Reflection on Masai Culture

When I started researching the culture of the Masai I was looking for information on their food, homes, and conflicts.  While finding this information I found that they were not what I expected them to be.  They eat more meat then I expected, I thought that sense they were nomadic they wouldn’t but this turned out to be incorrect.  The women build the houses, which is different then what I have normally seen.  The conflicts the Masai are involved with are about cattle mostly or food and are with other tribes.  The Masai people do have different customs and ways of life but they are from a different part of the world and live in a different style of life as well, so this is all something that needs to be remembered when looking at people in areas other than our own.  

Masai Culture

The Masai culture is made of many different elements such as their homes, food, wars, education and language.  Their homes are called inkajijik and are made of sticks, mud, dung, and grass, which they can find locally because they are a nomadic people.  The homes are circular in shape and are designed and built by the women.  The completion of a Masai women’s first house is one of the most important moments in her life.  More than one family usually lives in one of the houses.  The homes have poor light and ventilation making them unhygienic for cooking.  The food of the Masai consists primarily of meat making them pastoralists.  Their diet helps to give them energy and bulk but it also brings them a heightened risk of cardiovascular diseases.  In an effort to keep a balanced diet they sometimes eat fruit and a daily consumption of gum and resin is important.  The Masai are a warrior people and become warriors after there circumcision.  The warrior is taught of cattle raiding, tactics for war and hunting strategies.  At one point the Masai warrior was the most powerful and disciplined fighting force in East Africa but now they are due to smallpox and famine.  Education for the Masai is only for the men and even then very few actually go to it.  This is because they believe that livestock is more important than an education and the women can’t get one because if they learn things then the women would want to leave the village.  The boys of school age also are the ones that useful for helping out at home.  Their language is similar to others such as the Samburu and Camus peoples.  It can be heard spoken from the southern tip of the Nile to Tanzania and west to the Congo.  The language has 25 consonants and 9 vowels to though they may be pronounced slightly different based on what region you are in.   

Masai Gender Issues

The Masai are a patriarchal society meaning that women are subservient to men.  The men are in three different groups the ilayiok, illmuran and the ilpayioni.  The ilayoik are the young uncircumcised boys they have a hard life that involves herding cattle and physical hardships that is to prepare them for the leap to manhood which includes their circumcision.  After that the boys become illmuran, which means warrior these men are responsible for protecting the villages, going on raids and being messengers for the elders.  They always travel in groups and everything is shared.  The next stage for the men is ilpayioni they are the junior elders once this happens the men can get married and start a family.  They put down their weapons for farm tools and go on to tend livestock and become the head of their households.  After junior elder they go on to be elders, senior elders and then venerable elders.  They get more and more power until they reach the venerable elder stage and then the power goes back to the young men or ilpayioni.  The women of the Masia are in two groups married and unmarried.  The unmarried women are called intoyie, which means that they are uncircumcised.  These girls are the girlfriends of the illmuran, which means that live in the warrior villages with them.  Once the girl is circumcised she is married to one of the village elders.  The practice of circumcision on women has been outlawed in many countries and is no longer used in the Masia culture now.  The women are responsible for teaching their daughters about life in the warrior villages.  The senior women have some say in the household and can sing songs about their feelings toward men.  The society is very male dominated, but does allow for some input by the women.  

Changes and Adaptation

The Masai have had to adjust as time passes and as the world continues to develop into the modern societies that you see around us today. Although, the world may be changing, the Masai have done their best to stay true to their culture and traditional practices. They used to be foragers but now have evolved and assumed the responsibility of caring for their own herds of cattle, sheep and goats. The Masai warriors protect the cattle from predators such as wild lions. These cattle are extremely important to the Masai because the tribe depend on the cattle for their food and daily living. The Masai travel throughout their territory in order to let the land grow after occupying it over time with their cattle. You can tell that through this evolvement, the Masai are becoming more of an urban society more so than their past foraging history. This tribe has also faced difficulties such as when their animals were dieing from a rampant spread of diseases. Not only were diseases going around but a massive drought occurred and lasted for years. This wiped out half of the Masai and their cattle. Immediately following these tragedies, over 60% of the Masai’s territory in Kenya was taken away by British and Kenyan governments for further development in the territory. Now that a vast majority of their land has been turn into a touristy spot, some Masai now have modern day jobs working as a tour guide or in the surrounding national parks. As time has passed on by, the area that the Masai inhabit has been offered job employment by government and also opportunities to hunt. These are some of the major changes and adjustments that the Masai tribe have to overcome in order keep up with todays modern development.

The Masai are known to always be wearing the color red. There are a few reasons for this being the color of the tribe. One reason is that lions supposedly fear that color. Another reason originates back when the Masai roamed the deserted lands and where there was little if any water. The Masai would smear iron oxide powder (which is red) on their bodies and faces to absorb sweat. The powder would also protect the Masai from the sun. Due to this powder and the sweating, eventually their clothing would become red as well. As typical clothing became available, they chose to keep red as their color. While women would typically maintain short or shaven heads, the warriors would have long red-died hair.

Health/Wellness

The Masai use medicinal plants; one such plant is o-rupanti,  pl.i-rupanti is the commiphora tree(Commiphora zimmermannii) and parts of it are used as medicine for children. The roots of the tree are utilized to treat a snake bite; the leaves are infused in water and the liquid form of it is drank for cases of fever. To relieve a toothache the leaf stalks are heated in fire; cooking the bark with mead is said to prevent indigestion. To relieve constipation, abdominal and/or stomach ache the bark is chewed and the juice swallowed. 

There are high figures for disease within the Masai, most Masai men will have two to four wives resulting in a large level of disease. While trading livestock of their animals in addition to that of neighbors and the community at large, large sums of cash is at hand which is used for bar girls and prostitutes in the townships. Sexually transmitted diseases are large in number in many areas with AIDs having affected the Masai at 20% - 30% in comparison to Kenya's national average of 06% to 12%.  In addition to AIDS/HIV+, Tuberculosis (TB)  incidents are high in numbers and mostly untreated. Though at times if treatment requires six months of regular drug therapy to complete recovery the lifestyle of the Masai and the matter of TB becoming resistant to the first generation drugs. Cancer and diabetes has been identified as causing death amount the Masai, previously this was not the case, a change in life styles, use of alcohol and roast meat (diet) has now made this an issue. 

A lot of ailments are cared for directly by medicinal plants within the Masai however there are hospitals and health care centers available as monies provided from the national park and reserves helped to make them available for the Masai. 

Kinship, Marriage, and Family

There is one large Masai society that is divided into two moieties. A moiety in anthropology means, either of two kinship groups based on individual descent that together make up a tribe or society. The two moieties are, "orok kiteng" and "oodo mongi." This way, the groups are organized within the community. Within these two groups, smaller families, or clans, are broken up by a patrilineal line of descent. The father plays an important role within the Masai household; he is the key figure in the patriarchal family, and, theoretically, his control is absolute subject only to interference by close senior elders in situations of crisis. As the head of the family, the father is also responsible for making all the decisions within the household. Until the age of seven, boys and girls are raised together. Children join their father's sub-clan while their mother is actually a part of her own family's separate sub-clan. However, mothers remain close to their children throughout life. Even though the family unit seems segmented by different sub-clans, Masai families are actually quite tightly knit. For example, members of the same clan often live close to one another and occupy neighboring households. The reason for the close relation between clans in the community is that every tribe and lineage is descended from a common tribal ancestor. As a result, each member of the community considers the other to be a distant relative. However, of all the familial ties in the Masai community, the nuclear family is considered the closest relationship. The Masai clans are exogamous, which means that they prefer to marry only individuals outside of their own clan. Masai warriors perform a jump around dance, which is part of how they find a mate. Whoever ends up being the highest jumper ends up getting the girls. The male elders then arrange marriages within the community based on a profitable exchange of cattle. This arrangement is actually done without consulting the bride or her mother. Many of the Masai marriages are polygamous, with then men having several wives. If a man has only one wife, the reason for this is always poverty. Every new wife is given a number of cattle as a type of exchange for the children that she will provide the husband. The Masai men also most often marry much younger women, as much as fifteen years younger. A woman should not remarry after the death of her husband. Therefore, being that the husbands are much older, they typically die before the wife dies; consequently, the deceased husband's extended family is viewed as a necessary tool in raising the children. As an example, the deceased husband's brother would build a new hut for the widowed wife and would become a type of surrogate father to the children responsible for their welfare as well as initiation and marriage arrangements. Each child belongs to an "age set" from birth. To control the evils of pride, jealousy, and selfishness, children must obey the rules governing relationships within the age set, between age sets, and between the sexes. Warriors, for example, must share a girlfriend with at least one of their age-group companions. All Masai of the same sex are considered equal within their age group. Many tensions exist between children and adults, elders and warriors, and men and women. The Masai control these with prohibitions. For example, a daughter must not be present while her father is eating. And, although the younger warriors may wish to dominate their communities, they must follow rules and respect their elders' advice.

Video:
Maasai tribe: The meaning of love & polygamy

Coming Into Adulthood

 
Men: At the age of 14 the Masai boys have to be circumcised in order to be apart of the warrior class or what’s also known as the world’s last great warrior culture. The Masai boys are guided and mentored by their father’s and elder’s throughout the entire time on how to become a warrior. During the circumcision if the young boy is to flinch, even the slightest bit, he will become a disgrace to his family and would be considered a coward. Becoming a warrior means the young adult can now settle down, start a family, acquire cattle and most importantly become a responsible elder. After the men are circumcised they will perform a dance that determines who his mate will be. How they determine who gets the girl is whoever jumps the highest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nY-EXKzaLqc 

Women:  At the age of 14, the girls also undergo an official circumcision ceremony known as Emorata. Growing up the girls are taught by their mothers and older women how to build houses, make beadwork, cook and clean their homes. When the young women turn 14 their parents will “book” a warrior to be their daughters husband.