on grazing lands by pursuing a combination of extensive and intensive pastoral strategi…
Pastoralist Responses to Floodplain Rehabilitation in North Cameroon
The social context of herding contracts in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Droughts across Africa have led to a shift in livestock ownership from impoverished pastoralists to absentee owners who contract hired herders to manage their animals. The assumption has been that these contracts are exploitative and negatively affect herd and rangeland management. We conducted an ethnographic study of a mobile pastoral system in the Far North Region of Cameroon to examine whether herding contracts provide sustainable livelihoods…
Crop–livestock interactions in agricultural and pastoral systems in West Africa
Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts Across West Africa
(2006). Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts Across West Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 40, Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts across West Africa, pp. 1-40
Ethical predicaments: Advocating security for mobile pastoralists in weak states (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)
Some have argued that anthropologists have a moral responsibility to advocate on behalf of research subjects suffering from structural and other forms of violence. However, advocacy is not without its problems; action taken on behalf of one's research subjects may have adverse consequences for others. This is our current predicament. Violence and insecurity have always been major themes in our work with mobile pastoralists in the Far North Region…
Social Risk-Management Strategies in Pastoral Systems: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Pastoralists risk losing their livelihood overnight due to drought, disease, and other disasters. They employ different strategies to minimize these risks, including the following: Mobility, herd maximization, diversification, and social strategies. Social strategies are considered critical because they provide not only a safety net during disasters but also contribute to the resilience of pastoral societies by allowing pastoralists to rebuild he…
The Politics of Permanent Conflict: Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Northern Cameroon
(2006). The Politics of Permanent Conflict: Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Northern Cameroon. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 40, Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts across West Africa, pp. 101-126
Comparative Study of Pastoral Property Regimes in Africa Offers No Support for Economic Defensibility Model
The economic defensibility model explains human territoriality by considering the costs and benefits of defending resources that vary in density and predictability. We conducted a comparative study of 30 pastoral societies in Africa to explain the variation in tenure systems using the economic defensibility model. In particular, we examined under what environmental conditions we find open property regimes versus common property regimes. In additi…
Can One Animal Represent an Entire Herd? Modeling Pastoral Mobility Using GPS/GIS Technology
Misreading a pastoral property regime in the Logone floodplain, Cameroon
This is a response to an article by In this response, I argue that Haller et al.'s description of the pastoralists' management of common-pool grazing resources in the Logone floodplain of Cameroon is incorrect in a number of ways. I summarize the findings from our longitudinal and interdisciplinary study to show that current pastoralists' management of common-pool grazing resources in the floodplain is efficient, equitable, and sustainable. Speci…
Social-ecological feedbacks lead to unsustainable lock-in in an inland fishery
Herding Contracts and Pastoral Mobility in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Pastoralist refugee crisis tests the resilience of open property regime in the Logone Floodplain, Cameroon
"Co-producing research in the "Red Zone: Adaptation to fieldwork constraints with a transdisciplinary approach
Fieldwork rarely goes to plan. In geography, anthropology, earth sciences and other research activities that rely on field data, trade-offs are required between planning and execution. This article addresses the adaptation of research projects to changing fieldwork conditions. It is based on a case study of interdisciplinary and international "Coupled Human and Natural Systems" research situated in the Far North of Cameroon. The research project …
The Demise of the Nomadic Contract: Arrangements and Rangelands under Pressure in the Far North of Cameroon
Introduction The discussion concerning the access pastoralists have to rangelands in West Africa has focused primarily on their complementary relations with agricultural populations (Breusers et al. 1998; Driel 1999). Descriptions of these relations have emphasised the symbiosis in which both parties benefited, differentiating little between villagers and their chiefs. The last decade, however, has witnessed increasing competition over natural re…
Pastoralist Responses to Floodplain Rehabilitation in North Cameroon
The Politics of Permanent Conflict: Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Northern Cameroon
(2006). The Politics of Permanent Conflict: Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Northern Cameroon. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 40, Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts across West Africa, pp. 101-126
Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts Across West Africa
(2006). Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts Across West Africa. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines: Vol. 40, Changing Contexts and Dynamics of Farmer-Herder Conflicts across West Africa, pp. 1-40
Competing Paradigms in Pastoral Development? A Perspective from the Far North of Cameroon
Integrating Wikis in Anthropology Courses
A Critical Examination of Honor Cultures and Herding Societies in Africa
African pastoralists have historically used aggression strategically to restock after major losses. On the basis of anthropological studies of African pastoral societies, cultural psychologists have linked the psychological roots of pastoral aggression to the cultural complex of honor. This article is a critical examination of this link. It argues, first, that honor cultures are likely to be found among peasant pastoralists, but not among tribal …
Too Many People and Too Few Livestock in West Africa? An Evaluation of Sandford's Thesis
We examine whether Stephen Sandford's (2006b) 'too many people, too few livestock' thesis for the Greater Horn of Africa applies to West Africa. In a comparative study of seven pastoral systems across West Africa we found that pastoralists have generally successfully adapted to pressures on grazing resources. We describe three adaptive strategies: 1) integration and intensification in the Sudanian zone; 2) movement to the Sub-Humid zone; and 3) e…
Crop–livestock interactions in agricultural and pastoral systems in West Africa
Teaching Fieldwork Ethics through Instructor Experience
Understanding Herder-Farmer Conflicts in West Africa: Outline of a Processual Approach
While West African herders and farmers have long coexisted in symbiotic relationships that endure both peace and contentious engagements, reports of violent clashes between these two groups are becoming more frequent. It is urgent that we understand when, how, and why resource-related conflicts between herders and farmers escalate into widespread violence between whole communities. Until now, we have not been asking an important question: Why are…
An Integrated Approach to Modeling Grazing Pressure in Pastoral Systems: The Case of the Logone Floodplain (Cameroon)
Ethical predicaments: Advocating security for mobile pastoralists in weak states (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)
Some have argued that anthropologists have a moral responsibility to advocate on behalf of research subjects suffering from structural and other forms of violence. However, advocacy is not without its problems; action taken on behalf of one's research subjects may have adverse consequences for others. This is our current predicament. Violence and insecurity have always been major themes in our work with mobile pastoralists in the Far North Region…
Social Risk-Management Strategies in Pastoral Systems: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Pastoralists risk losing their livelihood overnight due to drought, disease, and other disasters. They employ different strategies to minimize these risks, including the following: Mobility, herd maximization, diversification, and social strategies. Social strategies are considered critical because they provide not only a safety net during disasters but also contribute to the resilience of pastoral societies by allowing pastoralists to rebuild he…
The social context of herding contracts in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Droughts across Africa have led to a shift in livestock ownership from impoverished pastoralists to absentee owners who contract hired herders to manage their animals. The assumption has been that these contracts are exploitative and negatively affect herd and rangeland management. We conducted an ethnographic study of a mobile pastoral system in the Far North Region of Cameroon to examine whether herding contracts provide sustainable livelihoods…
Pastoral intensification in West Africa: Implications for Sustainability
African pastoral systems have been under pressure from steady population growth and an expansion of agriculture into grazing lands. This neo-Malthusian predicament has been considered the beginning of the end for African pastoralism. The article describes how peri-urban FulBe pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon have adapted to population pressures on grazing lands by pursuing a combination of extensive and intensive pastoral strategi…
Can One Animal Represent an Entire Herd? Modeling Pastoral Mobility Using GPS/GIS Technology
On Not Knowing Zoonotic Diseases: Pastoralists' Ethnoveterinary Knowledge in the Far North Region of Cameroon
for the study of ethnoveterinary knowledge of mobile pastoralists in the Far North Region of Cameroon. Specifically, we ask two interrelated questions: (1) what is the nature of this knowledge, and (2) what is the best way to study it? We conducted a study of pastoralists' knowledge of human and animal infectious diseases to evaluate the claim that mobile pastoralists in the Chad Basin do not have a concept for zoonotic diseases. We used a combin…
Open Access, Open Systems: Pastoral Management of Common-Pool Resources in the Chad Basin
Livestock Transfers, Risk Management, and Human Careers in a West African Pastoral System
Muddying the Waters: A New Area of Concern for Drinking Water Contamination in Cameroon
In urban Maroua, Cameroon, improved drinking water sources are available to a large majority of the population, yet this water is frequently distributed through informal distribution systems and stored in home containers (canaries), leaving it vulnerable to contamination. We assessed where contamination occurs within the distribution system, determined potential sources of environmental contamination, and investigated potential pathogens. Gastroi…
Introduction: Conceptual, Methodological, Practical, and Ethical Challenges in Studying and Applying Indigenous Knowledge
Carothers, C., M. Moritz, and R. Zarger. 2014. Introduction: conceptual, methodological, practical, and ethical challenges in studying and applying indigenous knowledge. Ecology and Society 19(4): 43. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07212-190443
Mobile Pastoralists in the Logone Floodplain Distribute Themselves in an Ideal Free Distribution
We examined whether mobile pastoralists in the Logone floodplain of Cameroon distribute themselves according to the ideal free distribution (IFD), which predicts that the number of individuals in each area is proportional to the quality and quantity of resources in each area and that all individuals have access to the same amount of resources. We used the concept to assess the distribution of grazing pressure over available common-pool resources …
Herding Contracts and Pastoral Mobility in the Far North Region of Cameroon
Simulating the Transmission of Foot-And-Mouth Disease Among Mobile Herds in the Far North Region, Cameroon
Animal and human movements can impact the transmission of infectious diseases. Modeling such impacts presents a significant challenge to disease transmission models because these models o en assume a fully mixing population where individuals have an equal chance to contact each other. Whereas movements result in populations that can be best represented as a dynamic networks whose structure changes over time as individual movements result in chang…
Geography (38 works) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (31 works) · Pastoralism (24 works) · Livestock (23 works) · Ecology (21 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Animal Diversity and Health Studies (18 works) · Biology (18 works) · Political science (18 works) · Economics (17 works)