Smith College Department of Anthropology

Elliot Fratkin received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania , M.Phil. from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and PhD in Anthropology from the Catholic University of America (1987). His research concentrates on society, health, and social change among East African pastoralists including the Ariaal, Rendille, Samburu, and Maasai of Kenya. In 2002 and 2003, Mr. Fratkin worked with the World Bank Inspection Panel investigating complaints about the building of the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline. In 2003, Mr. Fratkin was a Fulbright Scholar teaching at the University of Asmara, Eritrea.

Mr. Fratkin's publications include the books As Pastoralists Settle: Social, Demographic, and Health Consequences in Northern Kenya (with Eric A. Roth, Kluwer Plenum Publishers, 2004), Ariaal Pastoralists of Northern Kenya (2004, second edition, Allyn and Bacon Publishers), and the co-edited volume African Pastoralist Systems (1994, Lynne Rienner Publishers). Mr. Fratkin has also co-authored the textbook Cultural Anthropology with Daniel G. Bates, (2003, third edition, Allyn and Bacon Publishers). His journal and chapter publications include "Stability and Resilience in East African Pastoralism" ( Human Ecology , 1986), "Two Lives for the Ariaal Rendille" ( Natural History , 1989), "The Loibon as Sorcerer: A Samburu Loibon among the Ariaal Rendille" ( Africa , 1991), "Maa Speakers of the Northern Desert" (in Thomas Spear and Richard Waller, eds. Being Maasai , 1993, James Curry Publishers), "Drought and Development in Marsabit District, Kenya" ( Disasters , 1992), "Herbal Medicine and Traditional Healing among Samburu (Maasai) Pastoralists of Kenya" ( Journal of Ethnobiology , 1996), "When Nomads Settle: The Effects of Commoditization, Nutritional Change, and Formal Education Among Ariaal Rendille Pastoralists of Kenya ," ( Current Anthropology , 1999), and "East African Pastoralism in Transition: Maasai, Boran, and Rendille Cases" (African Studies Review, 2001).

Mr. Fratkin teaches ANT 230 Africa: Environment and Population Issues, ANT 241 The Anthropology of Development, and ANT 236 Economy, Ecology, and Society.

Mongolia with Smith alumna and NGO director Alicia Campi Northern Kenya Participant Observation