Peter Little and John McPeak’s book explores an age-old question: why East African pastoralists are not major participants in international livestock trade despite having some of the world’s largest animal herds.  Their work shows that it often is economically and socially more rational for herders to sell only a small portion of their animals, keeping the others as insurance against drought and other catastrophes. 

Counter to "conventional wisdom," Little and McPeak show that pastoralists, such as the Maasai and Boran, are not resistant to trade; they just want to sell on their own terms without jeopardizing their livelihoods. The publication also uncovers the different legal and economic constraints that limit pastoralists’ participation in lucrative international markets.

Peter Little is a professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University, and his master’s and doctorate degrees from Indiana University. His scholastic passions include pastoralism; economic and ecological anthropology; development studies; social theory and organization; political economy; and East Africa and Horn of Africa.  In the past six years Little has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant and a Guggenheim fellowship.