Domestic production and regional markets in northern Kenya

Bibliographic Data

ID2465958
AuthorsP D Little (0000-0002-0713-4541, Binghamton University, corresponding author)
Year1987
Volume14
Issue2
Pages295-308
Publication date1987-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1987.14.2.02a00070
OpenAlexW2158136710
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited24

This article examines domestic production/regional market linkages in the Il Chamus (Njemps) area of Baringo District, Kenya. The analysis supplements the spatial/market bias of regional analysis with a greater focus on production, addressing linkages at the homestead, neighborhood, and regional levels. The study argues that the dendritic structure of Baringo's market, which can be traced to the colonial period, inhibits strong linkages between production and marketing. Data are presented from two neighborhoods, Kailerr and Meisori, showing that the critical variable-access to labor-in the local economy is not explained by market relations, and that to understand it by relying on regional analysis is difficult. Because the dendritic market structure so poorly integrates local production, social and historical variables prove to be better indicators of local market response than are economic factors. The article concludes that regional analysis is more suitable as a framework for measuring the discrepancies of particular cases than as a predictive theory of social and economic change. [regional analysis, markets, organization of production, state, East Africa

Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Geography · Production (economics · State (computer science · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Land Rights and Reforms

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