Vol. 33 No. 4 (2024): NJAS Special Issue: Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies
Special Issue: Becoming (Un)Equal in Age: Seniority and Superiority in African Societies

Power and Age : The Case of the Pastoral Maasai Age Class System

PDF
  • Sam Maghimbi
Sam Maghimbi
University of Dar Es Salaam
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v33i4.1146

Published 2024-12-19

Keywords

  • family,
  • cattle herd,
  • inheritance,
  • reproduction,
  • cattle rich

How to Cite

Maghimbi, S. (2024). Power and Age : The Case of the Pastoral Maasai Age Class System. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 33(4), 337–352. https://doi.org/10.53228/njas.v33i4.1146

Copyright (c) 2024 Sam Maghimbi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Spencer (1965, 1988, 1993, 2003) theorizes two distinct strands in the life course of a Maasai male. The first strand is the building of a cattle herd and a family, and the second is developing involvement in the age class system. The second strand is overemphasized in Spencer’s analysis of Maasai society. The age class system attracts nearly euphoric attention from Spencer and other authors on the Maasai. This stance has led to a point where the materiality of Maasai life (cattle) is discussed but is hidden behind a discussion of the age system. This article argues that more weight should be given to the first strand of Maasai life mentioned by Spencer. Maasai society may still be largely organized along gerontocratic lines, but nevertheless the power of Maasai men is derived from the cattle herd and from their control of their families.

This research report has been reviewed by the editors of the special issue but has not been externally peer-reviewed.

PDF

References

  1. Berlin, Isaiah. 1978. Russian Thinkers. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
  2. Bodley, John H. 2019. Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw Hill.
  3. Eagleton, Terry. 2007. Ideology: An Introduction. New Delhi: ABS Publishers & Distributors.
  4. Ferraro, Gary. 2006. Cultural Anthropology. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
  5. Dahrendorf, Ralf. 1959. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: University Press.
  6. Giddens, Anthony. 1993. Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  7. House, S. 2002. Pastoralism, Hunter Gathering and Agriculture and the Issue of Land and Water Rights; and Its Relevance to KINNAPA/KDC/Water Aid Partnership Programme in Kiteto, Arusha. Tanzania: Water Aid.
  8. Kjekshus, Helge. 1996. Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History. London: James Currey.
  9. Maghimbi, Sam. 1988. “One Party Aggrandizement and the Problems of Reorganizing a Monolithic Political System: The Case of Tanzania.” In Multi-Party Democracy, Civil Society and Economic Transformation in Southern Africa: Papers from the 14th Southern African Universities Social Science Conference, Windhoek, November 1992, edited by Jannie Hunter and Christo Lombard, 113–130. Windhoek: SAUSSC.
  10. Maghimbi, Sam. 1991. “The Riverside Masai: Cattle Economy, Drought and Settlement Patterns in the Pangani River Valley.” Pastoral Economies in Africa and Long-Term Responses to Drought, edited by Jeffrey C. Stone, 62–68. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University African Studies Group.
  11. Maghimbi, Sam. 1999. “An Evaluation of Gender Division of Labour and Violence Among the Maasai of Engassment.” Tanzania Journal of Population and Development 6 (1–2): 111–122.
  12. Maghimbi, Sam. 2003. “Cattle, Alcohol, Religion: The Maasai Women’s Nightmare.” Unpublished paper presented at the Japanese Association of African Studies, Tokyo University, March 19, 2003.
  13. Maghimbi, Sam. 2008. “Water, Nomadism and the Subsistence Ethic in Maasailand (Kiteto District).” In Contemporary Perspectives on African Moral Economy, edited by I. N. Kimambo, G. Hyden, S. Maghimbi, and K Sugimura, 63–71 Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press.
  14. von Mitzlaff, Ulrike. 1988, 1994. Maasai Women: Life in a Patriarchal Society, Field Research among the Parakayo, Tanzania. Tanzania: Trickster, Tanzania Publishing House.
  15. Ndagala, Daniel K. 1991. Pastoralism and Rural Development: The Ilparakuyo Experience. New Delhi: Reliance Publishing House.
  16. Rigby, Peter. 1992. Cattle, Capitalism and Class: Ilparakuyo Maasai Transformations. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
  17. Ritzer, George. 2000. Modern Sociological Theory. Boston: McGraw Hill.
  18. Rostow, Walt Whitman. 1968. The Stages of Economic Growth. London: Cambridge University Press.
  19. Spencer, Paul. 1965. The Samburu: A Study of Gerontocracy in a Nomadic Tribe. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  20. Spencer, Paul. 1984. “Pastoralists and the Ghost of Capitalism.” Production pastorale et sociètè 15: 61–76.
  21. Spencer, Paul. 1988. The Maasai of Matapato. London: Manchester University Press.
  22. Spencer, Paul. 1993. “Becoming Maasai, Being in Time”. In Being Maasai, edited by Thomas Spencer and Richard Waller, 137–156. Oxford: James Currey.
  23. Spencer, Paul. 2003. Time, Space and the Unknown: Maasai Configurations of Power and Providence. London: Routledge.
  24. Spear, Thomas, and Richard Waller, eds. 1993. Being Maasai. Oxford, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Athens: James Currey/Mkuki na Nyota/EAEP/Ohio University Press.
  25. Stone, Jeffrey C., ed. 1991. Pastoral Economies in Africa and Long-Term Responses to Drought. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University African Studies Group.
  26. Vuorela, Ulla. 1987. The Women’s Question and the Modes of Human Reproduction. An Analysis of a Tanzanian Village. Helsinki: The Finnish Society for Development Studies.