A study of Maasai organizational ability as applied to the cattle marketing system 1938-1959

The Maasai possess a social system which is capable of ensuring that a large group can take concerted action to achieve a desired objective the prime example is when, for instance, the whole of the Kisonko section cooperate in organizing the age-set promotion ceremonies, the euno to or the ngesher. Not only do the participants, that is all the members of the age set, and a large proportion of the elders of the sponsoring age assemble at a given place at a given time, but equally remarkable they arrive with a pre-arranged number of cattle, a pre-ordained number of which have to be of a specific age and a specific color. All this is achieved in spite of the fact that the participants are scattered over an area of 24,000 square miles, they are largely illiterate, so could not communicate by post or telegraph even if adequate services existed (which they do not) and their country is provide