- Since most of the Maasai tribes live in such rural areas the people have learned to grow their own crops and raise their own cattle. It is positive for the Maasai because they learn hard working skills and they don’t have to depend on other people to do things for them.

- Total population roughly over a million people

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• Shrinking

• Maasai population in both countries are difficult to find because of the remote locations of their different villages

• Since the numbers are decreasing it shows that not as many people are passing down their tribal traditions to their children; therefore, not as many people participate in these tribes.

- A Nilo-Saharan language similar to Dinka, Nuer, Turkana, and Sanghai

- The reason why there would be an official language is so that all the villages of the tribe can speak to each other and if there is a major event going on people can spread the word more easily.

• Primary source of food

• Believe god gave them his cattle to watch of over

• Measure man’s wealth in terms of cattle and children

• not money

• Herd of 50 cattle is respectable

• Traditional staple of a man’s diet

• Which used to consist of meat, milk and blood

• Herd size always been a way to distinguish the rich from the poor

• Have long been the bond between many social and personal bonds

• Pre-circumcision ceremony

• Organized by the fathers of the new age set

• Every 12-15 years a new age set is initiated together

• Boys travel throughout region to announce now age-set

• Travel about four months

• Day before ceremony boys must sleep outside in the forest

• During the ceremony

• Boys dress in loose clothing

• Dance nonstop throughout the day

• Ceremony is the transition into a new age-set

• After ceremony

• Boys are ready to be circumcised

• Ready to take charge of warrior hood

• Every boy wants to be initiated as young as possible and before anyone else

• The most important event in a young Maasai’s life

• Father's ultimate duty to ensure that his children undergo this rite

• Family invites relatives and friends to witness the ceremonies

• Which may be held in special villages called imanyat .

• The imanyat dedicated to circumcision of boys are called nkang oo ntaritik (villages of little birds).

• Tests a youth's courage

• If they flinch during the act, boys bring shame and dishonor to themselves and their family

• The members of their age group ridicule them and they pay a fine of one head of cattle

• If a boy shows great bravery

• He receives gifts of cattle and sheep

• Considered preparation for childbearing

• Girls who become pregnant before excision are banished from the village and stigmatized throughout their lives

• After passing this test of courage

• Women say they are afraid of nothing

• By drinking great quantities of mead

• A fermented beverage containing honey

• And dancing

• Boys are then ready to become warriors, and

• Girls are then ready to bear a new generation of warriors

• Adaptation to rapid economic and social change

• Increasing encroachment on Maasai lands

• Threatens their traditional way of life

• Needs to address integration into the mainstream modern economies and political systems of Kenya and Tanzanian society

• Fear they may lose their children to Western schooling

• Modern education increasingly become a necessity

• In order to remain competitive with their neighbors and survive