Communication for "Negotiation" among the Turkana

Abstract

The Turkana, pastoralists in nortern Kenya, have a strong tendency to regard any social interactions as negotiable. In their negotiations, they cope with the difficulties of arriving at a mutual agreement by desperately clinging to the principle of sustaining a "cooperative present" while employing various tactics in an attempt to secure their own benefit. When participants in some communication take the attitude that they will focus on the "cooperative present, " they abandon any possibility of taking a negative option in the communication, such as pretending to be unconcerned or straightforwardly rejecting a demand. After initiating a negotiation, they cannot help but realize some form of apositive relationship sooner or later, although this framework doesn't decisively affect the consequence of negotiation, as is implied by the possibility that the negotiation might be prolonged indefinitely. They never intend to make agreement by depending on an outside srtandard of justice, but they attempt to establish a standard of justice guided by 'my' activeness and thus effectively produce a state representing 'my' justice inside the communication.