Argumentation and Identity in Maasai and Mongolian Land Disputes

This dissertation explores the deliberative arguments stemming from protests by modern herding communities in Tanzania, Kenya, Mongolia, and China. In each case, I analyze four central argument frames – bounded land, movement-as-wandering, movement-as-otor, and disappearance – that have emerged as governments seek to settle and develop herding communities, and herders protest in support of their traditional lifestyles. The first case study, concerning the Maasai of Tanzania, investigates the ways Maasai communities confront and resist tourism at the borders of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro national parks. The second case study, addressing the Maasai of Kenya, examines the ways that Maasai communities are resisting land privatization near the Maasai Mara and how the associated controversy relates to the emergence of hate speech in modern Kenya. The third case study turns to Eurasia, concentrating on Mongolian herders and their interactions with the government’s conservation and mining programs. The fourth case study considers how Inner Mongolian herders have negotiated their relationship with the People’s Republic of China’s cultural and environmental policies to produce a diverse body of protest tactics. The argumentative dynamics in each case are elucidated through analysis of primary source material and published artifacts, supported by explanatory tools drawn from rhetorical theory. A concluding chapter connects common threads from the case studies to isolate implications for modern herding communities and generate fresh perspective on Deleuze and Guattari’s nomadology project.