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Die Masai
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Historical SummaryAmong the Masai, a non-Bantu group living north of the Chagga, the situation is clearly defined in two directions. Pre-nuptial cohabitation is one norm and marriage is another, and they are kept strictly separate. The Masai are a pastoral robber group, and all the men between the ages of about sixteen and twenty-six live in warrior camps. No man marries before retirement from the warrior class, but each has a girl living with him in his camp, and he is free to cohabit with any girl (excluding incestuous relations) except the one he is eventually to marry. The Masai girl has similar privileges, but it is a serious matter if she becomes pregnant:
During the period of engagement the two do not meet. The man shuns the kraal in which the girl lives, or if he should enter it the girl conceals herself. . . . He lives with a certain number of warriors and girls in one camp and she with a certain number of girls and warriors in another. If the girl becomes pregnant during this time she is disgraced and the engagement is usually broken. Or, in exceptional cases, they are married as soon as possible. Otherwise [after confinement and the weaning of the child] the girl goes to a distant warrior camp in the hope of finding a husband there.1
1Merker, M.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 44 (Dietrich Reimer. By permission).
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Chicago:
"Die Masai," Die Masai in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed July 5, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VXHY1DTCYUD71PS.
MLA:
. "Die Masai." Die Masai, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 5 Jul. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VXHY1DTCYUD71PS.
Harvard:
, 'Die Masai' in Die Masai. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 5 July 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=VXHY1DTCYUD71PS.
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