When Homans first read the Stark-Bainbridge theory, he reminded me of the famous statement by the first-century satirical writer, Petronius: "Fear first brought gods into the world." William James (1902:89) contended: "The ancient saying that the first maker of the Gods was fear receives voluminous corroboration from every age of religious history; but none the less does religious history show the part which joy has evermore tended to play. Sometimes the joy has been primary; sometimes secondary, being the gladness of deliverance from the fear." Either way, religion seems rooted in emotion, and the primary dimension is our feeling about costs and rewards.
Sacred discourse frequently concerns feelings, from guilt to bliss, terror to awe, and longing to ecstasy. The Bible is eloquent in its depiction of human emotion, across the entire spectrum: Job 4:14: "Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake." Job 38:7: "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." John 16:21: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world." 2 Corinthians 4:8: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair." Luke 13:28: "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." And who could forget the comforting words of John 3:16, which testify that even the Lord has emotions: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
If religion elicits and shapes the meaning of emotions, surely the fundamental human feelings are shared by the higher animals, who are apparently incapable of religion. A purring cat must be experiencing bliss, and it can inspire fear in pigeons and mice. The tender care lavished upon their babies by birds and mammals is behaviorally indistinguishable from human love. Thus, emotion is deeply rooted in our animal biology, even if our recently-evolved cognitive abilities are required for religious belief. In addition, as Homans said, "...the laws of human learning have themselves evolved and maintained themselves genetically as one mechanism for helping humans to survive in their environment" (Homans, 1987:139-141; cf. Wilson, 1975:551).
Robert H. Frank (1988) has alerted rational choice researchers to the idea that emotions, whether in humans or higher animals, may partly have evolved to signal intentions to other individuals, and to force them to behave in desired ways. Thus with the human capacity for role playing, emotional expressions become moves in a game. This insight is as old as history, and Porter Abbott has analyzed the strategic use of emotion in The Portuguese Letters, a work of fiction published in 1669. From her bare room in a convent, a nun writes five letters to her former lover. Abbott (1984:74) argues that she expresses her feelings in accordance with a syllogism that she thinks will logically force him to love her again: "(1) All great love is greatly to be loved, (2) I love greatly, (3) therefore I am greatly to be loved." Jay Haley (1963, 1969) analyzed psychotherapy as a strategic interaction in which the therapist maneuvers the patient to take his or her emotional assumptions to their illogical extreme, and he said the crucifixion was the masterful sacrifice move made by Jesus Christ in a game where the human soul was the prize.
The strategic use of emotion featured in my own analysis of how Scientologists appear to believe they can attain a higher state of being called clear, and I have briefly considered the comparable states of sanctification in the Holiness tradition and satori in Zen Buddhism (Bainbridge and Stark, 1980; Bainbridge 1997). Like many birds and mammals, humans cry for parental attention, shriek in fear, and shout for help. Clearly, communication intended to cause another person to help us is deeply rooted in our biological inheritance, as well as in the psychology of childhood.
Humans sometimes become trapped in a pattern of emotionally intense help-seeking behavior when no help is in fact available, and this condition may be called neurosis, dependency, or depression. Perhaps this is most common for people with insoluble practical problems of ill health, poverty, lovelessness, or powerlessness. But the human capacity to imagine a better life, and the social demands that so often inspire shame and guilt, could force anyone into this vicious circle. The person invests so much energy in self-defeating obsessions to get help, that his or her life becomes significantly worse than it would otherwise be, and sometimes the person is even prevented from finding a real solution to the problems. Clear, sanctification, and satori are spiritualized conceptions of the psychological state of being free of such help-demanding and self-blaming obsessions.
Homans's classic, The Human Group, makes much of sentiment, a term that was meant to cover such murky concepts as: "sentiments of affection, affective content of sympathy and indulgence, intimate sympathy, respect, pride, antagonism, affective history, scorn, sentimental nostalgia" (Homans, 1950:37). Homans restricted sentiments to the feelings of one human being toward another. Much later work by Homans and others in his tradition conceptualizes social relationships as concrete bonds that are studied as structural elements in networks, or as stable patterns of interaction that readily can be observed. Yet we should recognize that social relationships are fundamentally based in emotions and images that exist only within human minds. Thus, many of the same challenges and opportunities associated with the sociology of emotions apply also to research on social relationships.
In this essay, emboldened by the essays Homans (e.g. 1981) published about his ancestors, I shall use data on my own ancestral family to develop a model of how religious emotions are embedded in social exchange. Fundamentally, reciprocity is the principle of obligation that links members of a family into an enduring relationship. Rooted in biological bonds, reciprocity at times resembles exchange, and of course nothing prevents members of a family from also being exchange partners. Alternatively, one could say that market exchange is merely a highly rationalized form of reciprocity that has outgrown the boundaries of the biological family.
Homans wrote about the exchange between two abstract individuals, Person and Other. Let us give them more human names, Lucy and George. Whether from biology, habits acquired in family-based reciprocity, or a history of mutually profitable exchanges, let us say that Lucy has developed a powerful relationship with George. Then she realizes that he is dying.
The Stark-Bainbridge theory immediately suggests that Lucy will be open to supernaturally-based compensators to comfort her in her loss. But what does it say about her obligations to George? What does she have to offer him in his greatest time of need? In fact, Lucy was George's sister, and he lay dying slowly and painfully of typhoid fever in the early 1860s, when medicine had not yet discovered a cure. There is considerable doubt how much religion can really compensate an individual for his or her own most severe losses. Because Lucy and George shared the same religious assumptions, however, she could feel that the prayers she gave him really did fulfill some of her obligation to help him.
At a first approximation, we can distinguish two kinds of religious compensation, primary and secondary.
* Primary compensation substitutes a compensator for a reward that people desire for themselves.
*
Secondary compensation substitutes a compensator for a reward that a person is obligated to provide to another person.
Secondary compensation may be a major factor in the creation and maintenance of religious organizations, even though the literature on the subject has concentrated on primary compensation. If religious compensators actually do not satisfy sufferers' needs very well, they might still satisfy their exchange partners' obligations to provide assistance. I am not here asserting that religious primary compensation is ineffective, merely raising the theoretical point that it might be and suggesting we should examine scientifically how much of the success of religious organizations is due to secondary compensation.
If religious compensators can satisfy existing obligations, they may also make a person attractive as a prospective exchange partner. In other words, secondary compensation is an issue prior to the formation of exchange relationships, as well as afterward. Two of the propositions in the Stark-Bainbridge theory are relevant here: "Religious specialists promulgate norms, said to come from the gods, that increase the rewards flowing to the religious specialists" (Stark and Bainbridge, 1987:99). "Religious specialists share in the psychic rewards offered to the gods, for example: deference, honor, and adoration" (Stark and Bainbridge, 1987:101).
To appear to be a valuable exchange partner is beneficial to any individual. A person is attractive to the extent that other people will give rewards to that person without requiring the person immediately to reciprocate by giving them a reward of equal or greater value. People invest in someone they find attractive, in hopes that they will receive great rewards in the future, perhaps in the distant future or in some undefined context. Another way of look at this is to say that an attractive person receives rewards from others but can satisfy them in the immediate exchanges by providing compensators. Thus, a religious specialist may invest in activities to increase the apparent value of the compensators he or she has to offer.
In some societies, the individual may undergo costly spiritual ordeals, perhaps to forge a publicly acknowledged exchange relationship with a supernatural being. In a society with a highly professionalized clergy, the individual may invest in extensive formal training and attempt to create masterworks of the spirit (such as ritual performances, religious art, or sacred scholarship) that demonstrate that he or she has the requisite spiritual skill, sacred knowledge, or divine talent.
There are many different strategies for becoming an attractive exchange partner, and no cosmopolitan culture restricts itself to just one or two, even in the limited realm of religion. However, strategies are simply general explanations about how to attain certain goals, so they tend to be learned from other people as are most other valuable algorithms. Members of a family or other intimate social group will tend to share a particular strategy. To the extent that being a religious specialist is an inherited profession, therefore, supernatural strategies will tend to run in families. Members of such families who enter professions that are functionally similar to the clergy, will tend to carry over the family's religious strategy, with only such modifications as are required to make the strategy appear to fit the secular occupation.
General explanations about how to obtain highly desired rewards are difficult to evaluate. In a competitive cultural specialty, individuals and groups will often become committed to the wrong strategy, or at least to one that is suboptimal and can be defeated by other, more effective strategies. If an individual has invested heavily in one strategy, he is unlikely to be able to switch to a different one quickly and easily. Therefore, a person who has wholeheartedly adopted one particular strategy for becoming an attractive exchange partner will be relatively committed to it. Especially if the strategy is supernatural (which means that explanations are especially difficult to evaluate), he or she may respond to failure by exerting even more effort, rather than by backtracking and looking for a different strategy. Sometimes this can lead to success, if the person can innovate in strategy-specific ways that are attractive to other people, and if the person's amplified emotions are of a kind to arouse positive feelings in others. Arguably, this is the source of much religious charisma. In many cases, however, exaggeration of a poor strategy will lead to catastrophic failure, and what the individual considers to be religious inspiration will appear to other people as madness.
Becoming an attractive exchange partner through increasing the potency of the compensators one offers is a strategy that aggressively employs secondary compensation. If other people accept the compensators, it can be successful. But if other people ignore or reject the compensators, the individual may become trapped in isolated primary compensation. The dreams that one wished to sell to others may become a costly liability that prevent the individual from investing elsewhere, until the person's social capital has been exhausted. The cases described below illustrate how primary and secondary compensation may lead to extremely successful or unsuccessful social outcomes.
Edited by Nicky Bita
Student at Daystar University
Fourth year Community Development
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Can Bible-followers Drink Alcohol?
…[T]he Bible position is clear: not one drop of alcohol is condoned or recommended. Proverbs 20:1 tells us "wine is a mocker; strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Another text is even more explicit. Proverbs 23:31, "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."
Now listen, if the New Testament approves the use of alcohol, we have a mammoth contradiction between the Old and New Testaments. But the New doesn't teach contrary to what we just read, friends. The problem comes over the use of the word "wine." It is translated from the Greek word "oihos" and it can mean either fermented or unfermented, according to the context. But since the Old Testament clearly condemns the use of fermented wine, the verses approving of wine in the New Testament are surely referring to unfermented juice of the grape.
The Bible says, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, . . . do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Among all the popular poisons which are imbibed by modern man, one that is particularly pernicious and destructive is alcohol. Glorified as a symbol of gracious living, it has, in fact, been the most malignant social disease known to civilization. No wonder the Bible declares that no drunkard will be in heaven.
In these days of compromise, most of the great religious bodies have changed their attitude toward social drinking. From total abstinence they now take a stance of moderation. In essence this is exactly the same position the brewers take—no drunkenness. But is that a safe posture to take toward alcoholic beverages? Statistics reveal that one out of every ten that start drinking become either alcoholics or problem drinkers.
The claim is made by many Christians that the Bible endorses moderate drinking of alcohol. This is based largely on the use of the term “wine” in the Scriptures. But the recommended wine of the Bible is not alcoholic. The word wine is used for either fermented or unfermented drink. God declared, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them” (Isaiah 65:8).
This wine in the cluster has to be the fresh juice of the vine. This is the only kind God ever declared to have a blessing in it. There is no blessing in the intoxicating, befuddling bottle of fermented poison. Inspiration declares, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1). “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder” (Proverbs 23:31, 32).
Did Jesus go contrary to the Old Testament and turn the water into alcoholic wine? It is unthinkable that He should do so. He obeyed the Word of God. The wine He created was the unfermented kind. We now know the actual physiological effect of alcohol on the body. Research has proven that intoxication is caused by a process that deprives the brain of oxygen. This deprivation destroys brain cells, affecting, ultimately, the reasoning powers of conscious thought. Would Jesus, the Creator of the body, condone something that would weaken moral inhibitions, reduce the power of effective decision, and finally destroy the sacred body temple of the Holy Spirit? Never.
Nicky Bita
Friday, October 2, 2009
As much as paths meet and people come and go
As much as paths meet and people come and go, a mark is always left in one’s heart, and only you can define what impact it has had and what those people have done to make you a better person. My joining of this institution has been the greatest blessing and I thank God every day for the people who have earned the title FRIEND. If you have never had a family in friends, I say you are missing out on a lot. These are the people who pick you up when the rest of the world walks past you, they wipe the dust off you when the rest of the world laughs at you; they smile and cry with you when everybody else says “whatever!” They are friends and what I am today, the joys I treasure within and the lessons learnt would not have been so, had God never brought me this special group of people I call Friends at Daystar University. It has been a whole four years and the end of them will never mark the end of the life I share with you. You have made me smile, when I knew I would never, you have walked with me even through what I thought were the most of the difficult times in life. We have laughed and cried together, shared the ups and downs, even when distance seemed to make us way apart. Your devotion from the time the paths crossed to this time when we leave doesn’t end with the four years. It’s been long and I know this is, and will never be the end.
Written by Nicky Bita
Fourth year community Development Student
Daystar University
2nd October 2009
Written by Nicky Bita
Fourth year community Development Student
Daystar University
2nd October 2009
INITIATION CEREMONY AMONG THE MAASAI
The Maasai are pastoralist who lives in the rift valley provinces in Kenya and southern Tanzania. The Maasai community has kept their culture intact over years. The Maasai cultures rites revolves around the initiation ceremony of both boys and girls.
The initiation ceremony begins when boys and girls are at the age of 15-18 years of age. The initiation ceremony involves three main events in the life of an individual.
1.confirmation of the person name.
2.circumcision
3.graduation into adulthood
Each of the three stages involves a lot of traditional ceremony according to one’s clans.
Confirmation of the person name
Among the Maasai community the arrival of a child to the society is always a sign of blessing from god and the ancestors. After three day a child is always name by his clan woman and children. The child remains with the name until he or she is about to be circumcised. The parent has to perform the naming ceremony for the child first before he undergoes circumcision. The parent has to prepared local brew and slaughtered two sheep for boy and one for girl. The name give during birth is scrutinizing by the clan elders before it is confirmed for instances they if anybody in the family has the same name, they also check if anybody with the same name died recently in the area and also evaluated the success of those called by that name after all these has be verified by clan elders, women are also consulted to give their views on the name. When everyone was satisfied with the names the family members called a big ceremony. The child is then shaves and amulets are tied in his left arms, neck and right foot to seek for protection of the child during this time of initiation. Women and children also sing and dances giving thanks to god for protecting their member all this year without a name. After the clan elders ask the celebration parent to honor their child with two calves one from each parent or close relative if one parent is missing .the child is then ready for circumcision.
CIRCUMCISION
Circumcision is a very significances ceremony among the Maasai community. If one is not circumcised even at the age of fifty years they still considered you a child. Circumcision symbolized two important aspect of the Maasai heritage.
The shading of blood symbolized unity with the living dead that are also honored during the ceremony through libation of tradition beer and fresh milk. This to show, the departed that they are still remembered in the community and especially in the family. The shading of blood also shows that the young man is now courage’s enough to defenses the community against internal and external enemies.
Circumcision also shows the transition from childhood to adulthood. For one to be recognized as a grown up person he/she has to be circumcised. Circumcision is one of the many rites of passage before one is allowed to married.
The initiation ceremony involves a lot of activities in the material day .the ceremony is always attended by everybody in the community, those who are invited and those who are not are welcome to celebrated with the initiate and his parent. The ceremony always takes two days.
The first day the initiation takes cattle very early in the morning for grazing and at around midday he comes back home for the ceremony to begin. He is received by his fellow initiation who accused him of all his past, telling him how he has misbehavior all sort of exalted to erupted his anger. He has to be striped naked before he is received by the mother who has to give him cold fresh milk and also introduced him to his new bed, which was made by all the women in the village who are the mother age.
The boy is the shaved by the mother outside the house at the right hand side with all the initiate looking at him. He is then given a goatskin, which he will wear over night before he is circumcised. At the evening boys are question on the sexual status whether he has ever sleep with a circumcised woman, which is a punishable offences. The circumciser made you to jump the circumcision knife three times grills him and your parent also pleaded you to say if ever you cross that line. It is belief that if you denied what is truth you will not live to see the evening of your manhood. If one commits such offences he has to pay three heifers to his father, mother and the circumciser. It was a way of controlling sexual purity among the boys and also to encourage virginity. if one has not commit the offences he receive the blessing of both the parent and the circumciser before he go to bed waiting the material day.
Early in the following the boy is wake up at five in the morning. He is take to the nearby river to bathe the symbolize washing away the wrong done in the past and beginning a new life. He is then lead to central point of his father cattle where he is circumcised in the full eye of his age mate and the newly initiates. The girls are circumcised in the calves’ pen inside their motherhouse. The initiate is the given fresh blood mixed with milk, charms and amulets to replace the blood loss and also to protect the initiated against infections of tetanus and other diseases. The initiates are praise for courageously facing the knife. All people are served with beers and all kind of food. The father all give a cow to be slaughtered in honored of his son who has bring pride for him through a successful circumcision. The initiates are the put in a special programme for one to two years feed with special food and not doing any hard task. The girl is educated on how to handle her family especially the husband and the in-laws. This period is called “aibartisho”and is the most educating period in the life of a Maasai girl who is supposed to be marriage after this grace period of goodies and basic education about the present and future life. This period is also special in the of the initiates since she got an opportunity to interacted with his relatives and the age in the society who educated you on the basic of life. Initiation is always a gateway to marriage since nobody is allowed to get married before going through initiation. The celebration bring people together to come and shared joy with the family therefore initiation play the role of unity in the Maasai community. Many relatives, friends and neighbors are called to witness the occasion. Lastly initiation offered one the opportunity to be educated on tribes and clans matter that are crucial in the life of every person in the society and also is new birth for the individual who is now allowed to enjoyed privileges that adult are entitled to in the community.
INITIATION TO MORANISM
This is the last stage of initiation for one to be accepted as an adult in the Maasai community. After the circumcision period young boys are initiated into moranhood while girls are married off. This is a very important period for the Maasai warriors who act as soldier of the community and are to educate on hardship and other outstanding issues in the community. The moranism period always take five year to be able to get all the requirements one needs in life. During this period boys are taught
Ways of handle hardship in the society.
Strategies for fight lion and other wild animals.
Methods of stealing cattle from non-maasai.
Ways of preserving food for the community during drought season.
The morans maintained the hair until the are fully grow and this symbolized that one is ready for defences of his community and also identified himself as a moran.
The morans have to stay away from home for like two years in the bush where their will be taking meat and tradition harbs for all this period to prepared them for the tasks a head of protectiong the community and also be abllle to defends themselves against lion and warriors from other tribes during cattle rustling.This is the period in the maasai community where one is allowed to enjoy life with the restrication of the parent and where leader are identified .it give one an opportunity to prioved his manhood and also showed the society that he is ready to rescued them in time of difficulties especially his clanmen and the ageset he belong to.
After the mweat eating period all morans came and are receive at each manyatta by girls and woman who tookm them around the homestead singing in prised of those who we able to stayed in the bush through out the period without coming homes for silly business. The period with a big ceremony where the morans are given permission to prepare a graduation ceremony to attended by the all community that will be of great significances to the future life and also the family.
During this ceremony a lot is done to the young men, advices are give and also permission to owned property including the wife for those who are married. According to Tipilit Ole Saitoti, when young men graduate from being warriors, the elders say to them, “now that you are elders drop your weapons and use your heads and wisdom instead; Master the art of the tongue and wisdom of the mind as from now on family responsibilities rest on your shoulders.” This ceremony is called Eunoto and it is a very importants rite of passage in the maasai calendar.during the ceremony the ageset leader is appointed by the elders among the young morans who are graduating who will be responsible of the entire ageset and also communicated elders the morans need to the elders.
The occasion saw all the morans shaved the hair by the owned mother using the traditional blades. It is also in this ceremony that the morans are officially granted permission to married and have family. During this ceremony the morans are advices to stop cattle rustling and work hard to feed their families.
All the parents and invited guest have speak to the morrans they are give tradition stool as sign of acceptances in the elders council and honour for serving the community diligently without any complaints or any misconduct. During this ceremony those morans who misbehavior are names as kind of punishment to them.
All the names morans come to an end and new era begin and are all to interact with men in the society attends meeting when discussing issues concerning the society.
Most maasai traditions are continuing up to date.many people still hold on their regalia and also are practicing initiation to both boys and girls althought the government, ngo, the church are trying a lot is still needs to be done to discouraged them. Maasai still value circumcision but some aspect have change where now boys are circumcised in hospital and beer is not as much as it used to be in past day.the ceremony has continues to bear new shape in trying to prevents the initiates from bacteria infection which was never taken into consideration before the Christian brothers has also give the rite a new look by circumcising the children together and having one fellowship in one of the parents home to avoided the long traditional ceremony.
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
The Para churches Ngo and the government should encourages alternatives rite of passage for people not to left in a vacuum but to have something to symbolized the passage of childhood to adulthood for instances the world vision has an annual event in Narok to give girls certificate as sign of circumcision in front of their parents and relatives. The girls also feel that she is now a grow-up.
The maasai community needs to educated concerning the danger one is exposed when going through this rite of passage for instances the infections of bacteria and the killer disease HIV/AIDS when sharing tool of operation which is common during this time in the life of an individual.
The community elites, politician and the church should used visuals images in campaigning against this rite for people to be exposed to the danger this caused to the person through tortured and denied of one right for girls and the damages it make to her future life as an individual.the visual aids will give one the real picture of what one going through during this period in life and it is also a good lesion for those who have not yet gone through to avoid it.
Rescue centers should be encourage for those who are force to go through to run and be rescued from the ordain and also get shelter before they are reconcile with their parents.
Boy to be circumcised in hospital to avoid attacks from disease and other complication in the life of the boy. They should used sterilized equipments to carry out the operation and also it help to prevent pain for the boy.
Most tradition rites are importance in the life of community and needs to be modified and also continue in the society. This includes the birth ceremony of giving thanks to God for the child and naming ceremony that give one’s identification in the society.
Wrtten by Nicky Bita
Fourth year community Development Student
Daystar University
2nd October 2009
The initiation ceremony begins when boys and girls are at the age of 15-18 years of age. The initiation ceremony involves three main events in the life of an individual.
1.confirmation of the person name.
2.circumcision
3.graduation into adulthood
Each of the three stages involves a lot of traditional ceremony according to one’s clans.
Confirmation of the person name
Among the Maasai community the arrival of a child to the society is always a sign of blessing from god and the ancestors. After three day a child is always name by his clan woman and children. The child remains with the name until he or she is about to be circumcised. The parent has to perform the naming ceremony for the child first before he undergoes circumcision. The parent has to prepared local brew and slaughtered two sheep for boy and one for girl. The name give during birth is scrutinizing by the clan elders before it is confirmed for instances they if anybody in the family has the same name, they also check if anybody with the same name died recently in the area and also evaluated the success of those called by that name after all these has be verified by clan elders, women are also consulted to give their views on the name. When everyone was satisfied with the names the family members called a big ceremony. The child is then shaves and amulets are tied in his left arms, neck and right foot to seek for protection of the child during this time of initiation. Women and children also sing and dances giving thanks to god for protecting their member all this year without a name. After the clan elders ask the celebration parent to honor their child with two calves one from each parent or close relative if one parent is missing .the child is then ready for circumcision.
CIRCUMCISION
Circumcision is a very significances ceremony among the Maasai community. If one is not circumcised even at the age of fifty years they still considered you a child. Circumcision symbolized two important aspect of the Maasai heritage.
The shading of blood symbolized unity with the living dead that are also honored during the ceremony through libation of tradition beer and fresh milk. This to show, the departed that they are still remembered in the community and especially in the family. The shading of blood also shows that the young man is now courage’s enough to defenses the community against internal and external enemies.
Circumcision also shows the transition from childhood to adulthood. For one to be recognized as a grown up person he/she has to be circumcised. Circumcision is one of the many rites of passage before one is allowed to married.
The initiation ceremony involves a lot of activities in the material day .the ceremony is always attended by everybody in the community, those who are invited and those who are not are welcome to celebrated with the initiate and his parent. The ceremony always takes two days.
The first day the initiation takes cattle very early in the morning for grazing and at around midday he comes back home for the ceremony to begin. He is received by his fellow initiation who accused him of all his past, telling him how he has misbehavior all sort of exalted to erupted his anger. He has to be striped naked before he is received by the mother who has to give him cold fresh milk and also introduced him to his new bed, which was made by all the women in the village who are the mother age.
The boy is the shaved by the mother outside the house at the right hand side with all the initiate looking at him. He is then given a goatskin, which he will wear over night before he is circumcised. At the evening boys are question on the sexual status whether he has ever sleep with a circumcised woman, which is a punishable offences. The circumciser made you to jump the circumcision knife three times grills him and your parent also pleaded you to say if ever you cross that line. It is belief that if you denied what is truth you will not live to see the evening of your manhood. If one commits such offences he has to pay three heifers to his father, mother and the circumciser. It was a way of controlling sexual purity among the boys and also to encourage virginity. if one has not commit the offences he receive the blessing of both the parent and the circumciser before he go to bed waiting the material day.
Early in the following the boy is wake up at five in the morning. He is take to the nearby river to bathe the symbolize washing away the wrong done in the past and beginning a new life. He is then lead to central point of his father cattle where he is circumcised in the full eye of his age mate and the newly initiates. The girls are circumcised in the calves’ pen inside their motherhouse. The initiate is the given fresh blood mixed with milk, charms and amulets to replace the blood loss and also to protect the initiated against infections of tetanus and other diseases. The initiates are praise for courageously facing the knife. All people are served with beers and all kind of food. The father all give a cow to be slaughtered in honored of his son who has bring pride for him through a successful circumcision. The initiates are the put in a special programme for one to two years feed with special food and not doing any hard task. The girl is educated on how to handle her family especially the husband and the in-laws. This period is called “aibartisho”and is the most educating period in the life of a Maasai girl who is supposed to be marriage after this grace period of goodies and basic education about the present and future life. This period is also special in the of the initiates since she got an opportunity to interacted with his relatives and the age in the society who educated you on the basic of life. Initiation is always a gateway to marriage since nobody is allowed to get married before going through initiation. The celebration bring people together to come and shared joy with the family therefore initiation play the role of unity in the Maasai community. Many relatives, friends and neighbors are called to witness the occasion. Lastly initiation offered one the opportunity to be educated on tribes and clans matter that are crucial in the life of every person in the society and also is new birth for the individual who is now allowed to enjoyed privileges that adult are entitled to in the community.
INITIATION TO MORANISM
This is the last stage of initiation for one to be accepted as an adult in the Maasai community. After the circumcision period young boys are initiated into moranhood while girls are married off. This is a very important period for the Maasai warriors who act as soldier of the community and are to educate on hardship and other outstanding issues in the community. The moranism period always take five year to be able to get all the requirements one needs in life. During this period boys are taught
Ways of handle hardship in the society.
Strategies for fight lion and other wild animals.
Methods of stealing cattle from non-maasai.
Ways of preserving food for the community during drought season.
The morans maintained the hair until the are fully grow and this symbolized that one is ready for defences of his community and also identified himself as a moran.
The morans have to stay away from home for like two years in the bush where their will be taking meat and tradition harbs for all this period to prepared them for the tasks a head of protectiong the community and also be abllle to defends themselves against lion and warriors from other tribes during cattle rustling.This is the period in the maasai community where one is allowed to enjoy life with the restrication of the parent and where leader are identified .it give one an opportunity to prioved his manhood and also showed the society that he is ready to rescued them in time of difficulties especially his clanmen and the ageset he belong to.
After the mweat eating period all morans came and are receive at each manyatta by girls and woman who tookm them around the homestead singing in prised of those who we able to stayed in the bush through out the period without coming homes for silly business. The period with a big ceremony where the morans are given permission to prepare a graduation ceremony to attended by the all community that will be of great significances to the future life and also the family.
During this ceremony a lot is done to the young men, advices are give and also permission to owned property including the wife for those who are married. According to Tipilit Ole Saitoti, when young men graduate from being warriors, the elders say to them, “now that you are elders drop your weapons and use your heads and wisdom instead; Master the art of the tongue and wisdom of the mind as from now on family responsibilities rest on your shoulders.” This ceremony is called Eunoto and it is a very importants rite of passage in the maasai calendar.during the ceremony the ageset leader is appointed by the elders among the young morans who are graduating who will be responsible of the entire ageset and also communicated elders the morans need to the elders.
The occasion saw all the morans shaved the hair by the owned mother using the traditional blades. It is also in this ceremony that the morans are officially granted permission to married and have family. During this ceremony the morans are advices to stop cattle rustling and work hard to feed their families.
All the parents and invited guest have speak to the morrans they are give tradition stool as sign of acceptances in the elders council and honour for serving the community diligently without any complaints or any misconduct. During this ceremony those morans who misbehavior are names as kind of punishment to them.
All the names morans come to an end and new era begin and are all to interact with men in the society attends meeting when discussing issues concerning the society.
Most maasai traditions are continuing up to date.many people still hold on their regalia and also are practicing initiation to both boys and girls althought the government, ngo, the church are trying a lot is still needs to be done to discouraged them. Maasai still value circumcision but some aspect have change where now boys are circumcised in hospital and beer is not as much as it used to be in past day.the ceremony has continues to bear new shape in trying to prevents the initiates from bacteria infection which was never taken into consideration before the Christian brothers has also give the rite a new look by circumcising the children together and having one fellowship in one of the parents home to avoided the long traditional ceremony.
RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
The Para churches Ngo and the government should encourages alternatives rite of passage for people not to left in a vacuum but to have something to symbolized the passage of childhood to adulthood for instances the world vision has an annual event in Narok to give girls certificate as sign of circumcision in front of their parents and relatives. The girls also feel that she is now a grow-up.
The maasai community needs to educated concerning the danger one is exposed when going through this rite of passage for instances the infections of bacteria and the killer disease HIV/AIDS when sharing tool of operation which is common during this time in the life of an individual.
The community elites, politician and the church should used visuals images in campaigning against this rite for people to be exposed to the danger this caused to the person through tortured and denied of one right for girls and the damages it make to her future life as an individual.the visual aids will give one the real picture of what one going through during this period in life and it is also a good lesion for those who have not yet gone through to avoid it.
Rescue centers should be encourage for those who are force to go through to run and be rescued from the ordain and also get shelter before they are reconcile with their parents.
Boy to be circumcised in hospital to avoid attacks from disease and other complication in the life of the boy. They should used sterilized equipments to carry out the operation and also it help to prevent pain for the boy.
Most tradition rites are importance in the life of community and needs to be modified and also continue in the society. This includes the birth ceremony of giving thanks to God for the child and naming ceremony that give one’s identification in the society.
Wrtten by Nicky Bita
Fourth year community Development Student
Daystar University
2nd October 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
