Maasai people#Genital mutilation

The Maasai inhabit the African Great Lakes region and arrived via South Sudan.A. Okoth & A. Ndaloh, Peak Revision K.C.P.E. Social Studies, East African, p.60–61. Most Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the Turkana and the Kalenjin, are pastoralists and have a reputation as fearsome warriors and cattle rustlers. The Maasai and other groups in East Africa have adopted customs and practices from neighbouring Cushitic-speaking groups, including the age-set system of social organisation, circumcision, and vocabulary terms.{{cite book|first=Robert O. |last=Collins |title=The southern Sudan in historical perspective |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date=2006 |pages=9–10}}S. Wandibba et al., p.19–20.{{Full citation needed|date=June 2022}}

File:Maasai man, Eastern Serengeti, October 2006.jpg

Many ethnic groups that had already formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced{{when|date=December 2023}} by the incoming Maasai.{{Cite web |year=2001 |title=Maasai People |url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/africa/explore/savanna/print_savanna_peopleM1.html |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=THIRTEEN |publisher=PBS |publication-place=New York}} Other, mainly Southern Cushitic groups, were assimilated into Maasai society. The Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin likewise absorbed some early Cushitic populations.{{cite book|author=International Labour Office |title=Traditional occupations of indigenous and tribal peoples: emerging trends |publisher=International Labour Organization |date=2000 |pages=55}}

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.{{cite book|title=Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar |first=Phillip |last=Briggs |date=2006 |pages=200 |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |isbn=1-84162-146-3}} At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as the Tanga coast in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). Raiders used spears and shields but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which could be accurately thrown from up to 70 paces (approx. 100 metres). In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya. In 1857, after having depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQJjYC74tu8C&pg=PA183 |title=Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed |last1=Falola |first1=Toyin |last2=Jennings |first2=Christian |year=2003 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=9781580461344 |pages=2, 18 |access-date=28 February 2012 |via=Google Books |archive-date=1 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101080420/https://books.google.com/books?id=PQJjYC74tu8C&pg=PA183 |url-status=live }}

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA0556, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Massaikrieger.jpg, {{circa|1906}}–1918]]

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 (see 1890s African rinderpest epizootic), and smallpox. The estimate first put forward by a German lieutenant in what was then northwest Tanganyika, was that 90% 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 in 1897 and 1898.{{cite web |url=http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ecology/news/news.asp?id=192 |title=Ecology Books and Journals |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003192715/http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ecology/news/news.asp?id=192 |archive-date=3 October 2012 |access-date=28 February 2012}}

The Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann travelled in Maasai lands between 1891 and 1893 and described the old Maasai settlement in the Ngorongoro Crater in the 1894 book {{lang|de|Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle}} ("Through the lands of the Maasai to the source of the Nile"). By one estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period.{{cite web |url=http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00526.html |title=Rinderpest |date=14 February 1997 |publisher=Ntz.info |access-date=28 February 2012 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520053942/https://ntz.info/gen/n00526.html |url-status=live }}{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,699336,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516115223/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,699336,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 May 2007 |title=The Land Is Ours |last=Faris |first=Stephan |date=19 September 2004 |magazine=Time}}{{cite web |url=http://www.kitumusote.org/history |title=History of the Maasai |last=Kitumusote |publisher=Kitumusote |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429093833/http://www.kitumusote.org/history |archive-date=29 April 2017 |access-date=28 February 2012}} Maasai in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania) were displaced from the fertile lands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, and most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s.{{cite book |title=The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation Without Illusion |first1=Jonathan S. |last1=Adams |first2=Thomas O. |last2=McShane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&q=maasai+ears&pg=PA42 |date=1996 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=44 |isbn=0-520-20671-1 |access-date=2020-11-01 |archive-date=2020-11-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114083840/https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&q=maasai+ears&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }} More land was taken to create wildlife reserves and national parks: Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National Park and Tsavo in Kenya; and Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tarangire{{cite web |url=http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.htm |date=14 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814101508/http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.htm |archive-date=14 August 2007 |access-date=28 February 2012 |title=Tarangire National Park}} and Serengeti National Park in what is now Tanzania.

Maasai are pastoralists 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.{{Cite web |last=Singo |first=Leiyo |date=2022-08-03 |title=When Maasaiphobia Became Policy |url=https://republic.com.ng/august-september-2022/maasai-predicament-ngorongoro/ |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=The Republic |language=en-GB}}

The Maasai people stood against slavery and never condoned the traffic of human beings, and outsiders looking for people to enslave avoided the Maasai.{{cite book|title=Africa's Great Rift Valley |first=Nigel |last=Pavitt |date=2001 |pages=122 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams Incorporated |location=New York |isbn=0-8109-0602-3}}

Essentially there are twenty-two geographic sectors or sub-tribes of the Maasai community, each one having its customs, appearance, leadership and dialects. These subdivisions are known as 'nations' or 'iloshon' in the Maa language: the Keekonyokie, Ildamat, Purko, Wuasinkishu, Siria, Laitayiok, Loitai, Ilkisonko, Matapato, Dalalekutuk, Ilooldokilani, Ilkaputiei, Moitanik, Ilkirasha, Samburu, Ilchamus, Laikipiak, Loitokitoki, Larusa, Salei, Sirinket and Parakuyo.{{cite web |url=http://www.laleyio.com/facts.html |title=archived copy of laleyio.com |date=27 May 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212003604/http://www.laleyio.com/facts.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 |access-date=28 February 2012}}

Recent advances in genetic analyses have helped shed some light on the ethnogenesis of the Maasai people. Genetic genealogy, a tool that uses the genes of modern populations to trace their ethnic and geographic origins, has also helped clarify the possible background of modern Maasai.{{cite web |title=The Maasai Tribe - Maasai History And Culture - Kenya Travel Guide |url=http://www.siyabona.com/maasai-tribe-east-africa.html |website=www.siyabona.com |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=22 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922171353/http://www.siyabona.com/maasai-tribe-east-africa.html |url-status=live }}

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".{{cite journal |last1=Tishkoff |first1=Sarah A. |title=The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5930 |pages=1035–44 |year=2009 |bibcode=2009Sci...324.1035T |doi=10.1126/science.1172257 |pmc=2947357 |pmid=19407144 |last2=Reed |first2=Floyd A. |last3=Friedlaender |first3=Françoise R. |last4=Ehret |first4=Christopher |last5=Ranciaro |first5=Alessia |last6=Froment |first6=Alain |last7=Hirbo |first7=Jibril B. |last8=Awomoyi |first8=Agnes A. |last9=Bodo |first9=Jean-Marie |first10=Ogobara |last10=Doumbo |first11=Muntaser |last11=Ibrahim |first12=Abdalla T. |last12=Juma |first13=Maritha J. |last13=Kotze |first14=Godfrey |last14=Lema |first15=Jason H. |last15=Moore |first16=Holly |last16=Mortensen |first17=Thomas B. |last17=Nyambo |first18=Sabah A. |last18=Omar |first19=Kweli |last19=Powell |first20=Gideon S. |last20=Pretorius |first21=Michael W. |last21=Smith |first22=Mahamadou A. |last22=Thera |first23=Charles |last23=Wambebe |first24=James L. |last24=Weber |first25=Scott M. |last25=Williams}} Also see [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1172257/DC1 Supplementary Data] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601000925/http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1172257/DC1 |date=2009-06-01 }}. 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 [...] and Cushitic [...] 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."

Maasai display significant West-Eurasian admixture at roughly ~20%. This type of West-Eurasian ancestry reaches up to 40-50% among specific populations of the Horn of Africa, specifically among Amharas. Genetic data and archeologic evidence suggest that East African pastoralists received West Eurasian ancestry (~25%) through Afroasiatic-speaking groups from Northern Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, and later spread this ancestry component southwards into certain Khoisan groups roughly 2,000 years ago, resulting in ~5% West-Eurasian ancestry among Southern African hunter-gatherers.{{Cite journal |last1=Dobon |first1=Begoña |last2=Hassan |first2=Hisham Y. |last3=Laayouni |first3=Hafid |last4=Luisi |first4=Pierre |last5=Ricaño-Ponce |first5=Isis |last6=Zhernakova |first6=Alexandra |last7=Wijmenga |first7=Cisca |last8=Tahir |first8=Hanan |last9=Comas |first9=David |last10=Netea |first10=Mihai G. |last11=Bertranpetit |first11=Jaume |date=2015-05-28 |title=The genetics of East African populations: a Nilo-Saharan component in the African genetic landscape |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=9996 |doi=10.1038/srep09996 |pmid=26017457 |pmc=4446898 |bibcode=2015NatSR...5E9996D |issn=2045-2322}}{{Cite journal |last1=Pickrell |first1=Joseph K. |last2=Patterson |first2=Nick |last3=Loh |first3=Po-Ru |last4=Lipson |first4=Mark |last5=Berger |first5=Bonnie |last6=Stoneking |first6=Mark |last7=Pakendorf |first7=Brigitte |last8=Reich |first8=David |date=2014-02-18 |title=Ancient west Eurasian ancestry in southern and eastern Africa |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=111 |issue=7 |pages=2632–2637 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1313787111 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=3932865 |pmid=24550290|bibcode=2014PNAS..111.2632P |doi-access=free }}

A 2019 archaeogenetic study sampled ancient remains from Neolithic inhabitants of Tanzania and Kenya, and found them to have strongest affinities with modern Horn of Africa groups. They modelled the Maasai community as having ancestry that is ~47% Pastoral Neolithic Cushitic-related and ~53% Sudanese Dinka-related.{{Cite journal |last1=Prendergast |first1=Mary E. |last2=Lipson |first2=Mark |last3=Sawchuk |first3=Elizabeth A. |last4=Olalde |first4=Iñigo |last5=Ogola |first5=Christine A. |last6=Rohland |first6=Nadin |last7=Sirak |first7=Kendra A. |last8=Adamski |first8=Nicole |last9=Bernardos |first9=Rebecca |last10=Broomandkhoshbacht |first10=Nasreen |last11=Callan |first11=Kimberly |last12=Culleton |first12=Brendan J. |last13=Eccles |first13=Laurie |last14=Harper |first14=Thomas K. |last15=Lawson |first15=Ann Marie |date=2019-07-05 |title=Ancient DNA Reveals a Multi-Step Spread of the First Herders into Sub-Saharan Africa |journal=Science |volume=365 |issue=6448 |pages=eaaw6275 |doi=10.1126/science.aaw6275 |issn=0036-8075 |pmc=6827346 |pmid=31147405|bibcode=2019Sci...365.6275P }}

A Y chromosome study by Wood et al. (2005) tested various Sub-Saharan populations, including 26 Maasai men from Kenya, for paternal lineages. The authors observed haplogroup E1b1b-M35 (not M78) in 35% of the studied Maasai.{{cite journal|first1=Elizabeth T. |last1=Wood |first2=Daryn A. |last2=Stover |first3=Christopher |last3=Ehret |first4=Giovanni |last4=Destro-Bisol |first5=Gabriella |last5=Spedini |first6=Howard |last6=McLeod |first7=Leslie |last7=Louie |first8=Mike |last8=Bamshad |first9=Beverly I. |last9=Strassmann |first10=Himla |last10=Soodyall |first11=Michael F. |last11=Hammer |url=https://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/WoodEJHG2005.pdf |title=Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome and mtDNA variation in Africa: evidence for sex-biased demographic processes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227061248/http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/WoodEJHG2005.pdf |archive-date=27 December 2010 |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |date=2005 |volume=13 |issue=7 |pages=867–876|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201408 |pmid=15856073 |s2cid=20279122 }} (cf. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629001717/http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v13/n7/extref/5201408x1.gif Appendix A: Y Chromosome Haplotype Frequencies]) E1b1b-M35-M78 in 15%, their ancestor with the more northerly Cushitic men, who possess the haplogroup at high frequencies{{cite journal |last=Cruciani |display-authors=etal |date=May 2004 |title=Phylogeographic Analysis of Haplogroup E3b (E-M215) Y Chromosomes Reveals Multiple Migratory Events Within and Out Of Africa |url=http://www.ajhg.org/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(07)64365-1?large_figure=true |url-status=dead |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=74 |issue=5 |pages=1014–1022 |doi=10.1086/386294 |pmc=1181964 |pmid=15042509 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130112051341/http://www.ajhg.org/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(07)64365-1?large_figure=true |archive-date=12 January 2013}} lived more than 13,000 years ago.{{cite web |url=http://e-v22.net/the-phylogenetic-tree-based-on-snp-data/ |title=The phylogenetic tree based on SNP data – Y-DNA haplogroup E-V22 |access-date=2020-01-30 |archive-date=2020-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200216132256/http://e-v22.net/the-phylogenetic-tree-based-on-snp-data/ |url-status=live }} The second most frequent paternal lineage among the Maasai was Haplogroup A3b2, which is commonly found in Nilotic populations, such as the Alur;{{Cite journal |last=Hassan |year=2008 |title=Y-chromosome variation among Sudanese: restricted gene flow, concordance with language, geography, and history. |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=137 |issue=3 |pages=316–23 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20876 |pmid=18618658}} it was observed in 27% of Maasai men. The third most frequently observed paternal DNA marker in the Maasai was E1b1a1-M2 (E-P1), which is very common in the Sub-Saharan region; it was found in 12% of the Maasai samples. Haplogroup B-M60 was also observed in 8% of the studied Maasai, which is also found in 30% (16/53) of Southern Sudanese Nilotes.

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 Nilo-Hamitic populations from the region, such as the 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.{{cite journal |first1=Loredana |last1=Castrì |first2=Paolo |last2=Garagnani |first3=Antonella |last3=Useli |first4=Davide |last4=Pettener |first5=Donata |last5=Luiselli |year=2008 |title=Kenyan crossroads: migration and gene flow in six ethnic groups from Eastern Africa. |url=http://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2008%20vol86/12_Castri.pdf |journal=Journal of Anthropological Science |volume=86 |pages=189–92 |pmid=19934476 |access-date=2010-12-29 |archive-date=2012-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313015006/http://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2008%20vol86/12_Castri.pdf |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=53, 54}}

File:Crocuta vs Maasai 2.png, a common livestock predator, as photographed in In Wildest Africa (1907)]]

The monotheistic Maasai worship a single deity called Enkai, Nkai or Engai. Engai has a dual nature, represented by two colours: Engai Narok (Black God) is benevolent, and Engai Na-nyokie (Red God) is vengeful.{{cite web |url=http://www.institut.veolia.org/en/cahiers/water-symbolism/water-myths/africa-water.aspx |title=African water symbolism and its consequences |publisher=Institut.veolia.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010202033/http://www.institut.veolia.org/en/cahiers/water-symbolism/water-myths/africa-water.aspx |archive-date=10 October 2007 |access-date=28 February 2012}}

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."Maasai"_Tepilit Ole Saitoti 1980 Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York {{ISBN|978-0-8109-8099-0}}, 1990 edition. 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xUlpBAAAQBAJ&q=maasai+people+shamanism&pg=PT260 |title=Talking to the Shaman Within: Musings on Hunting |last=Vries |first=Manfred F. R. Kets de |date=17 June 2014 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=9781491731512 |language=en |access-date=1 November 2020 |archive-date=22 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122190032/https://books.google.com/books?id=xUlpBAAAQBAJ&q=maasai+people+shamanism&pg=PT260 |url-status=live }} 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 {{Visible anchor|laibon}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/EthnoAtlas/Hmar/Cult_dir/Culture.7860 |title=Society-MASAI |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970504081734/http://lucy.ukc.ac.uk/EthnoAtlas/Hmar/Cult_dir/Culture.7860 |archive-date=4 May 1997 |access-date=28 February 2012}} Many Maasai have also adopted Christianity or Islam.{{cite web |url=http://www.shadowsofafrica.com/travel-africa/kenyan-tribes-religions/ |title=Kenyan Tribes & Religions {{!}} Travel to Africa |website=www.shadowsofafrica.com |language=en-US |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223042714/http://www.shadowsofafrica.com/travel-africa/kenyan-tribes-religions/ |archive-date=23 December 2017 |access-date=22 December 2017}} The Maasai produce intricate jewellery and sell these items to tourists.{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=169}}

File:Maasai Enkang and Hut.JPG, 2006]]

Educating Maasai women to use clinics and hospitals during pregnancy has enabled more infants to survive. The exception is found in extremely remote areas.{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=103}} 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.Cultural and Public Attitudes: Improving the Relationship between Humans and Hyaenas from Mills, M.g.L. and Hofer, H. (compilers). (1998) Hyaenas: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Hyaena Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. vi + 154 pp.The Lions of Tsavo: Exploring the Legacy of Africa's Notorious Man-eaters By Bruce D. Patterson. 2004. McGraw-Hill Professional. Page 93. {{ISBN|0-07-136333-5}}

Traditional Maasai lifestyle centres around their cattle,{{Cite web |year=2001 |title=Savanna: Folklore |url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/africa/explore/savanna/savanna_folklore_lo.html |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=THIRTEEN |publisher=PBS |publication-place=New York}} which constitute their primary source of food. 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.Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar by Phillip Briggs (2006), page 200. {{ISBN|1-84162-146-3}}Africa's Great Rift Valley. Nigel Pavitt. 2001. pages 138. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, New York {{ISBN|0-8109-0602-3}}

All of the Maasai's needs for food are met by their cattle. They eat their meat, drink their milk daily, and drink their blood on occasion. Bulls, goats, and lambs are slaughtered for meat on special occasions and ceremonies. Though the Maasai's entire way of life has historically depended on their cattle, more recently with their cattle dwindling, the Maasai have grown dependent on food such as sorghum, rice, potatoes and cabbage (known to the Maasai as goat leaves).Nelson, Jimmy. The Maasai Tribe. Beforethey.com

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.maasai-association.org/lion.html |title=Maasai Association |publisher=Maasai Association |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2012-06-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618044327/http://www.maasai-association.org/lion.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.lionconservation.org/LionKillinginAmboseliregion2000-May2006.pdf |title=Lion Killing in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem, 2001–2006, and its Implications for Kenya's Lion Population |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090224220706/http://www.lionconservation.org/LionKillinginAmboseliregion2000-May2006.pdf |archive-date=February 24, 2009}} Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value and celebrity status in the community.{{Sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=86–87}}Spencer, P. (1988) The Maasai of Matapato: a study of rituals of rebellion Manchester University Press, Manchester. Spencer, P. (2003) Time, Space, and the Unknown: Maasai configurations of power and providence. Routledge, London.

File:Open air classroom for Maasai children in Tanzania.jpg

File:Maasai woman with stretched ears.jpg

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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&dq=maasai+ears&pg=PA42 The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation Without Illusion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520054101/https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=maasai+ears&source=web&ots=7u768brgsE&sig=q8PlaGC5C_ot35-PeLPJYlFDhxQ |date=2021-05-20 }}. Jonathan S. Adams, Thomas O. McShane. 1996. University of California Press. page = 42. {{ISBN|0-520-20671-1}} Women wear various forms of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe and smaller piercings at the top of the ear.[https://books.google.com/books?id=gfUbHXT2dloC&dq=maasai+ears&pg=PA91 Culture and Customs of Kenya] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520054102/https://books.google.com/books?id=gfUbHXT2dloC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=maasai+ears&source=web&ots=2bhvmh_ZDO&sig=qG0fvuy6s0de2sWkSvtgICzz2fA |date=2021-05-20 }}. Neal Sobania. 2003. Greenwood Press. page 91. {{ISBN|0-313-31486-1}} 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.{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hassanali J, Amwayi P, Muriithi A |date=Apr 1995 |title=Removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in Kenyan rural Maasai |journal=East Afr Med J |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=207–9 |pmid=7621751}}{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hiza JF, Kikwilu EN |date=Apr 1992 |title=Missing primary teeth due to tooth bud extraction in a remote village in Tanzania |journal=Int J Paediatr Dent |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=31–4 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-263x.1992.tb00005.x |pmid=1525129}}

File:Young Maasai Warrior.jpg

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.{{Cite web |url=http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/index-english/main.htm |title=English - Maa |publisher=Darkwing.uoregon.edu |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2017-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901172726/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/index-english/main.htm |url-status=live }} This ritual is typically performed by the elders, who use a sharpened knife and makeshift cattle hide bandages for the procedure.{{Sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=55, 94}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html |title=Maasai Association |publisher=Maasai Association |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2019-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027143838/http://maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=83, 100–103}}Northern Tanzania - The Bradt Safari Guide by Phillip Briggs (2006). British Library. {{ISBN|1-84162-146-3}}{{Cite web |url=http://maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html |title=Maasai Association |publisher=Maasai Association |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2019-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027143838/http://maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html |url-status=live }}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.orato.com/world-affairs/maasai-ritual-of-female-circumcision |title=Maasai Ritual of Female Circumcision: Genital Cutting Practiced throughout Africa and Middle East |publisher=Orato.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807211153/http://www.orato.com/world-affairs/maasai-ritual-of-female-circumcision |archive-date=2011-08-07 |access-date=2012-05-05}} 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 like Linah Kilimo, can be accused of not being mature enough to be taken seriously.{{Cite web |url=http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?IndepthId=15&ReportId=62462 |title=In-depth: Razor's Edge - The Controversy of Female Genital Mutilation |date=March 2005 |publisher=IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |access-date=2012-05-05 |archive-date=2012-04-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418212459/http://www.irinnews.org/IndepthMain.aspx?IndepthId=15&ReportId=62462 |url-status=live }} 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Shell-Duncan |first1=Bettina |last2=Hernlund |first2=Ylva |last3=Wander |first3=Katherine |last4=Moreau |first4=Amadou |date=2013-12-01 |title=Legislating Change? Responses to Criminalizing Female Genital Cutting in Senegal |journal=Law & Society Review |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=803–835 |doi=10.1111/lasr.12044 |issn=0023-9216 |pmc=3997264 |pmid=24771947}}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=168–173}}

File:Maasai woman.jpg

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.{{Sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=169}}

Among the men, warriors are the only members of the Maasai community to wear long hair, which they weave in thinly braided strands.{{cite book|title=Broken Spears - a Maasai Journey |first=Elizabeth L. |last=Gilbert |date=2003 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |pages=136 |isbn=0-87113-840-9}} 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.{{cite AV media |title=Tribal Odyssey - Maasai: The Last Dance Of The Warriors |publisher=National Geographic |year=2005 |medium=Motion picture}}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=55, 88}}{{cite web |url=http://maasai-association.org/maasai.html |title=Maasai People, Kenya |publisher=Maasai-association.org |access-date=28 February 2012 |archive-date=18 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200518202543/http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html |url-status=live }}{{cite book|title=Broken Spears - a Maasai Journey |first=Elizabeth L. |last=Gilbert |date=2003 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |pages=82 |isbn=0-87113-840-9}}

This would symbolise the healing of the woman.{{cite book|last=Ryan |first=Michael |chapter=The Demographic Crisis |date=1993 |title=Social Trends in Contemporary Russia |pages=46–62 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-22858-4_4 |isbn=978-1-349-22860-7}}

Two days before boys are circumcised, their heads are shaved.Maasai. Tepilit Ole Saitoti with photos by Carol Beckwith. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1980. page 79. {{ISBN|0-8109-8099-1}}Maasai. Tepilit Ole Saitoti with photos by Carol Beckwith. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1980. pages 126, 129. {{ISBN|0-8109-8099-1}} When warriors go through the Eunoto and become elders, their long plaited hair is shaved off.Maasai. Tepilit Ole Saitoti with photos by Carol Beckwith. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1980. page 171. {{ISBN|0-8109-8099-1}}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=168}}

File:Maasai-Adumu.jpg

Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ilmurran.com/ |title=ilMurran |date=1999-12-04 |publisher=ilMurran |language=fi |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428050356/http://www.ilmurran.com/ |archive-date=2007-04-28 |access-date=2012-02-28}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.laleyio.com/music.html |title=Maasai Music |publisher=laleyio.com |date=2008-05-27 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104184707/http://www.laleyio.com/music.html |archive-date=November 4, 2011 |access-date=2012-02-28}} Unlike most other African tribes, Maasai widely use drone polyphony.Joseph Jordania. Why do People Sing? Music in Human Evolution. Logos. Pg 17

Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. The Namba,

• {{cite journal |last1=Gabisonia |first1=Tamaz. |title="Traditional Polyphony of the Maasai |journal=Bulletin of the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony |date=2013 |volume=15 |url=https://polyphony.ge/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/15_biuleteni_Eng.pdf |publisher=International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi Vano Sarajishvili State Conservatory |quote= |via=polyphony.ge}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Gabisonia |first1=Tamaz. |title="Traditional Polyphony of the Maasai |journal=Bulletin of the International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony |date=2013 |volume=15 |url=https://archive.org/download/3-bulletin-3/15_biuleteni_Eng.pdf |publisher=International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi Vano Sarajishvili State Conservatory |quote= |via=archive.org}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/texth/Homophonic.html |title=Homophonic |date=2011-11-17 |publisher=Music.vt.edu |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2014-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027034300/http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/texth/Homophonic.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/homophony.html |title=What is monophony, polyphony, homophony, monody etc.? |publisher=Medieval.org |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2021-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520054121/http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/homophony.html |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=12, 43, 85, 100}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.laleyio.com/songstructure.html |title=Song Structure of Maasai Music |date=2008-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050226032314/http://www.laleyio.com/songstructure.html |publisher=laleyio.com |archive-date=February 26, 2005 |url-status=usurped |access-date=2012-02-28}} When many Maasai women gather together, they sing and dance among themselves.Maasai. Tepilit Ole Saitoti with photos by Carol Beckwith. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1980. pages 194. {{ISBN|0-8109-8099-1}}

• {{cite web |author1=Ereto Maasai |title=Maigisa: Songs of the Maasai |url=https://www.mediatheque.be/collection/maigisa-songs-of-the-maasai-mm4165 |website=Médiathèque Nouvelle |access-date=19 June 2025}}
• {{cite web |last1=Harderwijk |first1=Jeroen |last2=Zuidmeer |first2=Jasja |title=The Ereto Maasai Music Recording Session, July 2000 |url=http://www.maasai-music.com/project.php |website=the maasai music cd project |access-date=19 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020605185556/http://www.maasai-music.com/project.php |archive-date=2002-06-05}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=S. |title=Maigisa: Songs of the Maasai. 2002. Ethnic Series. PAN Records 2087. Performed by the Ereto Maasai Women Group. Recorded by Jeroen Harderwijk and Jasja Zuidmeer. Annotated by Jeroen Harderwijk. 26 pages of notes in English, song texts in Maasai, Kiswahili, and English. Translations by Solomon Nkatai Ole Mayaka, Meng'uriki Melembuki, Henry John Kimambo, and Jeroen Harderwijk. 1 colour, 6 B/W photographs, 1 map. 4-item bibliography. 1 compact disc, 21 tracks (60:06). Recorded in the field. |journal=Yearbook for Traditional Music |date=2003 |volume=35 |pages=215-216 |doi=10.2307/4149344 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/yearbook-for-traditional-music/article/abs/maigisa-songs-of-the-maasai-2002-ethnic-series-pan-records-2087-performed-by-the-ereto-maasai-women-group-recorded-by-jeroen-harderwijk-and-jasja-zuidmeer-annotated-by-jeroen-harderwijk-26-pages-of-notes-in-english-song-texts-in-maasai-kiswahili-and-english-translations-by-solomon-nkatai-ole-mayaka-menguriki-melembuki-henry-john-kimambo-and-jeroen-harderwijk-1-colour-6-bw-photographs-1-map-4item-bibliography-1-compact-disc-21-tracks-6006-recorded-in-the-field/9F730D80850B9468ABE081EC537BD985|url-access=subscription }}

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".

• {{Cite web |last1=Payne |first1=Doris L. |url=http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/categories/main.htm |title=Maa - Categories |publisher=Darkwing.uoregon.edu |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2011-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628182446/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/categories/main.htm |url-status=live }}
• {{cite web |last1=Payne |first1=Doris L. |title=Maa Language Project |url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/maasai/ |website=University of Oregon |access-date=19 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815233817/http://www.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/maasai/madict.htm |archive-date=2000-08-15 |url-status=live}}

{{Cite web |url=http://www.laleyio.com/performance.html |title=performance of Maasai Music |publisher=laleyio.com |date=2008-05-27 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306032559/http://www.laleyio.com/performance.html |archive-date=2008-03-06 |access-date=2012-02-28}}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|pp=43–45, 100, 107}})

File:Maasai man with cattle.jpg, 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.

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E07.htm |title=The technology of traditional milk products in developing countries |publisher=Fao.org |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2012-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227061816/http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E07.htm |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.taa.org.uk/TAAScotland/LivestockasfoodforpastoralistsinAfrica2001.htm |title=Livestock as food for pastoralists in Africa |last=Suttie |first=J.M. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311031855/http://www.taa.org.uk/TAAScotland/LivestockasfoodforpastoralistsinAfrica2001.htm |archive-date=11 March 2009}}

The Maasai herd goats and sheep, including the Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more prized cattle.{{Cite web |url=https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/4202/ILCA_SS_4.pdf?sequence=1 |title=Maasai herding: An analysis of the livestock production system of Maasai pastoralists in eastern Kajiado District, Kenya |date=1991 |editor-last=Bekure |editor-first=Solomon |editor2-last=Leeuw |editor2-first=P. N. de |format=PDF |via=CGSpace |access-date=2020-02-02 |editor3-last=Grandin |editor3-first=B. E. |editor4-last=Neate |editor4-first=P. J. H. |publisher=International Livestock Centre for Africa |archive-date=2021-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711081909/https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/4202/ILCA_SS_4.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=87}}

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 bush.{{Cite web |url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001266/126660e.pdf |title=Ethnobotany of the Loita Maasai: towards community management of the Forest of the Lost Child; experiences from the Loita Ethnobotany Project; People and plants working paper; Vol.:8; 2001 |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2012-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607222155/http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001266/126660e.pdf |url-status=live }}{{sfn|Amin|Willetts|Eames|1987|p=90}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.htm|title=maasai-association.org}}

File:Musoke Deo MDK-MUSO A Traditional Medicines & Herbs Hawker from Masaai Tribe.png

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.{{Cite journal |last=Ryan |first=Kathleen |date=2000 |title=Edible Wild Plants as Digestive Aids |url=https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/42-3/Science.pdf |journal=Ethnoarchaeology in Maasailand |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=2 |via=Science & Archaeology}} 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.

File:Maasai shelter.jpg

{{Cite web |url=http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html |title=Maasai People, Kenya |publisher=Maasai-association.org |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2020-05-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200518202543/http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html |url-status=live }}

{{wide image|Maasai-Enkang-near-Sekenani.JPG|800px|Panoramic view of Maasai Enkang, seen from the inside}}

{{wide image|Manyatta.jpg|800px|Panoramic view of Maasai Enkang, seen from the outside}}

File:Maasai Woman Meeyu Sale Wearing her Finest.jpg

Maasai clothing symbolises ethnic group membership, a pastoralist lifestyle, as well as an individual's social position.{{Cite thesis |last=Kotowicz |first=Allison |date=2013 |title=Maasai Identity in the 21st Century |type=MS thesis |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |pages=78 |url= https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1720&context=etd |via=African Studies Commons}} From this they can decide the roles they undertake for the tribe. Jewellery also can show an individual's gender, relationship status, and age. Maasai traditional clothing is both a means of tribal identification and symbolism: young men, for example, wear black for several months following their circumcision.

The Maasai began to replace animal skin, calf hides and sheep skin with commercial cotton cloth in the 1960s.{{Cite encyclopedia |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5217/is_1999/ai_n19133542/pg_4 |title=Maasai |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120708194742/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5217/is_1999/ai_n19133542/pg_4 |archive-date=2012-07-08 |date=1999 |encyclopedia=Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures}}

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.{{Cite web |url= http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/categories/main.htm |title=Maa (Maasai) Dictionary |publisher=Darkwing.uoregon.edu |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2011-06-28 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110628182446/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/Maa%20Lexicon/categories/main.htm |url-status=live }} One-piece garments known as kanga, a Swahili term, are common.{{Cite web |url= http://www.glcom.com/hassan/kanga_history.html |title=Kanga history |publisher=Glcom.com |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120217212401/http://www.glcom.com/hassan/kanga_history.html |archive-date=2012-02-17 |url-status=dead }} Maasai near the coast may wear kikoi, a sarong-like garment that comes in many different colours and textiles{{Cite web |url= http://www.africa.upenn.edu/NEH/kmatculture.htm |title=East Africa Living Encyclopedia |publisher=Africa.upenn.edu |access-date=2012-02-28 |archive-date=2019-10-22 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191022112308/http://www.africa.upenn.edu/NEH/kmatculture.htm |url-status=live }}Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar by Phillip Briggs (2006), page 216. {{ISBN|1-84162-146-3}}{{Cite web |url= http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/beads/essay3.html |title=Klumpp 1987, 105, 30, 31, 67 |publisher=Smithsonianeducation.org |access-date=2012-02-28|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070715184107/http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/beads/essay3.html|archive-date=2007-07-15|url-status=live}}

File:Ludzie06(js).jpg

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.McCabe, Terrence. (2003). "Sustainability and livelihood diversification among the Maasai of Northern Tanzania". Human Organization. Vol 62.2. pp. 100–111. 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).

File:Lo'o Paa'pai.jpg.]]

File:Maasai man riding a motorcycle (close up).jpg

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. Cultivation was first introduced to the Maasai by displaced WaArusha and WaMeru women who married Maasai men.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-25 |title=THE MAASAI |url=https://africultures.data.blog/2022/04/25/the-maasai-2/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Africulture |language=en}}

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.Goodman, Ric. (2002). "Pastoral livelihoods in Tanzania: Can the Maasai benefit from conservation?" Current Issues in Tourism. Vol 5.3,4. P.280–286.

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.siyabona.com/maasai-tribe-east-africa.html |title=The Maasai Tribe, East Africa |last=Siyabona Africa |website=Siyabona Africa |access-date=20 April 2018 |archive-date=22 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190922171353/http://www.siyabona.com/maasai-tribe-east-africa.html |url-status=live }}

Emerging employment among the Maasai people include farming, business, and wage employment in both the public and private sectors.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ilo.org/dyn/infoecon/docs/790/F2096573592/Pastoralists.pdf |title=Challenges To Traditional Livelihoods And Newly Emerging Employment Patterns Of Pastoralists In Tanzania |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924104436/http://www.ilo.org/dyn/infoecon/docs/790/F2096573592/Pastoralists.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-24 |access-date=2012-02-28}}

Many Maasai have also moved away from the nomadic life to positions in commerce and government.{{cite report |author=D. Sendalo |date=April 2009 |title=A Review of Land Tenure Policy Implication on Pastoralism in Tanzania |url=https://landportal.org/sites/default/files/tz-pastoral-paper-2009_copy.pdf |publisher=Department of Livestock Research, Training and Extension, Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries |page=16 |access-date=2022-02-17 |archive-date=2022-02-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217071039/https://landportal.org/sites/default/files/tz-pastoral-paper-2009_copy.pdf |url-status=live }}

The Maasai community was reportedly being targeted with live ammunition and tear gas in June 2022 in Tanzania, in a government plan to seize a piece of Maasai land for elite private luxury development. Lawyers, human rights groups, and activists who brought the matter to light claimed that Tanzanian security forces tried to forcefully evict the indigenous Maasai people from their ancestral land for the establishment of a luxury game reserve by Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) for the royals ruling the United Arab Emirates. As of 18 June 2022, approximately 30 Maasai people had been injured and at least one killed, at the hands of the Tanzanian government Field Force Unit (FFU) while protesting the government’s plans of what it claims are delimiting a 1500 sq km of land as a game reserve, an act which violates a 2018 East African Court of Justice (EACJ) injunction on the land dispute, per local activists. By reclassifying the area as a game reserve, the authorities aimed to systematically expropriate Maasai settlements and grazing in the area, experts warned.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-14 |title=Maasai protesters shot, beaten as Tanzania moves forward with wildlife game reserve |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/maasai-protesters-shot-beaten-as-tanzania-moves-forward-with-wildlife-game-reserve/ |access-date=2022-07-29 |website=Mongabay Environmental News |language=en-US |archive-date=2022-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710175359/https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/maasai-protesters-shot-beaten-as-tanzania-moves-forward-with-wildlife-game-reserve/ |url-status=live }}

This was not the first time Maasai territory was encroached upon. Big-game hunting firms along with the government have long attacked the groups. The 2022 attacks are the latest escalation, which has left more than 150,000 Maasai displaced from the Loliondo and Ngorongoro areas as per the United Nations. A hunting concession already situated in Loliondo is owned by OBC, a company that has been allegedly linked to the significantly wealthy Emirati royal family as per Tanzanian lawyers, environmentalists as well as human rights activists. Anuradha Mittal, the executive director of the environmental think-tank, Oakland Institute cited that OBC was not a "safari company for just everyone, it has operations for the royal family".{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/1fbcc5c4-579a-47db-b736-cf368ccee40a|title=Tanzanian Maasai battle eviction from ancestral land|accessdate=18 June 2022|website=Financial Times|date=18 June 2022|archive-date=18 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618084249/https://www.ft.com/content/1fbcc5c4-579a-47db-b736-cf368ccee40a|url-status=live}}

A 2019 United Nations report described OBC as a luxury-game hunting company "based in the United Arab Emirates" that was granted a hunting license by the Tanzanian government in 1992 permitting "the UAE royal family to organise private hunting trips" in addition to denying the Maasai people access to their ancestral land and water for herding cattle.{{cite web|url=https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24872|title=Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons|accessdate=11 October 2019|website=OHCHR|archive-date=9 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609080146/https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=24872|url-status=live}}

When approached, the UAE government refrained from giving any statements. Meanwhile, the OBC commented on the matter without addressing alleged links with Emirati royals, stating that "there is no eviction in Loliondo" and calling it a "reserve land protected area" owned by the government.

• Linus Kaikai – Kenyan journalist and Chair of the Kenya Editors Guild
• Francis Ole Kaparo – Former Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya
• James Ole Kiyiapi – associate professor at Moi University and permanent secretary in the Ministries of Education and Local Government
• Olekina Ledama – Founder, Maasai Education Discovery
• Stanley Shapashina Oloitiptip – Former Kenya politician and cabinet minister
• Josephine Lemoyan – social scientist, Tanzanian member of the 2017-2022 East African Legislative Assembly{{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Citizen|2021}}|author= |title=Newest 'Kids' in Tanzania's Political Block |url=https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/newest-kids-in-tanzania-s-political-block-2588788 |access-date=31 January 2024 |work=The Citizen |date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131183307/https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/newest-kids-in-tanzania-s-political-block-2588788 |archive-date=31 January 2024 |location=Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |url-status=live}}
• Nice Nailantei Lengete – First woman to address the Maasai elders council at Mount Kilimanjaro, and persuaded the council to ban female genital mutilation among the Maasai across Kenya and Tanzania
• Joseph Ole Lenku – Cabinet Secretary of Kenya for Interior and Coordination of National Government from 2012 to 2014
• Mbatian – Prophet after whom Batian Peak, the highest peak of Mount Kenya, is named
• Katoo Ole Metito – Member of Parliament for Kajiado South sub county
• Joseph Nkaissery – Former Cabinet Secretary of Kenya for Interior and Coordination of National Government from 2014 to his death in 2017
• William Ole Ntimama – Former Kenyan politician and leader of the Maa community
• Damaris Parsitau – gender equality advocate, feminist, and scholar
• David Rudisha – Middle-distance runner and 800-meter world record holder
• George Saitoti – former Vice-president of Kenya
• Moses ole Sakuda – Kenyan politician
• Jackson Ole Sapit – Sixth Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya
• Edward Sokoine – Prime Minister of Tanzania from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1983 to 1984
• Sanaipei Tande – Kenyan musical artist

• Maasai language
• Maasai religion
• Maa Civil Society Forum
• 1899 famine in central Kenya

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last1=Amin |first1=Mohamed |last2=Willetts |first2=Duncan |first3=John |last3=Eames |title=The Last of the Maasai |date=1987 |publisher=Camerapix Publishers International |isbn=1-874041-32-6}}

{{Commons category|Maasai}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120715234704/http://www.africanpeople.info/ African People Ethnography | Maasai]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100107200159/http://www.uoregon.edu/~maasai/Maa%20Lexicon/lexicon/main.htm Maasai online dictionary]
• [http://www.e-solidarity.org/index-engl.htm Maasai Aid Association]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091019024105/http://elandmaasai.org/ Working for a just and self-sustaining community for the Maasai People]
• [http://www.maasaitrust.org/ Maasai Trust]
• [http://www.maasaimara.com/the-mara/maasai-people The Maasai People - History and Culture (dead link)]
• [http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html Maasai people, Kenya at the Maasai Association]
• [http://www.indiana.edu/~iuam/kenya/categories/16 Indiana University Art Museum Arts of Kenya online collection]
• [https://www.masaimara.travel/maasai-tribe-facts.php Maasai Mara Tribe Facts]

{{Ethnic groups in Kenya}}

{{Ethnic groups in Tanzania}}

{{Arusha}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maasai People}}

Category:Ethnic groups in Kenya

Category:Indigenous peoples of East Africa

Category:Nilotic peoples

Category:Indigenous peoples of Arusha Region

Category:Ethnic groups divided by international borders

Category:Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

Category:Ethnic groups in Tanzania