Maasai Culture

When first published in 1988, this classic study was the first to relate the dynamics of the Maasai age organisation to tensions within the family. Together, these provide the twin strands of a man's career, opposed ritually and reflecting a fundamental ambivalence in Maasai thought. The analysis is illustrated with extensive case material from the Matapato, selected for this study as a typical Maasai group.

Uncertainty is an everyday aspect of existence for the Maasai of East Africa. They take ritual precautions against mystical misfortune in their small and dispersed villages, and place community life in the hands of elders whose collective wisdom is underpinned by a belief in a moral, supreme and unknowably provident god. This stability is, however, edged with concern for secret malcontents who might seek to create havoc through sorcery and whose elusive magic lies outside the elders' power. Time, Space and the Unknown follows on from The Maasai of Matapato and The Samburu to show how uncertainty and misfortune influence the social life of the Maasai.

Beginning with the Sahelian drought of the 1970s, through the complex succession of catastrophes in Ethiopia, and continuing tragedies of Somalia and the Southern Sudan, the plights of Africa's more than 30 million migratory pastoralists receive bursts of international television coverage and emergency aid, yet the underlying problems within their largely marginal lands remain unresolved. Virtually all past approaches and specific attempts at development among them have failed. A prominent problem has been inabilities of involved persons within diverse disciplines to communicate effectively with one another and to cooperate. In addressing this continent-wide problem, the authors adopt a practical approach and provide sufficient detail to illustrate its likelihood to achieve positive results within the severe constraints of available resources and other current realities. They propose, for the first time, meaningful and realistic possibilities for bettering the lives of these numerous peoples in ways they themselves would desire.