IJRSS Volume 4, Issue 1 ISSN: 2249-2496 _________________________________________________________ A Quarterly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International e-Journal - Included in the International Serial Directories Indexed & Listed at: Ulrich's Periodicals Directory ©, U.S.A., Open J-Gage, India as well as in Cabell’s Directories of Publishing Opportunities, U.S.A. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences http://www.ijmra.us 132 February 2014 MisMatch between state’s and coMMunity’s boundaries and implications on pastoralism in Tanzania Mahonge, C.P.I. * Sangeda, A.Z. ** Mtengeti, E.J.** Abstract We present the case of mismatch in boundaries of the state and those of the local communities, and analyze its implication on pastoralism in Tanzania. We use the Maasai pastoralists as the case study. These social players are recognised as gurus of the mobile livelihood style in keeping with relative resource abundance across the spaces of time and place. As such, their boundaries are not fixed but instead dynamic, flexible and oftentimes unpredictable. In other words, these boundaries can be termed as resource-driven limits. On the contrast, the state’s boundaries are spatially static and based on the geopolitical logic. A mismatch unveils when the state’s politically-driven rationality enforces discontinuance of pastoralists’ resource-based boundaries without prior in-depth investment to comprehend the logics behind the latter boundaries and avail alternative mechanisms of meeting the rationales driving sustenance of the resource-based boundaries. We argue that unless logic of resource-based boundaries valid in pastoralism in Tanzania are clearly comprehended and acted upon, renunciation of these boundaries will hardly become feasible. Keywords: pastoralism, resource-based boundaries, political-driven boundaries, mismatch, Tanzania * Sokoine University of Agriculture, Centre for Sustainable Rural Development, Morogoro, Tanzania ** Sokoine University of Agriculture, Department of Animal Science and Production, Morogoro, Tanzania