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Accepted Paper:

Animal health and violent conflict: the intersection of veterinary medicine and socio-political dynamics in Greater Upper Nile (South Sudan)  
Naomi Pendle (University of Bath) Maximilian Baumann (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

Paper short abstract:

This paper, based on veterinary and ethnographic field research in 2015, looks at how animal healthcare practice across species lines has been renegotiated in a context of violent conflict, and how socio-political dynamics of the conflict have been impacted in South Sudan since December 2013.

Paper long abstract:

In the South Sudanese setting, animal health is interconnected with physical survival, but also with socio-political relationships and power. A plurality of actors have been involved in animal healthcare at all public and private levels. Over time, they have renegotiated models of animal health and healthcare delivery. Governments and international donors have also used the provision of 'successful' animal health care to build relationships and assert authority. Their prioritization of the health of certain species has had socio-political implications. Anthropologists have long noted the importance of cattle for authority, and cattle health has been prioritized. However, recently, the poorest South Sudanese have used other species creatively to renegotiate their poverty and authority. For example, poor women use the growing demand for eggs to redound to family income and increase their decision-making powers.

Since December 2013, South Sudanese have again been confronted with civil war impacting animal usage and health, and resulting in new forms of poverty. Yet, South Sudanese are still innovatively using animals to construct food security, build peace and reclaim mastery over their own lives. Thus, animal health care is again shifting and new models of delivery are being developed and practiced. This paper will further look at conceptions of animal health and species' social value focusing on international development donors and South Sudanese perceptions of species, and how this is impacting the lived negotiations of power in this context of conflict.

The paper is based on field research by eleven anthropologists and veterinary researchers in 2015.

Panel P42
Anthropologies of veterinary medicine: healthcare across species lines
  Session 1