Society-MASAI

The Outline of World Cultures defines the Masai cultural unit as follows:
"Specific data on the Masai (Maasai), plus the related Kwafi (with
the Arusha and Humba) and Sambura or Burkeneji (with the Elburgu,
Elmolo, Laikipiak, Mogogodo, and Njamus)" (Murdock 1975: 56). There
is a basic division between agriculturalists (most of whom seem to
live in Tanzania) and pastoralists. The pastoralists are the Masai
proper, and most research has been conducted among them. The agriculturalists
are variously referred to as Kwafi, 'L-Oikop, and/or Il-Lumba. The
other named groups in the OWC definition are subgroups of the Masai
proper or of the Kwafi at varying levels of the territorial hierarchy.
It should be noted, however, that the Arusha form a distinct although
related group. They constitute a sedentary agricultural community
founded about 1830 by a few small groups of Masai-speaking people.
As this community prospered and began to increase in size, it was
gradually augmented by new immigrants from other ethnic groups--first
from the Meru, and later from the Chagga (Gulliver 1969: 224-34).

A good, brief synthesis of Masai social organization and cultural
trends is presented by Gulliver (1969: 234-41), who stresses the point
that the Masai are often held to be the classic case of an East African
people who are strongly committed to their particular cultural tradition.

The Masai language is classified in the Eastern Sudanic subfamily
of the Chari-Nile family of the Nilo-Saharan language stock (Greenberg
1966: esp. chap. 5). Groups of Masai live in what is today Kenya and
Tanzania at about lat. 0 degrees-6 degrees S and long. 35 1/2 degrees-38
degrees E. The Masai country was divided into two parts by the Anglo-German
Agreement of 1890.

According to Talbot (1964), the Masai have had a population boom,
thanks to the European administration. The estimate of Masai population
before 1890 was around 45,000. By the mid-1920s their population was
estimated to be 50,000. In the 1948 census the Masai numbered 107,309,
and Talbot's most recent figure was 117,000 (Talbot 1964: 105).

The Masai are primarily pastoral, but, as mentioned above, there are
a few groups of agriculturalists. Among the pastoralists there is
no fishing and only limited hunting and gathering. The Masai are seminomadic.
According to Hailey, in 1959 the Masai possessed some three-quarters
of a million cattle. They also kept large herds of sheep and goats,
but no chickens (Hailey 1950: 283).

The basic social unit was the kraal, a polygynous family compound.
One or more kraals--the average number was 20 to 50 (Huntingford 1953:
107)--constituted a village, also called a kraal, or, variously, boma
and/or enk-ang. There was an age-grade system, in which the males
were divided into three groups: youths, warriors (moran), and elders.
When youths became warriors, they moved to a different type of village,
called a manyatta. In the manyatta lived the warriors, their mothers,
sisters, and uninitiated girl lovers. In contrast, the kraal was made
up of families of married elders.

The warriors constituted the standing army of the Masai. Males were
youths until they were circumcised, at about the age of 13 to 17.
A year or two before circumcision, the e-unoto ceremony was held.
This ceremony signifies the handing over the defense of Masai country
to the incoming warriors. The ceremony lasted from three to six months
in each division, and, at the end of it, the outgoing warriors started
to get married and take their place as elders.

According to Leakey, the manyattas "are territorial, in that all the
warriors of a single age-group in a single area live in one such village"
(Leakey 1930: 192). A warrior company that lived in a single village
was called sirit. It is known that there was a council of elders in
each village, but apparently they had little power to compel the warriors
to do anything (Sandford 1919: 2).

Little is known of the religion of the Masai, and those who have studied
it are in disagreement with each other. Evidently the Masai were monotheistic,
and prayed often. The central figure in the religious system was a
"medicine man," known as laibon. The laibon were involved in shamanistic
curing, along with divination and prophecy. Their positions were inherited
along "clan" lines. To Hollis, the laibon assumed political functions.
"The nearest approach to a central and superior authority among the
Masai is the medicine man or Laibon" (Hollis 1905: xvii). Fosbrooke
(1948) differentiates three different kinds of laibon. The first dealt
only in a private practice--curing illness, insuring the fidelity
of wives, etc. The second type was consulted by groups of Masai, and
they dealt with such matters as insuring success in war, adequate
rainfall, and the prevention of disease. The third type of laibon
was concerned with matters which affected the entire tribe. Whatever
power an individual laibon of the latter type had was a function of
personality rather than office.

Good summaries on the Masasi may be found in Hollis (1905), Merker
(1910), and Huntingford (1933). A great deal of the material in this
file relates to the period 1890-1910, with scattered information for
the periods before and after.

Culture summary by Marlene M. Martin



Fosbrooke, H. A. An administrative survey of the Masai social system.
 Tanganyika Notes and Records, 26 (1948): 1-50.
 Greenberg, Joseph H. The languages of Africa.
 Bloominton, Indiana University, 1966.
 Gulliver, P. H. The conservative commitment in northern Tanzania: the Arusha and Masai.
 In P. H. Gulliver, ed.
 Tradition and Transition in East Africa.
 Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1969: 223-42.
 Hailey, Lord.
 Native administration in the British African territories.
 Part 1.
 East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika.
 London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1950.
 16, 358 p. Hollis, Alfred Claud.
 The Masai;
 their language and folklore.
 With introduction by Charles Eliot.
 Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1905.
 28, 359 p. illus., map.
 Huntingford, G. W. B. The southern Nilo-Hamites.
 London, International African Institute, 1953.
 8, 152 p. maps.
 Leakey, Louis Seymour Bazett.
 Some notes on the Masai of Kenya Colony.
 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 60 (1930): 185-209.
 Merker, Meritz.
 Die Masai;
 Ethnographische Monographie eines ostrafrikanischen Semitenvolkes.
 Zweite verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage [The Masai;
 ethnographic monograph of an East African Semite people.
 Second corrected and enlarged edition].
 Berlin, Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1910.
 31, 456 p. illus., map.
 tables.
 Murdock, George Peter.
 Outline of world cultures.
 5th ed.
 New Haven, Human Relations Area Files, Inc., 1975.
 Sandford, George Ritchie.
 An administrative and political history of the Masai Reserve.
 London, Printed by Waterlow and Sons, 1919.
 6, 234 p. maps.
 Talbot, Lee Merriam.
 Ecology of western Masailand, East Africa.
 Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1964 [1972 copy].
 5, 454 l. illus., maps.
 (University Microfilms Publications.
 no.
 64-2144) Dissertation (Geography) -- University of California, Berkeley, 1963.


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