IN DEN SAND GESCHRIEBEN: Spuren, Brände und das Suchen von Kamelen bei den Teda (Niger)

When a Tubu Teda is searching for a camel, knowledge about its tracks and the animal’s behavior, which might tell him something about its location, are not sufficient on their own. This is because, as soon as a camel moves away from pastures close to the camp, it may enter remote spaces, the meaning of which a Teda who is searching for it has to know in order not to get lost there. These spaces are often characterized by the tracks of different wild animals, and knowledge about these tracks allows conclusions regarding the space itself. However, even this knowledge can be insufficient to find a camel. Beyond the interpretation of tracks, the ‘social search’ comes now into action, that is, the person searching asks others about his camel – anyone who might have seen it will certainly remember its brands. Yet recognizing and remembering brands means much more than clarifying property rights to animals. Among the highly mobile Teda nomads, brands become a kind of mobile marker allowing one who is searching or travelling to localize oneself socially and thus find his way.