Religion , a common livestock predator, as photographed in
In Wildest Africa (1907) The
monotheistic Maasai worship a single deity called
Enkai,
Nkai There are also two pillars or totems of Maasai society: Oodo Mongi, the Red Cow and Orok Kiteng, the Black Cow with a subdivision of five clans or
family trees. The Maasai also have a totemic animal, which is the lion. The killing of a lion is used by the Maasai in the rite of passage ceremony. The "Mountain of God",
Ol Doinyo Lengai, is located in northernmost Tanzania and can be seen from
Lake Natron in southernmost Kenya. The central human figure in the Maasai religious system is the '''''' whose roles include
shamanistic
healing,
divination and
prophecy, and ensuring success in war or adequate rainfall. Today, they have a political role as well due to the elevation of leaders. Whatever power an individual laibon had was a function of personality rather than position. Many Maasai have also adopted
Christianity or
Islam. The Maasai produce intricate jewellery and sell these items to tourists. , 2006
Body modification of Maasai girl on her cheek The piercing and stretching of
earlobes are common among the Maasai as with other tribes, and both men and women wear metal hoops on their stretched earlobes. Various materials have been used to both pierce and stretch the lobes, including thorns for piercing, twigs, bundles of twigs, stones, the cross-section of elephant tusks and empty film canisters. Women wear various forms of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe and smaller piercings at the top of the ear. Among Maasai males,
circumcision is practiced as a ritual of transition from boyhood to manhood. Women are also circumcised (as described below in
social organisation). This belief and practice are not unique to the Maasai. In rural Kenya, a group of 95 children aged between six months and two years were examined in 1991/92. 87% were found to have undergone the removal of one or more deciduous canine tooth buds. In an older age group (3–7 years of age), 72% of the 111 children examined exhibited missing mandibular or maxillary deciduous canines.
Genital cutting Traditionally, the Maasai conduct elaborate
rite of passage rituals which include surgical
genital mutilation to initiate children into adulthood. The Maa word for
circumcision, "emorata," is applied to this ritual for both males and females. This ritual is typically performed by the elders, who use a sharpened knife and makeshift cattle hide bandages for the procedure. The male ceremony refers to the excision of the prepuce (foreskin). In the male ceremony, the boy is expected to endure the operation in silence. Expressions of pain bring dishonor upon him, albeit only temporarily. Importantly, any exclamations or unexpected movements on the part of the boy can cause the elder to make a mistake in the delicate and tedious process, which can result in severe lifelong scarring, dysfunction, and pain. Young women also undergo
female genital mutilation as part of an elaborate
rite of passage ritual called "Emuatare," the ceremony that initiates young Maasai girls into adulthood through ritual mutilation and then into early arranged marriages. The Maasai believe that female genital mutilation is necessary and Maasai men may reject any woman who has not undergone it as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride price. In Eastern Africa uncircumcised women, even highly educated members of parliament such as
Linah Kilimo, can be accused of not being mature enough to be taken seriously. The Maasai activist
Agnes Pareyio campaigns against the practice. The female rite-of-passage ritual has recently seen excision replaced in rare instances with a "cutting with words" ceremony involving singing and dancing in its place. However, despite changes to the law and education drives, the practice remains deeply ingrained, highly valued and nearly universally practised by members of the culture.
Hair Upon reaching the age of 3 "moons", the child is named and the head is shaved clean apart from a tuft of hair, which resembles a
cockade, from the nape of the neck to the forehead. Among the men, warriors are the only members of the Maasai community to wear long hair, which they weave in thinly braided strands. Graduation from warrior to junior elder takes place at a large gathering known as Eunoto. The long hair of the former warriors is
shaved off; elders must wear their hair short. Warriors who do not have sexual relations with women who have not undergone the "Emuatare" ceremony are especially honoured at the Eunoto gathering. This would symbolise the healing of the woman. Two days before boys are circumcised, their heads are shaved. When warriors go through the
Eunoto and become elders, their long plaited hair is shaved off.
Music and dance , Kenya. Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. Unlike most other African tribes, Maasai widely use
drone polyphony. Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. The Namba, a call-and-response harmony pattern, repetition of nonsensical phrases,
monophonic melodies, repeated phrases following each verse being sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to their verses are characteristic of singing by women. When many Maasai women gather together, they sing and dance among themselves. Eunoto, the coming-of-age ceremony of the warrior, can involve ten or more days of singing, dancing and ritual. The warriors of the Il-Oodokilani perform a kind of march-past as well as the
Adumu, or aigus, sometimes referred to as "the jumping dance" by non-Maasai. (Both adumu and aigus are Maa verbs meaning "to jump" with adumu meaning "To jump up and down in a dance".)
Cuisine , Tanzania Traditionally, the Maasai cuisine consisted of raw meat, raw milk, honey and
raw blood from
cattle—note that the Maasai cattle are of the
Zebu variety. Traditional Maasai
lifestyle centres around their
cattle, which constitute their primary source of food. They eat their meat, drink their milk daily, and drink their blood on occasion. In a patriarchal culture that views women as property, a man's wealth is measured in cattle, wives and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more wives and children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor. The Maasai also herd goats and sheep, including the
Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more prized cattle. Bulls, goats, and lambs are slaughtered for meat on special occasions and ceremonies. Most of the milk is consumed as fermented milk or
buttermilk (a by-product of butter making). Milk consumption figures are very high by any standards. The Maasai's entire way of life has historically depended on their cattle, but cattle numbers have been dwindling in recent times. The Maasai have grown dependent on food such as
sorghum, rice, potatoes and cabbage (known to the Maasai as goat leaves). A 2010 study of the Maasai diet found that more than 58% of the modern Maasai diet consists of plant foods, especially
ugali and cornmeal. Another study found that the staple foods of the Maasai are cows’ milk (fresh or boiled) and ugali. One common misconception about the Maasai is that each young man is supposed to kill a
lion before he can be circumcised and enter adulthood. Lion hunting was an activity of the past, but it has been banned in
East Africa – yet lions are still hunted when they maul Maasai livestock. Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value and celebrity status in the community.
Medicine and healthcare The Maasai people traditionally used the environment when making their medicines, and many still do, due to the high cost of Western treatments. These medicines are derived from trees, shrubs, stems, roots, etc. These can then be used in a multitude of ways including being boiled in soups and ingested to improve digestion and cleanse the blood. Some of these remedies can also be used in the treatment or prevention of diseases. The Maasai people also add herbs to different foods to avoid stomach upsets and give digestive aid. The use of plant-based medicine remains an important part of Maasai life. Educating Maasai women to use clinics and hospitals during pregnancy has enabled more infants to survive. The exception is found in extremely remote areas. A corpse rejected by scavengers is seen as having something wrong with it, and liable to cause social disgrace; therefore, it is not uncommon for bodies to be covered in fat and blood from a slaughtered
ox.
Shelter Clothing Maasai clothing symbolises ethnic group membership, a pastoralist lifestyle, as well as an individual's social position. From this they can decide the roles they undertake for the tribe. Jewellery also can show an individual's gender, relationship status, and age. Shúkà is the
Maa word for sheets traditionally worn and wrapped around the body. These are typically
red, sometimes integrated with other
colours and patterns. One-piece garments known as
kanga, a
Swahili term, are common. Maasai near the coast may wear
kikoi, a
sarong-like garment that comes in many different colours and
textiles Influences from the outside world A traditional pastoral lifestyle has become increasingly difficult due to modern outside influences.
Garrett Hardin's article outlining the "tragedy of the commons", as well as
Melville Herskovits' "cattle complex" influenced ecologists and policymakers about the harm Maasai pastoralists were causing to savannah rangelands. This was later contested by some
anthropologists. British colonial policymakers in 1951 removed all Maasai from the
Serengeti National Park and relegated them to areas in and around the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). . Due to an increasing population, loss of cattle due to disease, and lack of available rangelands because of new park boundaries and competition from other tribes, the Maasai were forced to develop new ways of sustaining themselves. Many Maasai began to cultivate maize and other crops to get by, a practice that was culturally viewed negatively. In 1975, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area banned cultivation, forcing the tribe to participate in Tanzania's economy. They have to sell animals and traditional medicines to buy food. The ban on cultivation was lifted in 1992 and cultivation became an important part of Maasai livelihood once more. Park boundaries and land privatisation has continued to limit the Maasai livestock's grazing area. Throughout the years, various projects have attempted to help the Maasai people. These projects help find ways to preserve Maasai traditions while also encouraging modern education for their children. Emerging employment among the Maasai people include farming, business, and wage employment in both the public and private sectors. Many Maasai have also moved away from the nomadic life to positions in commerce and government. == Eviction from ancestral land ==