driftreality
Aug 5th, 2003
Aug 5th, 2003
Masai Hunters
During my stay at the Safari Park hotel, I had been fortunate enough to meet a Masai hunter who was working at the sushi restaurant and he had taught me a lot about his tribe, including the following points of interest:
- The Masai think that all the cattle in the world belong to them and they act accordingly. This often causes problems because many people who actually pay money for the cattle disagree with the Masai when they try to take their cattle away.
- As a coming-of-age ritual, the Masai men have to kill a male lion. This causes problems because it is against the law to kill lions in Kenya (and most of Africa). Also, this may cause problems because they have to kill lions with a spear and dagger.
- Instead of slaughtering and eating cows, the Masai have figured out a way to get their daily dose of protein through a more sustainable manner: They cut an artery on the cow’s neck, and then poor the blood into a cup of milk, which they let sit and ferment for about a week before drinking.
- Like male lions, Masai men often have eight or nine wives.
This last point presented a conundrum of sorts, one that I would spend the rest of my time in Africa trying to figure out. The problem with one man having eight or nine wives is that, in a population that contains a roughly equal number of men and women, if one man has eight wives, that leaves seven men who won’t be able to have any.
After asking about six different Masai hunters how this ratio was possible, I got the following answers:
- One Masai hunter told me that many of the men get killed by lions, creating a disproportionately high number of Masai females. This point was later contradicted by another Masai who said that Masai hunters never get killed by lions.
- Men share wives. The sushi chef told me this. This was later contradicted by a Masai hunter who said that their women are always faithful.
- Masai men draw straws to see who has to get a sex change operation and become a Masai woman. This was my own theory actually, and I never sprung it on anyone for fear of insulting the Masai.
