Antropology and Sexuality

Background

Rosenberg's findings..

• Ma'asai women's sexual experience

 Maasai society is organized around age-sets which differ between men and women.

Men are divided into five age-sets: boys, warriors or  moran, junior elders, senior elders, and elders.

Women are divided into three age-sets. The passage from girl (ndito) to woman (yeyo) is characterized by a circumcision ceremony that occurs sometime after puberty when a girl prepares for marriage. The third age-set for women is that of the highly respected grandmother (koko).

There are strict rules governing sexual practice and clearly defined “penalties” if these rules are broken.

• Ma'asai women on pre-puberty sex. (i.e. soto, dancing, love making & 'friends')

• Ma'asai women and their marriage

• Polygamy and Ma'asai women

Gender & sexuality

Adrienne Rosenberg

"“Toliki taa ub’ookin.” “Tell Them Everything.” The Changing Sexual Practices of the Maasai Women of Engare Sero" (2009).

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. Paper 764.

http://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/764

Interviewed 100 maasai women

Their experiences regarding Maasai

tribe Sexuality

Until their circumcision (15) - freedom to enjoy sexual relations with junior warrior

After their circumcision, they are considered to be adult women (Esiankiki)

immediately married to a man much older than themselves

Maasai women and girls

Maasai women are respected as mothers, and will be members of the same age-sets as their husbands

If a Maasai woman has a child by a man other than her husband, the child is considered by the husband to be his own, and is not treated any differently than his biological children.

Older women enjoy the same status as male elders

IR Group

GAP(S)....?

• Lack of Ma'asai Men's sexual experience.

RESEARCHER CENTRIC..?

• No.
• The reseacher does looks at the both gender.
• Done few interviews with both gender.

CONCLUSION

According to Adrienne Rosenberg, changes might be fine to the people of the tribe.

if the people want to have a change in the tribe, there is only a way which is introducing the Western Education. Why?

A question has been asked to the parents. Will they willing to have a change in their culture of the tribe? The answer is.....

Anthropology & Sexuality

of the Ma'asai Tribe

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! :)

ANY QUESTIONS?

12 @ 15 years a new age-initiated together.

Day before - boys must sleep outside in the forest.

During - boys dress in loose clothing and dance non-stop throughout the day.

Boys are ready to be circumcised and to take charge of warriorhood.

Enkipaata (pre-circumcision ceremony)

Massai male initiation

Allows warriors to eat meat

That has been prepared by women of the homestead and they are permitted to eat alone

At the end men and women fight each other for specially roasted meat

20 & 40 houses – selected random by warriors.

A special pole is used as a flagpole and planted in the middle of the camp

They will spend up to ten years in the Emanyatta before the Eunoto ceremony (senior's warrior initiation).

Enkang oo-nkiri (meat ceremony/initiation camp).

Childhood to adulthood

Boy prove himself to the community that he is ready

signs of a grown man (carrying a heavy spear, herding large herd of livestock, bringing cattle back home at dusk, traveling by himself at night to visit his friends, etc)

It is performed in a selected camp that contains twenty or more houses.

Early in the morning, he will be shaved by his oldest wife

A man becomes an elder and gains full responsibility of his own family

Emanyatta (warriors' camp)

Orngesherr (junior's elder initiation)

Emuratare (the circumcision)

warriors are not allowed to eat unless they are accompanied by others

milk ceremony requires the entire age-set to have their heads shaved by their mothers.

Performed by members of the age-set after ten years of warriorhood

Allows senior warriors to marry

Takes place in a specially chosen camp which includes forty-nine houses.

Each graduating warrior must then have his head shaved by his mother

Enkang E-Kule (milk ceremony)

Eunoto ceremony (senior warrior's initiation)

Cont..

Sexuality is valued in Maasai society as an important part of social interaction

…Culture has integrated sexual practices as innate in daily life

…Sexuality as trade off (Transactional sex)

… Women experience sexual encounters as obligatory