2012 AAA photo contest

My photo “Striking a Herder’s Pose” was selected by AAA members as the top photo in the People Category in the 2012 AAA Photo Contest. Photo caption: We have been studying pastoral mobility in the Far North Region of Cameroon at different spatiotemporal scales using spatial and ethnographic analyses. We have followed herders on daily herd movements from 6AM to 6PM during which herders are continuously on their feet. They rest their body by striking one of few characteristic herder poses in which they lean their body on their herding stick. The poses are an excellent example of embodied culture; they easily distinguish herders from farmers. Here a FulBe herder demonstrates one of these characteristic poses in his best clothes before leaving for wedding festivities in another camp.