maasai Tribe
The Maasai people are an indigenous group in Africa who are mainly located around southern Kenya and norther Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley. In total, they have a population approximately one half million people to 900,000 and they all occupy 160,000 square kilometres. Out of the other two tribes, the Dorobo and the Kikuyu, they are the foremost African ethnic groups because they are involved with the national parks and reserves. The Maasai people believes that god had chosen them to be blessed with cattle. This results in them being a dominant cattle herders in East Africa.
Cattle
The Maasai people believes god had blessed them with cattle, creating a deep relationship with them. One can display how wealthy you are based on the number of cattle's you may own and how many children the cattle has. Consuming cattle may be different on different occasions. The rely on the meat of the cattle's meat and their blood. The blood is a good sources of protein and it is able to help women after a birth of a child or given to someone who became ill. The only other occasion cattle blood are consumed is when they are low on livestock and are in need of something to provided the nutrient they are in need of.
food
Traditionally they rely on meat, milk, and cattle's blood. The blood provides the protein and their caloric needs, but there are consumed on occasions. The Maasai lives in a place where the plot sizes are not large enough to welcome large herds of animals. As a result, they were forced to grow variety of different crops. The crops include, rice, wheat, maize, beans, peas, millet, potatoes, fruits and etc. Lastly, they also eat honey. The Maasai people are gifted with the ability to interact with he honeyguide birds to lead them the way to the honeycombs
SHELTER
The women constructed circular homes that were made with the use of mud, grass, wood, and cow dung, in other words, cow dung are cow manure. While the women are building the homes, the men would be constructing sheds and fences for the animals. The Maasai lived on a semi-nomadic lifestyle, which means that there homes are temporary. This is the reason as to why they had built the homes loosely
Honeyguide
Over the years, the Maasai discovered an ability to collaborate and communicate with the honeyguide birds. To communicate with the honeyguide birds, they would have to whistle. By whistling, it will track where the birds and located. Honeyguide birds respond by using a call that is only to be used to communicate with humans. During the process, some honeyguide birds would begin to read the Maasai people to where the honeycombs are with their sense of smell. Both the honeyguide birds and the Maasai would continue calling and communicating until they have reached the destination of where the honey is.
economy
The tribe is dependent on the market economy. Trading livestock and supplies among other groups around the area provides social utility and it is an important role in the economy. Cattle is also the central to the Maasai economy. They rarely kill the cattle because they are a sign of wealth. Instead, they are brought into towns and cities to be sold at the regional markets. While they try to sell the cattle, they would purchase other good and supplies along the way to hand make other trades, such as beaded work.
Climate Change
Ever since the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro has all been melted, the Maasai people had noticed that they climate became a lot drier and there will be punctuated by more flooding. As a result of these conditions it disrupts the cycle of growing crops and there are less variety of resources. This impacts the cattle and the animals in not having the adequate resources for them to feed on. Dramatic climate change has affected the Maasai before. Fortunately, they survived through the environmental challenges by moving to a different area when they need to. Unfortunately, they are unable to do this because they are gradually losing rangelands. They are suffering from a drought. These implication for the environment both the people and the animals have to travel long journeys to obtain water. Overtime, the animals had to move to a place where there are more food and water for them, but this impacts the people because the Maasai are dependant on the animals for a living. The occurrence of the different challenges the Maasai had to face with the climate, it makes it more unpredictable as to when will come next.