The Maasai: Colonial Impacts on Gender Roles, Spatial Alienation and Reallocation, and the Dichotomization of Food and Space

Since the beginning of colonialism in Tanzania and Kenya, the Maasai people have experienced spatial and cultural alienation, as well as a massive shift in social structure. As the British implemented indirect rule, older men... [ view full abstract ]

Since the beginning of colonialism in Tanzania and Kenya, the Maasai people have experienced spatial and cultural alienation, as well as a massive shift in social structure. As the British implemented indirect rule, older men in Maasai society were given social and political power, which alienated women from the public spheres of social, economic, and political matters and creating a gender hierarchy that previously had not existed. My project, based on a variety of anthropological journals and papers, explores the symbolic dichotomies that may be found in the gendering of space and food and the emergence of patriarchal societies among the Maasai. I also examine the harmful constitutions by colonial powers of all Maa-speaking people as the “Maasai” and of the “Maasai” as a “tribe”. In short, I examine the impacts of colonialism on a traditionally nomadic and pastoralist society, particularly in regards to gender, and the way that land reallocation and designation, indirect rule, and general European involvement have affected the development of the Maasai lifestyle.