SUBJECT/TOPIC

 

 The masai tribe!

 

RESEARCH QUESTION

 

 What is the cultural significance of music and dance to the masai

 

Response to research question

 

General information:

- population: 900 000

- language: Maa

- beliefs: animism, Christianity

- location: Southern Kenya, northern Tanzania

- herd: cattle, sheep, goats

- eat: milk, meat and blood from cattle

- herding is very important

- seminomadic

- pressure to settle from outside but they stayed nomadic

- men are grouped into groups (by age) which they stay in their whole life

- around the age of puberty they soon turn into warriors

- only after being a "moran" for 10 years can they marry

Response to the research question 

- For the Masai singing and poetry is a way of competing: women usually sing about their posessions and about their beauty, and men sing about their bravery.

Building confidence in each other is essential for group singing.  Songs may help alter moods: for example, women sing while milking a cow to soothe the cow.  Prayers to honor God are also sung. The Masai sing in Maa which is the tribal language.  Each song has a specific movement. Some songs may be performed in an infomal setting. On special occasions, when large groups gather and sing, the dancers try to make the crowd excited with different dance moves.  In the warriors' dances, the warriors have jumping competitions, in which their heels are not allowed to touch the ground. A common move in masai dancing is the neck movement. Overall, dancing in the Masai tribe is very important, since dancing with the opposite sex its considered flirting.  

 

Sources:"maasai" Human. ed.2006

              Johnson,Hans."What is Maasai music music?"Maasai School Project.7 May,2006 www.laleyio.com

 

Description of Our Project

italice are for speech

 

For our project we will make a television program called Coffee Talk. We will start off like a regular talk show with gossip and people calling in and then our special guest will be a masai tribe member.

            sript,  julia = orange, jackie =pink, madi=red, all of us=green, jackie and julia=blue

 

Hello and welcome to COFFEE TALK we are live fron Brooklyn; yes Brooklyn New York the big apple. Today we are  going to start out with the hot gossip then we have a special guest from Africa. All this after the break.

 

Commercials

 

                                                                              west-jet

 

 

And we are back. Now with the gossip we are going to talk about Britney Spears. Ya she shaved her head what is up with that? Lets go to the phones and see what our viewers have to say, ok line one your on the air. '' Hi, my name is Earl and I personally love Britney I look up to her she is my role model! She rox my sox!''Whatttttt are you crazyshe is an irresponsible mother, I haven't seen her child in like a million years, like EW! NEXT CALLER!!! ''Hi I think that Britney should like, die because she is being like totally fluffable ness okay!'' Well said honey, well said.

Now to commercials.

 

Commercials

 

                                                                                    Muffins

 

 

 

 

And we are back with our special guest from Africa. His name is Lacroiya. (cue shoe)(cue paper). Sorry I mean her name is Lacroiya. Hi Lacroiya and welcome to COFFEE TALK! Thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. It must have been a long flight. Yes in fact its a ten-hour flight from Sothern Kenya to New York. Is it overwhelming to be surrounded by so many people here in New York? Oh yeah! Compared to the Masai populationis only, 900 000, New York is immense! So how about we start off with a few questions- I heard that you have a special suprise planned for us later on. Okay, sounds great. First off, any of the veiwers want to know: what language do the masai tribe speak and what are their belifs? We speak Maa, and the two main religions are Animism and Cristianity. How interesting! Would you like to tell us anything else about the masais? Sure, well, we like to live off the land, so we herd cattle, sheep, and goats. We mainly feed off of meat, milk and blood fron the cattle we herd. This is why herding is very im portant to us, it is our source of food. How is the masai society organized? We are a seminomadic tribe, we encoountered  a lot of pressure from outside to settle: but we tried to stay nomadic.

 

Just to tell you a little bit more about the masai tribe; the men are grouped into groups (by age) which they stay in their whole life. Around the age of puberty they soon turn into warriors. For the Masai singing and poetry is a way of competing: women usually sing about their posessions and about their beauty, and men sing about their bravery. Building confidence in each other is essential for group singing.Prayers to honor God are also sung. The Masai sing in Maa. Some songs may be performed in an infomal setting, on special occasions, when large groups gather and sing. The dancers try to make the crowd excited with different dance moves.  In the warriors' dances, the warriors have jumping competitions, in which their heels are not allowed to touch the ground.Overall, dancing in the Masai tribe is very important, since dancing with the opposite sex its considered flirting. After the break we are going to see the real masais in Africa do one of their dances.

 

Commercials

 

 

                                                           africa doesn't have to be a bad word

 

 

And we are back with the video sent all the way from Africa! Lets take a look.....

 

                                                                              DANCE VIDEO!!!!

 

Well thats all the time we have for today, see you next time on COFFEE TALK!!! (giggles, waves... ect....)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES USED

 

 The resources that we used were

-"Masai" Human. 2006 ed.

- Johnson, Hans. "What is Maasai music?"Maasai School Project. 7 May,2006 www.laleyio.com