ABSTRACT
Cattle production is an essential livelihood strategy in south-western Burkina Faso. Although having a distinct cultural role and known to be resistant against African animal trypanosomosis, the Lobi taurine cattle breed is endangered due to its low market value. As the first step in preservation efforts, our study aimed to develop a typology of production systems at the farm level. We used a structured questionnaire and focus group discussions for collecting data on household characteristics, socioeconomic activities, livestock, and access to services. The sample comprised 169 households in three communities. The analytical strategy included factor analysis of mixed data and hierarchical clustering. We identified four distinct types of cattle production systems: (1) sedentary Lobi farms, (2) sedentary crossbreed farms, (3) semi-transhumant Fulani zebu farms, and (4) transhumant Fulani zebu farms. Significant factors in developing this typology were the farmers' ethnic group, crop diversity, cattle herd size, cattle herd composition, number of small ruminants, and livestock management strategies. Across all production systems, men were considered being primary decision-makers in cattle production, with women, herders, and children being responsible for specific tasks. All identified production systems are increasingly confronting disease pressure and scarcity of water and land. Future efforts in preservation and breeding will need to respond to these trends in the agroecosystem, integrate risk management measures, and resonate with the specific needs of the different household members involved in cattle rearing.
Subject(s)
Animal Husbandry , Breeding , Farmers , Livestock , Animals , Burkina Faso , Cattle , Family Characteristics , Farms , Female , Focus Groups , Humans , Male , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This article focuses on some representations of the origin of AIDS and Ebola in Burkina Faso, against a new background of Covid-19 which began in early 2020 in connection with two animals: the spider and the bat. These are also, if not first and foremost, heroes of oral literature (from tales to myths) from this region of West Africa. It is up to anthropologists to explore the meandering symbolism and imagination of these liminal animals that move back and forth between the worlds inhabited by humans and the "bush" worlds of non-humans. Here arises a mythological anamnesis. These "trickster" animals challenge categories and understanding of both virologists and anthropologists.
Cet article porte sur quelques représentations de l'origine du sida et d'Ebola en pays lobi burkinabè, avec la Covid-19 en nouvel arrière-plan depuis le début de l'année 2020, en lien avec deux animaux : l'araignée et la chauve-souris. Ce sont aussi, voire d'abord, des héros de la littérature orale (des contes aux mythes) de cette région d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Des anthropologues ont exploré les méandres des symboliques et des imaginaires de ces animaux liminaires qui vont et viennent entre les mondes habités par les humains et les univers de « brousse ¼ des non-humains. Une anamnèse mythologique est mise à jour. Ces animaux rusés se jouent de nos catégories et de notre entendement, virologues et anthropologues ici confondus.
Subject(s)
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome , COVID-19 , Chiroptera/virology , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola , Spiders/virology , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/epidemiology , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/history , Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/transmission , Africa, Western/epidemiology , Animals , Burkina Faso/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/history , COVID-19/transmission , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases, Emerging/history , Congresses as Topic , Disease Vectors , Epidemics , HIV/physiology , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola/epidemiology , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola/history , Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola/transmission , History, 21st Century , Host-Pathogen Interactions/physiology , Humans , Museums , SARS-CoV-2/physiologyABSTRACT
Os Lobi, uma etnia de Burkina Faso caracterizada por uma estrutura social estável e bem desenvolvida, tem como principal manifestação religiosa e estética a criação de uma estatuária extremamente expressiva, pois incorporaria os espíritos dos seus ancestrais e a própria memória histórica de seu povo. A rara estátua dupla analisada recorre a uma forma de expressão comum a muitas culturas do passado, a fusão de diferentes personagens, mas aqui alcança níveis de intensidade na expressão e na tensão psíquica raramente observados nas artes de culturas primordiais.
The Lobi, an etnie of Burkina Faso characterized by a stable and well developed social structure has as its main religious and esthetic manifestation the creation an extremely expressive statuary once that it incorporates the spirits of their ancestrals and the historical memory of their own people. A rare double statue, analyzed here, resorts to a form of expression common to many past cultures, the fusion of different personages, but which, however, reaches here levels of intensity in expressivity and psiquic tension rarely observed in the arts of primordial cultures.
Subject(s)
Humans , ArtABSTRACT
Os Lobi, uma etnia de Burkina Faso caracterizada por uma estrutura social estável e bem desenvolvida, tem como principal manifestação religiosa e estética a criação de uma estatuária extremamente expressiva, pois incorporaria os espíritos dos seus ancestrais e a própria memória histórica de seu povo. A rara estátua dupla analisada recorre a uma forma de expressão comum a muitas culturas do passado, a fusão de diferentes personagens, mas aqui alcança níveis de intensidade na expressão e na tensão psíquica raramente observados nas artes de culturas primordiais.(AU)
The Lobi, an etnie of Burkina Faso characterized by a stable and well developed social structure has as its main religious and esthetic manifestation the creation an extremely expressive statuary once that it incorporates the spirits of their ancestrals and the historical memory of their own people. A rare double statue, analyzed here, resorts to a form of expression common to many past cultures, the fusion of different personages, but which, however, reaches here levels of intensity in expressivity and psiquic tension rarely observed in the arts of primordial cultures.(AU)
