Evaluating Masai Women from the Disappearing World Series

11 thoughts on “Evaluating Masai Women from the Disappearing World Series”

1. The documentary did a great job in immersing the viewer in the Masai culture. You got an idea on how a day in their life would be. Waking up and taking care of the animals and doing all the work. The fact that the documentary talked to women a lot and let them tell their stories and thoughts let you really understand how these women think about their situation. The only thing that I would have changed is how much they focused on the ritual at the end. The ceremony was specifically for men being able to take wives and land. It was interesting to see how the ceremony was played out, but it didn’t really affect women all that much. If there had been more footage and maybe more explanation on the ceremony where girls are the main focus would have been better. Also, more in depth talks about how women support other women and how wives divide up the work. Overall it was really interesting to see how different the Masai are to the !Kung.

   • It is an interesting question of why they focused on that so much–I think it related to how that ceremony marks the role reversal when sons become men and go from being attached to mothers to reversing that attachment. What do others think?

2. The documentary was very informative on day to day life in the Masai culture. The brutal honesty of the women was very eye-opening and let to a solid understanding of the differences between European and Masai culture, even providing specific examples focusing on polyamory. However, I believe that this documentary is slightly outdated with these examples. I think polyamory is more accepted in today’s American culture – especially with the younger generations – than European culture in the ’70s. The documentary can be change in that way, but it is not at fault as it was true in the time.

   • Chelsea–this is a very general comment and I don’t get what you mean. Polygyny is a set marriage system in which women have no choice. The marriages are arranged and women are exchanged. They are then set in competition against one another since they do not own their own cattle. That is very different from polyamory which can be a choice in a very different type of social system. I want to hear more of your thoughts on the key points of the film itself.

3. I think that the documentary did a great job in explaining Masai life through the women’s perspective. I also believe that the documentary depicted how women are seen in in Masai culture very thoroughly. It was stated that women were seen as “wealth” themselves, and I believe that the documentary showed that. Because if women weren’t around to do literally everything, how would men acquire that “wealth”? On the other hand, I think that the documentary could have focused more on how women create friendships among themselves as well and not solely on women’s relationships with men. The best parts of the documentary, to me, were when the women all gathered and sung songs. That showed the bond between women that I felt should have been more present. The parts that I like least were the entering of the bride into a new village and the giving of cows to the new wife. Those parts felt like there was a divide between the women, where there should be a great bond between the women, as they keep Masai society moving along. If I were the filmmaker, I would have changed the perspective of the warrior ceremony at the end, while it gave great detail about the ceremony, I think it would have been more suitable to show what the ceremony means for women as well. I think more footage should have been shot of how women prepare for the ceremony and what emotions women feel during the ceremony and after.

   • Good point on the ceremony at the end. I think the point of the new bride scene is that rituals often demonstrate the conflicts inherent in social roles but these can be resolved in other ways. This was also a trauma that helps break down the girls and her old way of thinking to prepare her to subservient in her new home and to bond with strange women. I found it helpful to see that. But I agree that there is less information on how they bond to one another.

4. I thought this film was very informative on the Masai women. I thought some of the strengths were how the women were interviewed throughout this film. I thought it was great how much detail these women went into, this meant that they must have been comfortable around the interviewer. The film seemed to have a good amount of knowledge of how this tribe ran and what happened in all these big life moments. Though it seemed like they only had a couple of women to interview, so in a perfect world more women in the tribe to interview would have been nice. Seeing a lot of different views is always an interesting and good way to gather information, though I know that is not always possible. This film is outdated, so the animations and pictures were a little old but that’s to be expected. I did not like the filming that much. At one point during the big ceremony with all the men who file into the village, the camera man seemed to be pretty close to the men. It seemed like they were almost distracted during their important ceremony. It just seemed a little invasive to me. During the circumcision ceremony for the girl at the beginning that camera seemed to be a little too close here too. Personally, these seem like important ceremonies to them and a little space would have been more respectful. I also would have liked to have a couple interview from men, I know this film was about women but I would like to see what the men truly think of the women in the tribe.

   • I think more interviews with men about what they think of women would have been helpful. But it would have been hard for the anthropologist, who is a female, to do. Maybe a team approach to researching these issues would be good. At the time this film was made, we knew almost nothing about women’s daily lives.

5. I think the documentary was very informative and gave a realistic portrayal of the Masai women. I liked that the filmmakers asked these women questions that they have probably never thought much about. The documentary did not clearly talk about the differences between the Masai and the Western world, but through the stories the women were telling, it was clear to see there was a difference. The women’s view on polygamy were different than I expected. I thought the women would not want co-wives and would run the other wives off, like the !Kung. But it surprised me when one of the women said the co-wives need each other. The film is quite old, so maybe an updated film should be made. It would be interesting to see how the lives of the Masai have changed throughout the years, and whether they still live the same lifestyle or have transitioned to a different lifestyle like the !Kung.

6. I thought the video was very informative and interesting. It was definitely a strength having the women talk about their roles and lives in Masai culture as well as their work in comparison to the men. I will say I would have also been interested to hear interviews done for the men of the group and their view of women or their own roles. I think it was important that they included the circumcision rituals for men and women and how they are very different, while both symbolize adulthood- men get to take time and grow through warriorship whereas women go through the process simply for marriage purposes. I think this was a very well made video despite it being dated, I don’t think I would have done anything different except to include the men’s point of view.

7. I found it interesting as it was very different to the !Kung women in terms of the dynamics of the women’s position. The women in the documentary were very open in telling their story and did not challenge their position. It would have been more interesting if they told us how they felt about it more than the reason why they are depressed (from watching the Youtube video). I felt it was more explaining than personal opinions. It would also be nice for a male anthropologist to have interviewed the men and their perspective on women. Also asking them if they agree with the traditions. If I was the cameraman I would have taken more footage of women doing daily tasks and interacting with men.

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