The Maasai Warriors
Pattern maintenance and violence in colonial Kenya
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8977835 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert L Tignor (Princeton University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1972 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 271-290 |
| Publication date | 1972-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853700011476 |
| OpenAlex | W2003543360 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 13 |
This article attributes early twentieth century Maasai conservatism to the Maasai social structure and in particular to the warrior ( moran ) age-grade. Modernizing changes meant different things to different groups. To some Maasai elders they meant increased political power and wealth. But to the warriors they constituted a threat to their already declining status and entailed new and onerous obligations like road work. Governmental efforts to transform and modernize the Maasai were met by small-scale warrior rebellions. There were three such uprisings–in 1918, 1922 and 1935. All three were carried out by the warriors in defiance of the wishes of the elders and occurred at times when the government was seeking to alter Maasai society. The 1918 rebellion was over the recruitment of children for school; that of 1922 over attempts to do away with essential features of the moran system; and that of 1935 in opposition to road work. The Maasai warriors were effective resisters of change because of their considerable autonomy within their society and their esprit de corps
Autonomy · Colonialism · Ethnology · Geography · Government (linguistics · Maasai · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Tanzania · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
The Gender Dimensions of Resource Conflicts in Ghana
Polygamy, the Commodification of Women, and Underdevelopment
Aggression, Bravery, Endurance, and Drugs
Livestock-wealth inequalities and uptake of crop cultivation among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania
The Enemy Is Us
Knowledge Transmission Through the Lens of Lithic Production
The Maasai and the British 1895–1905 the Origins of an Alliance
Nature as myth, symbol and action
Ideology, Religion, and Ilparakuyo-Maasai Resistance to Capitalist Penetration
Experimental and archaeological investigations of backed microlith function among Mid-to-Late Holocene herders in southwestern Kenya
Zooarchaeology of the Iron Age in Western Iberia
Land, belonging and structural oblivion among contemporary white Kenyans
The Samburu
Continuity and Change in African Cultures
British Rule in Kenya, 1895-1912
Kamba Political Protest
The Kenya Maasai and the protest phenomenon, 1900–1960
Masai and Kikuyu Responses to the Establishment of British Administration in the East Africa Protectorate
Social Control in an African Society. A Study of the Arusha Agricultural Masai of Northern Tanganyika
Theory and Strategy in the Study of Cultural Adaptability
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,24 |
| Citation span | 1976 - 2022 (47) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |