Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity In East AfricaThomas Spear, Richard Waller Ohio University Press, 1993 M04 1 - 336 pages Everyone “knows” the Maasai as proud pastoralists who once dominated the Rift Valley from northern Kenya to central Tanzania. But many people who identity themselves as Maasai, or who speak Maa, are not pastoralist at all, but farmers and hunters. Over time many different people have “become” something else. And what it means to be Maasai has changed radically over the past several centuries and is still changing today. This collection by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists examines how Maasai identity has been created, evoked, contested, and transformed from the time of their earliest settlement in Kenya to the present, as well as raising questions about the nature of ethnicity generally. |
Contents
Becoming Maasailand | |
Maasai Expansion and the New East African Pastoralism | |
Interactions and Assimilation Between | |
NEAL SOBANIA | |
Inclusion | |
Okiek and Maasai Perspectives | |
Kikuyu Settlement in Maasailand | |
Economic Political and Ecological | |
Recent Developments in Ariaal | |
Conclusions | |
Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
age-set agricultural alliance Ariaal Arusha assimilated Ateker Baringo beadwork becoming Maasai Berntsen boundaries cattle central Rift ceremonies Chamus Chieni clans colonial colour communities cultivation Cushitic dialects District drought early East Africa East African Eastern ecological economic elders Engaruka escarpment ethnic farmers frontier Galaty grazing groups herders herds highlands hunter-gatherers Iloikop interaction irrigation Kajiado Kajiado District Kalenjin Kaputiei Karimojong Kikuyu Kisongo labour Laikipiak Lake Baringo Lake Turkana Lamphear land language linguistic livestock Loitai Loodokilani Loogolala Maa language Maa-speakers Maasai expansion Maasai identity Maasai sections Maasai society Maasailand manyata Matapato Meru murran murranhood Nairobi Narok neighbours Ngong Nilotic nineteenth century Okiek ornaments Oropom Parakuyo pastoral economy pastoral Maasai pastoralists plains political Purko raiding region relations Rendille Rift Valley ritual Samburu settlement Siger Sirikwa Sobania social Sonjo South Maa Southern specialized pastoralism Sutton Tanzania Telelia territory Torrobo traditions Vossen Waller warriors women