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About RAI Film
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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Film Festival 2025
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RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
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Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
with a digital version available
x
Country
“Kenya”
x
Year of production
“1975”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
x
Region
East Africa
1
Country
Kenya
1
x
Keywords
Gender Role and Identity
1
Herding
1
Nomads and Nomadism
1
Ritual
1
Social Change
1
Social Organisation
1
Directors
Curling, Chris
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
Year of production
1975
1
x
Status
Film
Masai Manhood
1975
52
‘
Directed by
Chris Curling
.
This film was made after ‘Masai Women’ and in the same area. Together the two films provide a vivid view of Masai men and women and their place in Masai society. The Masai are pastoral nomads in the East African rift valley with a social system which differentiates sharply between men and women and between age-sets. A particularly crucial distinction is made between men who are moran (‘warriors’) and more senior men classed as elders. After circumcision men live in the forest on the fringes of Masai society as moran debarred from marriage and excluded from crucial decision-making procedures. The film is focused on the life of the moran and on the dramatic eunoto ceremony which marks the important transition from warriorhood to full social maturity and the responsibilities of elderhood. The moran are given an opportunity in the film to talk about warriorhood and they sensitively strive to explain their ideals to the anthropologist. Their words are effectively translated in sub-titles. There is much valuable information in the film on the events leading up to the eunoto ceremony – including a fascinating sequence on the joking abuse directed by the moran at their mothers – and on the ritual procedures involved in the rite de passage itself. This may well be the last eunoto ceremony ever to be held as the pressures on the Masai to change their way of life are increasingly strong, and the film is important for the way in which it conveys the drama of the events and their significance both for the participants and for the Masai social system. J. La Fontaine, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 9, p.6.
East Africa
Gender Role and Identity
Social Change
Ritual
Social Organisation
Nomads and Nomadism
Herding