Date of Defense
6-1990
Department
Anthropology
Abstract
The aim of this case study is to focus on the conflict between the traditional culture of the Maasai people and the Government of Kenya's plan to modernize their country. The Maasai are a people who traditionally attempted to live a purely pastoral way of life in Kenya and Tanzania, East Africa. They are a minority among over forty different ethnic groups in Kenya (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1990:299). The culture of the Maasai is especially different from other ethnic groups because of their subsistence emphasis on raising domestic livestock while other ethnic group are mainly agriculturalists. Hence, because most government officials come from agricultural societies, the Maasai pastoral culture tends to be degraded or devaluated in governmental plans to improve national economic activities or to solve national population and unemployment problems.
Recommended Citation
Murase, Fumie, "Tradition and Modernization of the Maasai People, East Africa" (1990). Honors Theses. 1446.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/1446
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Campus Only