Slam-Dunking and the Last Noble Savage

Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield

doi:10.1080/08949460213913

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The merging of Maasai and Samburu identities in this film reflects both historical reality and current cultural politics. One of the casting reasons for using Samburu instead of Maasai is that they were considered more "traditional", referring to their relative lack of experience with the cash economy, hence financially more attractive to the filmmakers (KASFIR 2002). 7.…”

Section: Maasai Imaginariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaged or Imagined? Cultural Representations and the “Tourismification” of Peoples and Places

Salazar¹

2009

etudesafricaines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Maasai Imaginariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaged or Imagined? Cultural Representations and the “Tourismification” of Peoples and Places

Salazar¹

2009

etudesafricaines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Ethnographic accounts of Maa moranhood have largely focused on more numerous Maasai and Samburu. 2 These studies demonstrated that moranhood is a crucial category for locating men in local configurations of gender and generation, but is frequently conflated with "tradition" and "warriorhood," at the expense of the diversity of morans' societal roles and masculine subjectivities (Hodgson, 1999;Meiu, 2017;Galaty, 2002;Kasfir, 2002;Holtzman, 2004;Marmone, 2017;Spencer, 1965Spencer, , 1988. Notably, for all Maa-speaking groups, moranhood does not simply refer to "warriorhood," even though the two are frequently conflated: the Maa word "moran" (lmurran) refers rather to a man who is circumcised (Hodgson, 1999: 126;Marmone, 2021: 18, n.3).…”

Section: Youthhood Masculinity and Searching For Respectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculinity, Morality, and the State in Northern Kenya: The Case of Baringo County's Il Chamus

Kovač,

Schulz

2023

Africa Spectrum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the early 2000s, armed attacks and inter-ethnic violence have increased in parts of northern Kenya's Baringo County. This article examines how the Maa-speaking Il Chamus men respond to the growing insecurity as they draw on long-standing notions of morality and on the Kenyan state. In contrast to tropes of (agro)pastoralist northern Kenya being plagued by inter-ethnic animosity, lawlessness, and absence of governance, Il Chamus men situate inter-ethnic violence and gun ownership in notions of peace, prosperity, and security and engage the Kenyan state in an effort to achieve these values. Analyses of men in precarious conditions as experiencing “waithood” and turning to violence “in search of respect” need to be complemented by attention to emic notions of morality, masculinity, and intergenerational hierarchy, albeit not as simple remnants of “culture” but as points of debate in contemporary contexts of political and ecological insecurity.

show abstract

“…The beads “help to create one principal marketed version of Maasai identity … and popular images are instantly recognized from displays of beadwork” (Kratz and Pido, 2000: 61). Beaded ornaments are such an iconic indicator of “Maasainess” that outsiders often mistakenly identify people from other African ethnic groups who wear beadwork as Maasai (see, for example, Parkinson, 2006: 46), a situation which can only be partly accounted for as a result of the fluidity of Maasai ethnic boundaries (Kasfir, 2002; Klumpp and Kratz, 1993; Spear, 1993a; Wijngaarden, 2016b).…”

Section: Maasai and Beadworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maasai beadwork has always been modern: An exploration of modernity through artifacts

Wijngaarden

2018

Cultural Dynamics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Maasai beaded ornaments are generally understood as traditional artifacts, but are in fact the result of modern developments. This case study refutes widespread assumptions about Maasai beadwork, showing that modernity cannot be captured accurately by the narrative of binary oppositions it has produced. I describe how the very presence, but also many of the uses and designs of these artifacts are material expressions of the dynamic and complex interactions and relationships between people across continents in modern times. By establishing and reflecting on these connections, I argue that modernity should be approached as a stage in the ongoing, increasingly integrated, humanity-wide cultural dynamic on our earth. This insight takes us out of the impasse in the debate on how to approach the concept of modernity, giving a clear space to the singular concept while simultaneously acknowledging that a variety of modernities have come about as different peoples are influenced by, as well as contribute to, the wider cultural dynamic. Employed so often in daily and scientific sense-making, it is essential to further disentangle understandings of modernity from modernist thinking in simple and absolute dichotomies, and establish it as an emergent and interactive process with semi-permeable boundaries that includes opposing voices.

show abstract

Slam-Dunking and the Last Noble Savage

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Imaged or Imagined? Cultural Representations and the “Tourismification” of Peoples and Places

Imaged or Imagined? Cultural Representations and the “Tourismification” of Peoples and Places

Masculinity, Morality, and the State in Northern Kenya: The Case of Baringo County's Il Chamus

Maasai beadwork has always been modern: An exploration of modernity through artifacts

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About