Essay On Maasai Society

Maasai Society

The Maasai People from Kenya represent a pastoral society. They rely on the taming and herding of livestock as a means for survival. Those responsible for herding livestock are the Maasai warriors and boys, especially during drought season. They had cattle, goats and sheep as their livestock. I did notice a social transformation in their society. Each individual has their job to complete daily. For example, the women formed the houses, milked the cattle, cooked for the family and supplied them with water. The men made the fence around the Kraal and secured the society and the boys were responsible for herding livestock. These multiple duties, commanded by the elderly, eventually started emerging to new and different customs such as trading with local groups. This was

extremely important to them economically because the cattle were their source of income. The Maasai people also traded their animals for cash or milk. They also sold their livestock for different necessities, such as beads, clothing and grains. The Maasai have to rely on food from other groups; for instance potatoes, and cabbage. With time, the cattle was not enough resource for the Maasai people which required them to farm even though it went against their belief of not manipulating nature.
Another social transformation that emerged on the Maasai people was that their land was subdivided into groups and individual farms. The society which once was self-sufficient began to diminish. Eventually the groups began to sell their land to private owners. This is extremely upsetting because the people started to lose their precious land which had necessary goods such as water source, and grassland. The people were even restricted from certain lands because the sold lands were converted to national parks and reserves. Not only was their land minimized but the amount of cattle and food production reduced as well.
It is possible to have elements from other types of societies. The Maasai showed elements of horticultural society and agricultural society when they used small tools to farm their own produce when there was no drought. Another element that they expressed was hunter-gatherer society when the warriors went out to hunt for lions. It is unfortunate to say that the Maasai will transform into a new society. Based on the circumstances of the lands sold to owners and the political challenges, the Maasai can transform into a feudal societies.
The Maasai are somewhat similar to the United states culture, in the sense of living on a daily bases and doing what it takes to survive.

Maasai have responsibilities to accomplish daily and so does the US people. They both show pride in what they do. Some differences are that the United States has some different elements of society. For example, the US has information society because of the advanced technology in production of information and services. The US holds a diverse amount of subcultures. There are different people who live in the United States that are from all around the world, who each share different customs and languages but yet also practice the American culture. For instance, Hispanics from different Latin countries, black African Americans, Asians, Middle Eastern, etc. Of course there are countercultures like the Ku Klux Klan or the hipsters that go against and do not follow the American culture. The US share many different popular cultures. For instance, every year they have the super bowl for American football, the MLB World Series, and NBA championship. Another popular culture would be the television channels which are Disney channel, HBO, FX, ABC Family,

etc.