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East Africa
From the Ethiopian Highlands to the endless plains of the Serengeti, East Africa beats to the rhythm of trekking herds. In these pastoral and agro-pastoral lands, livestock is far more than a resource: it is the blood, the currency, and the very soul of the community. Here, matrimonial structures are inseparable from the herd. Polygamy is a vital economic strategy—a complex art of managing livestock capital. Multiplying one’s wives means multiplying the hands available to milk, guard, and disperse the animals, thus securing the lineage’s survival against the threat of drought.
In this region, every new marriage alliance is a pact sealed by the gift of cattle (the bride price), constantly redrawing the networks of influence between clans. The plurality of households shapes the architecture of the Manyattas (temporary circular villages) and structures social organization around the collective management of water and grazing lands. Explore how East Africa reinvents this millennia-old bond between man, woman, and beast in the face of pressures from sedentarization, climate change, and the market economy.