Maasai people

The Maasai (also Masai) are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in
Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence
near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of
African ethnic groups.[3] They speak Maa,[3] a member of the Nilo-Saharan language
family that is related to Dinka and Nuer, and are also educated in the official languages of
Kenya and Tanzania: Swahili and English. The Maasai population has been variously
estimated as 377,089 from the 1989 Census[1] or as 453,000 language speakers in Kenya
in 1994[2] and 430,000 in Tanzania in 1993[2] with a total estimated as "approaching
900,000"[3] Estimates of the respective Maasai populations in both countries are
complicated by the remote locations of many villages, and their semi-nomadic nature.

Although the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage
the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, the people have continued
their age-old customs.[4] Recently, Oxfam has claimed that the lifestyle of the Maasai
should be embraced as a response to climate change because of their ability to farm in
deserts and scrublands.[5] But while the Maasai run cattle farms, they invade the habitats
of the endangered lions in Kenya. As of 2010, there are only about 2000 lions left in
Kenya and at the rate the Maasai warriors kill them, the lions in Kenya could be gone
within two years.[6]

History
Overview

The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group. Nilotes speak Nilo-Saharan languages, and came
to Eastern Africa by way of Southern Sudan,[7] although their ultimate place of origin is
believed to be in West Africa.[8] Most Nilotes in Eastern Africa, including the Maasai, the
Samburu and the Kalenjin, are pastoralists, and are famous for their fearsome reputations
as warriors and cattle-rustlers.[7] As with the Bantu, the Maasai and other Nilotes in
Eastern Africa have adopted many customs and practices from the neighboring Cushitic
groups, including the age set system of social organization, circumcision, and vocabulary
terms.[8][9]

Origin, migration and assimilation

According to their own oral history, the Maasai originated from the lower Nile valley
north of Lake Turkana (Northwest Kenya) and began migrating south around the 15th
century, arriving in a long trunk of land stretching from northern Kenya to central
Tanzania between the 17th and late 18th century. Many ethnic groups that had already
formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced by the incoming Maasai,[10]
while other, mainly southern Cushitic groups, were assimilated into Maasai society. The
resulting mixture of the Nilotic and Cushitic (Hamitic) populations in the area came to be
referred to as Nilo-Hamitic peoples, and also include the Kalenjin and the Samburu.[11]
Settlement in East Africa

The Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century, and covered almost
all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands from Mount Marsabit in the north to
Dodoma in the south.[12] At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they
were part of, raided cattle as far east as the Tanga coast in Tanzania. Raiders used spears
and shields, but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which could be accurately
thrown from up to 70 paces (appx. 100 metres). In 1852, there was a report of a
concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in Kenya. In 1857, after having
depopulated the “Wakuafi wilderness” in southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened
Mombasa on the Kenyan coast.[13][14]

Because of this migration, the Maasai are the southernmost Nilotic speakers. The period
of expansion was followed by the Maasai "Emutai" of 1883-1902. This period was
marked by epidemics of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest and smallpox.
The estimate first put forward by a German lieutenant in what was then northwest
Tanganyika, was that 90 percent of cattle and half of wild animals perished from
rinderpest. German doctors in the same area claimed that “every second” African had a
pock-marked face as the result of smallpox. This period coincided with drought. Rains
failed completely in 1897 and 1898.[15]

The Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann travelled in Maasai lands in 1891-1893, and
described the old Maasai settlement in the Ngorongoro Crater in the 1894 book Durch
Massailand zur Nilquelle ("Through the lands of the Maasai to the source of the Nile"):
"There were women wasted to skeletons from whose eyes the madness of starvation
glared ... warriors scarcely able to crawl on all fours, and apathetic, languishing elders.
Swarms of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims." By one
estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period.[16]

Starting with a 1904 treaty,[17] and followed by another in 1911, Maasai lands in Kenya
were reduced by 60 percent when the British evicted them to make room for settler
ranches, subsequently confining them to present-day Kajiado and Narok districts.[18]
Maasai in Tanzania were displaced from the fertile lands between Mount Meru and
Mount Kilimanjaro, and most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s.[19][20]
More land was taken to create wildlife reserves and national parks: Amboseli, Nairobi
National Park, Masai Mara, Samburu, Lake Nakuru and Tsavo in Kenya; Manyara,
Ngorongoro, Tarangire[21] and Serengeti in Tanzania.

Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan
governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to
many of the national parks in both countries.

The Maasai people stood against slavery and lived alongside most wild animals with an
aversion to eating game and birds. Maasai land now has East Africa's finest game areas.
Maasai society never condoned traffic of human beings, and outsiders looking for people
to enslave avoided the Maasai.[22]
Essentially there are twelve geographic sectors of the tribe, each one having its own
customs, appearance, leadership and dialects. These subdivisions are known as the
Keekonyokie, Damat, Purko, Wuasinkishu, Siria, Laitayiok, Loitai, Kisonko, Matapato,
Dalalekutuk, Loodokolani and Kaputiei.[23]

Genetics
Recent advances in genetic analyses have helped shed some light on the ethnogenesis of
the Maasai people. Genetic genealogy, although a novel tool that uses the genes of
modern populations to trace their ethnic and geographic origins, has also helped clarify
the possible background of the modern Maasai.

Autosomal DNA

The Maasai's autosomal DNA has been examined in a comprehensive study by Tishkoff
et al. (2009) on the genetic affiliations of various populations in Africa. According to the
study's authors, the Maasai "have maintained their culture in the face of extensive genetic
introgression".[24] Tishkoff et al. also indicate that:

Many Nilo-Saharan–speaking populations in East Africa, such as the Maasai, show

multiple cluster assignments from the Nilo-Saharan (red) and Cushitic (dark purple)
AACs, in accord with linguistic evidence of repeated Nilotic assimilation of Cushites
over the past 3000 years and with the high frequency of a shared East African–specific
mutation associated with lactose tolerance.[24]

Y DNA

A Y chromosome study by Wood et al. (2005) tested various Sub-Saharan populations,

including 26 Maasai males from Kenya, for paternal lineages. The authors observed the
E1b1b haplogroup in 50% of the studied Maasai,[25] which is indicative of substantial
gene flow from more northerly Cushitic males, who possess the haplogroup at high
frequencies.[26] The second most frequent paternal lineage among the Maasai was
Haplogroup A3b2, which is commonly found in Nilotic populations, such as the Alur;[25]
[27]
it was observed in 27% of Maasai males. The third most frequently observed paternal
DNA marker in the Maasai was the E1b1a haplogroup (E-P1), which is very common in
the Sub-Saharan region; it was found in 12% of the Maasai samples. The Haplogroup B
was also observed in 8% of the studied Maasai,[25] which is also found in 30% (16/53) of
Southern Sudanese Nilotes.[27]

mtDNA

According to an mtDNA study by Castri et al. (2008), which tested Maasai individuals in
Kenya, the maternal lineages found among the Maasai are quite diverse, but similar in
overall frequency to that observed in other Nilotic populations from the region, such as
the Turkana and Samburu. Most of the tested Maasai belonged to various macro-
haplogroup L sub-clades, including L0, L2, L3, L4 and L5. Some maternal gene flow
from North and Northeast Africa was also reported, particularly via the presence of
mtDNA haplogroup M lineages in about 12.5% of the Maasai samples.[28]

Culture
Maasai society is strongly patriarchal in nature, with elder men, sometimes joined by
retired elders, deciding most major matters for each Maasai group. A full body of oral
law covers many aspects of behaviour. Formal execution is unknown, and normally
payment in cattle will settle matters. An out of court process called 'amitu', 'to make
peace', or 'arop', which involves a substantial apology, is also practiced.[29] The Maasai
are monotheistic, and they call God Enkai or Engai. Engai is a single deity with a dual
nature: Engai Narok (Black God) is benevolent, and Engai Nanyokie (Red God) is
vengeful.[30] The "Mountain of God", Ol Doinyo Lengai, is located in northernmost
Tanzania. The central human figure in the Maasai religious system is the laibon who may
be involved in: shamanistic healing, divination and prophecy, ensuring success in war or
adequate rainfall. Whatever power an individual laibon had was a function of personality
rather than position.[31] Many Maasai have become Christian, and to a lesser extent,
Muslim. The Maasai are known for their intricate jewelry.

A high infant mortality rate among the Maasai has led to babies not truly being
recognised until they reach an age of 3 moons, ilapaitin.[32] For Maasai living a traditional
life, the end of life is virtually without ceremony, and the dead are left out for scavengers.
[33]
A corpse rejected by scavengers (mainly spotted hyenas, which are known as Ondilili
or Oln'gojine in the Masai language) 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.[34] Burial has in the past been reserved for great
chiefs, since it is believed to be harmful to the soil.[35]

Traditional Maasai lifestyle centres around their cattle which constitute their primary
source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd
of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one
but not the other is considered to be poor.[36] A Maasai religious belief relates that God
gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes
is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs, a practice that has become much less
common.[37]

Influences from the outside world

Maintaining a traditional pastoral lifestyle has become increasingly difficult due to

outside influences of the modern world. Garrett Hardin's article, outlining the “tragedy of
the commons”, as well as Melville Herskovits' “cattle complex” helped to influence
ecologists and policy makers about the harm Maasai pastoralists were causing to
savannah rangelands. This concept was later proven false by anthropologists but is still
deeply ingrained in the minds of ecologists and Tanzanian officials.[38] This influenced
policy makers to remove all Maasai from the Serengeti National Park and relegated them
to areas in and around the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). The plan for the NCA
was to put Maasai interests above all else but this promise was never met. Due to an
increase in Maasai population, loss of cattle populations to disease, and lack of available
rangelands due to new park boundaries, 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 viewed negative culturally.[38] Cultivation was first introduced to the
Maasai by displaced WaArusha and WaMeru women who were married to Maasai men;
subsequent generations practiced a mixed livelihood. To further complicate their
situation, in 1975 the Ngorongoro Conservation Area banned cultivation practices. In
order to survive they are forced to participate in Tanzania’s monetary economy. They
have to sell their animals and traditional medicines in order to buy food. The ban on
cultivation was lifted in 1992 and cultivation has again become an important part of
Maasai livelihood. Park boundaries and land privatisation has continued to limit grazing
area for the Maasai and have forced them to change considerably.[39]

Over the years, many projects have begun to help Maasai tribal leaders find ways to
preserve their traditions while also balancing the education needs of their children for the
modern world.

The emerging forms of employment among the Maasai people include farming, business
(selling of traditional medicine, running of restaurants/shops, buying and selling of
minerals, selling milk and milk products by women, embroideries), and wage
employment (as security guards/ watchmen, waiters, tourist guides), and others who are
engaged in the public and private sectors.[40]

Many Maasai have moved away from the nomadic life to responsible positions in
commerce and government.[10] Yet despite the sophisticated urban lifestyle they may
lead, many will happily head homewards dressed in designer clothes, only to emerge
from the traditional family homestead wearing a shuka (colourful piece of cloth), cow
hide sandals and carrying a wooden club (o-rinka) - at ease with themselves and the
world.[41]

Shelter

As a historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the Maasai have traditionally
relied on local, readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their
housing. The traditional Maasai house was in the first instance designed for people on the
move and was thus very impermanent in nature. The Inkajijik (houses) are either star-
shaped or circular, and are constructed by able-bodied women. The structural framework
is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a lattice of
smaller branches, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and
human urine, and ash. The cow dung ensures the roof is water-proof. The enkaj is small,
measuring about 3x5 m and standing only 1.5 m high. Within this space the family cooks,
eats, sleeps, socializes and stores food, fuel and other household possessions. Small
livestock are also often accommodated within the enkaji.[11][12] Villages are enclosed in
a circular fence (an enkang) built by the men, usually of thorned acacia, a native tree. At
night all cows, goats and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the centre, safe from wild
animals.

Social organization
The central unit of Maasai society is the age-set. Although young boys are sent out with
the calves and lambs as soon as they can toddle, childhood for boys is mostly playtime,
with the exception of ritual beatings to test courage and endurance. Girls are responsible
for chores such as cooking and milking, skills which they learn from their mothers at an
early age.[42] Every 15 years or so, a new and individually named generation of Morans or
Il-murran (warriors) will be initiated. This involves most boys between 12 and 25, who
have reached puberty and are not part of the previous age-set. One rite of passage from
boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is
performed without anaesthetic. This ritual is typically performed by the elders, who use a
sharpened knife and makeshift cattle hide bandages for the procedure. The Maa word for
circumcision is emorata.[43] The boy must endure the operation in silence. Expressions of
pain bring dishonor, albeit temporarily. Any exclamations can cause a mistake in the
delicate and tedious process, which can result in life-long scarring, dysfunction, and pain.
The healing process will take 3–4 months, during which urination is painful and nearly
impossible at times, and boys must remain in black cloths for a period of 4–8 months.[44]

During this period, the newly circumcised young men will live in a "manyatta", a
"village" built by their mothers. The manyatta has no encircling barricade for protection,
emphasizing the warrior role of protecting the community. No inner kraal is built, since
warriors neither own cattle or undertake stock duties. Further rites of passage are required
before achieving the status of senior warrior, culminating in the eunoto ceremony, the
"coming of age".[45]

When a new generation of warriors is initiated, the existing ilmoran will graduate to
become junior elders, who are responsible for political decisions until they in turn
become senior elders.[46][47]

The warriors spend most of their time now on walkabouts throughout Maasai lands,
beyond the confines of their sectional boundaries. They are also much more involved in
cattle trading than they used to be, developing and improving basic stock through trades
and bartering rather than stealing as in the past.[48][49]

One myth about the Maasai is that each young man is supposed to kill a lion before they
are circumcised. Although lion hunting was an activity of the past, and lion hunting has
been banned in East Africa, lions are still hunted when they maul Maasai livestock,[50]
and young warriors who engage in traditional lion killing do not face significant
consequences.[51] Increasing concern regarding lion populations has given rise to at least
one program which promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, rather
than hunting and killing the predator.[52] Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value
and celebrity status in the community.

Young women also undergo excision ("female circumcision" or emorata) as part of an

elaborate rite of passage ritual in which they are given instructions and advice pertaining
to their new role, as they are then said to have come of age and become women, ready for
marriage. If they flinch during this they are killed.[citation needed] In Kenya female
circumcision is practiced by 38% of the population. The most common form is
clitorectomy.[53] These circumcisions are usually performed by an invited 'practitioner'
who is often not Maasai, usually from a Dorobo group. The knives and blades which
make the cut are fashioned by blacksmiths, il-kunono, who are avoided by the Maasai
because they make weapons of death (knives, short swords (ol alem), spears, etc.).
Similar to the young men, women who will be circumcised wear dark clothing, paint their
faces with markings, and then cover their faces on completion of the ceremony.[54]

To others the practice of female circumcision is known as female genital cutting, and
draws a great deal of criticism from both abroad and many women who have undergone
it, such as Maasai activist Agnes Pareiyo. It has recently been replaced in some instances
by a "cutting with words" ceremony involving singing and dancing in place of the
mutilation. However, the practice remains deeply ingrained and valued by the culture.
Some might consider it necessary since some Maasai men may reject any woman who
has not undergone it as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride price.
The practice can result in thick scar tissue, which makes urination difficult, and this has
also generated controversy.[55] FGC is illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania.[56][57]

Married women who become pregnant are excused from all heavy work such as milking
and gathering firewood. Sexual relations are also banned.[58]

The Maasai are traditionally polygamous; this is thought to be a long standing and
practical adaptation to high infant and warrior mortality rates. Polyandry is also practiced.
A woman marries not just her husband, but the entire age group. Men are expected to
give up their bed to a visiting age-mate guest. The woman decides strictly on her own if
she will join the visiting male. Any child which may result is the husband's child and his
descendant in the patrilineal order of Maasai society. "Kitala", a kind of divorce or
refuge, is possible in the house of a wife's father, usually for gross mistreatment of the
wife. Repayment of the bride price, custody of children, etc., are mutually agreed upon.[59]

Music and dance

Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing

harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. The olaranyani is usually
the singer who can best sing that song, although several individuals may lead a song. The
olaranyani begins by singing a line or title (namba) of a song. The group will respond
with one unanimous call in acknowledgment, and the olaranyani will sing a verse over
the group's rhythmic throat singing. Each song has its specific namba structure based on
call-and-response. Common rhythms are variations of 5/4, 6/4 and 3/4 time signatures.
Lyrics follow a typical theme and are often repeated verbatim over time. Neck
movements accompany singing. When breathing out the head is leaned forward. The
head is tilted back for an inward breath. Overall the effect is one of polyphonic
syncopation.[60][61]

Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. Nambas, the call-
and-response pattern, repetition of nonsense phrases, monophonic melodies[62][63] repeated
phrases following each verse being sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to
their own verses are characteristic of singing by females.[64][65] When many Maasai
women gather together, they sing and dance among themselves.[66]

One exception to the vocal nature of Maasai music is the use of the horn of the Greater
Kudu to summon morans for the Eunoto ceremony.[67]

Both singing and dancing sometimes occur around manyattas, and involve flirting.
Young men will form a line and chant rhythmically, “Oooooh-yah”, with a growl and
staccato cough along with the thrust and withdrawal of their lower bodies. Girls stand in
front of the men and make the same pelvis lunges while singing a high dying fall of
“Oiiiyo..yo” in counterpoint to the men. Although bodies come in close proximity, they
do not touch.[68]

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 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"[13]) Warriors are well known for, and often
photographed during, this competitive jumping. A circle is formed by the warriors, and
one or two at a time will enter the center to begin jumping while maintaining a narrow
posture, never letting their heels touch the ground. Members of the group may raise the
pitch of their voices based on the height of the jump.[69]

The girlfriends of the moran (intoyie) parade themselves in their most spectacular
costumes as part of the eunoto. The mothers of the moran sing and dance in tribute to the
courage and daring of their sons.[70]

Body modification

The piercing and stretching of earlobes is common among the Maasai. 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.
Fewer and fewer Maasai, particularly boys, follow this custom.[71] [72] Women wear
various forms of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe, and smaller piercings at the top
of the ear.[73] [74]
The removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in early childhood is a practice that has been
documented in the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. There exists a strong belief among the
Maasai that diarrhea, vomiting and other febrile illnesses of early childhood are caused
by the gingival swelling over the canine region, which is thought to contain 'worms' or
'nylon' teeth. This belief and practice is 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.[75] [76]

Diet
A Masaai herdsman grazing his cattle inside the Ngorongoro crater

Traditionally, the Maasai diet consisted of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. An ILCA
study (Nestel 1989) states: “Today, the staple diet of the Maasai consists of cow's milk
and maize-meal. The former is largely drunk fresh or in sweet tea and the latter is used to
make a liquid or solid porridge. The solid porridge is known as ugali and is eaten with
milk; unlike the liquid porridge, ugali is not prepared with milk. Meat, although an
important food, is consumed irregularly and cannot be classified as a staple food. Animal
fats or butter are used in cooking, primarily of porridge, maize, and beans. Butter is also
an important infant food. Blood is rarely drunk.”[77]

Studies by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (Bekure et al. 1991) shows a
very great change in the diet of the Maasai towards non-livestock products with maize
comprising 12 – 39 percent and sugar 8 – 13 percent; about one litre of milk is consumed
per person daily. 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
needs for protein and essential amino acids are more than adequately satisfied. However,
the supply of iron, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamine and energy are never fully met
by a purely milk diet. Due to changing circumstances, especially the seasonal nature of
the milk supply and frequent droughts, most pastoralists, including the Maasai, now
include substantial amounts of grain in their diets.[78][79]

The Maasai herd goats and sheep, including the Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more
prized cattle.[80] Electrocardiogram tests applied to 400 young adult male Maasai found no
evidence whatsoever of heart disease, abnormalities or malfunction. Further study with
carbon-14 tracers showed that the average cholesterol level was about 50 percent of that
of an average American. These findings were ascribed to the amazing fitness of morans,
which was evaluated as "Olympic standard".[81]

Soups are probably the most important use of plants for food by Maasai. Acacia nilotica
is the most frequently used soup plant. The root or stem bark is boiled in water and the
decoction drunk alone or added to soup. The Maasai are fond of taking this as a drug, and
is known to make them energetic, aggressive and fearless. Maasai eat soup laced with
bitter bark and roots containing cholesterol-lowering saponins; those urban Maasai who
don't have access to the bitter plants tend to develop heart disease.[82] Although consumed
as snacks, fruits constitute a major part of the food ingested by children and women
looking after cattle as well as morans in the wilderness.[83]

The mixing of cattle blood, obtained by nicking the jugular vein, and milk is done to
prepare a ritual drink for special celebrations and as nourishment for the sick.[84]
However, the inclusion of blood in the traditional diet is waning due to the reduction of
livestock numbers. More recently, the Maasai have grown dependent on food produced in
other areas such as maize meal, rice, potatoes, cabbage (known to the Maasai as goat
leaves) etc. The Maasai who live near crop farmers have engaged in cultivation as their
primary mode of subsistence. In these areas, plot sizes are generally not large enough to
accommodate herds of animals; thus the Maasai are forced to farm.[85]

Clothing
Clothing varies by age and location. Young men, for instance, wear black for several
months following their circumcision. However, red is a favored color. Blue, black,
striped, and checkered cloth are also worn, as are multicolored African designs.The
names of the clothing are now known as the Matavuvale. The Maasai began to replace
animal-skin, calf hides and sheep skin, with commercial cotton cloth in the 1960s.[86]

Shúkà is the Maa word for sheets traditionally worn wrapped around the body, one over
each shoulder, then a third over the top of them. These are typically red, though with
some other colors (e.g. blue) and patterns (e.g. plaid). Pink, even with flowers, is not
shunned by warriors.[87] One piece garments known as kanga, a Swahili term, are
common.[88] Maasai near the coast may wear kikoi, a type of sarong that comes in many
different colors and textiles. However, the preferred style is stripes.[89]

Many Maasai in Tanzania wear simple sandals, which were until recently made from
cowhides. They are now soled with tire strips or plastic. Both men and women wear
wooden bracelets. The Maasai women regularly weave and bead jewellery. This bead
work plays an essential part in the ornamentation of their body. Although there are
variations in the meaning of the color of the beads, some general meanings for a few
colors are: white, peace; blue, water; red, warrior/blood/bravery.[90]

Beadworking, done by women, has a long history among the Maasai, who articulate their
identity and position in society through body ornaments and body painting. Before
contact with Europeans beads were produced mostly from local raw materials. White
beads were made from clay, shells, ivory, or bone. Black and blue beads were made from
iron, charcoal, seeds, clay, or horn. Red beads came from seeds, woods, gourds, bone,
ivory, copper, or brass. When late in the nineteenth century, great quantities of brightly
colored European glass beads arrived in East Africa, beadworkers replaced the older
beads with the new materials and began to use more elaborate color schemes. Currently,
dense, opaque glass beads with no surface decoration and a naturally smooth finish are
preferred.[91]
Hair
Head shaving is common at many rites of passage, representing the fresh start that will be
made as one passes from one to another of life's chapters.[92] Warriors are the only
members of the Maasai community to wear long hair, which they weave in thinly braided
strands.[93]

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 cock's comb, from the nape of the neck to the
forehead.[94] The cockade symbolizes the "state of grace" accorded to infants.[95] A woman
who has lost a child in a previous pregnancy would position the hair at the front or back
of the head, depending on whether she had lost a boy or a girl.[94]

Two days before boys are circumcised, their heads are shaved.[96] The young warriors
then allow their hair to grow, and spend a great deal of time styling the hair. It is dressed
with animal fat and ocher, and parted across the top of the head at ear level. Hair is then
plaited: parted into small sections which are divided into two and twisted, first separately
then together. Cotton or wool threads may be used to lengthen hair. The plaited hair may
hang loose or be gathered together and bound with leather.[97] When warriors go through
the Eunoto, and become elders, their long plaited hair is shaved off.[98]

As males have their heads shaved at the passage from one stage of life to another, a bride
to be will have her head shaved, and two rams will be slaughtered in honor of the
occasion.[99]