“The introductory chapter attempts to contribute to the ongoing effort to obliterate perhaps the two major hurdles in the progress in understanding the dynamics of human adaptation in East African drylands. These are the persistence of ‘crisis scenarios’ and the insistence on a ‘herder/farmer’ dichotomy when the
future of pastoralism is problematic in the context of a resource competition and conflict. Thus, the following section of the paper questions the methodological foundations of the ‘crisis scenarios’. The
section that follows examines the relationship between farming and herding and shows how it is far more complex to be captured in a simple ‘herder/farmer’ dichotomy. The final section provides some concluding remarks and their implications for future research and policy.”
