Surviving among lions: the group is life

Africa has been and still is a difficult natural environment for the man who lives in the village. Desert, ferocious animals, poisonous animals, food shortages have profoundly shaped the social structure and even the language. An individual alone could not survive, the group is more important than the individual because only the group can guarantee the continuation of the species. Social rules, justice, marriage, government are regulated by this basic assumption. Even the language, the Bantu strain, has a "group" structure so that no element of the sentence can be changed without all the others having to change.

Masai polygamy

 An example of this cultural adaptation is the Masai organization, which is still very strong today. Polygamy applies to the Masai: every man has several wives. The first is chosen by the parents, the subsequent ones are often chosen by the other wives, since the collaboration between the women of the family will be tightened. Every circle of huts is inhabited by the man with his wives and children, usually 5 or 6 for a wife. Men are bound by a very strong bond with all the circumcised in the same period (in the space of about 5 years): this link is called rank. Those who belong to the same rank are like brothers, even more: if a Masai is traveling and arrives in the evening in a village he will ask if there is a man of his rank. His brother will welcome him, give him food and one of his wives to sleep with. A child will be born of her husband and there is a detailed historical memory to avoid that there are children of people related to each other.

Parents of all children

Have you thought about what evolutionary advantage this entails? The children will have a great genetic variety that increases the chances of survival and the children will be children of all men of the same rank, each man will consider a child as his own and will take care of it. The Masai love children very much and consider them great wealth.

What a difference with the individual mentality brought by the missionaries! It is not easy for us to grasp this difference. And who knows what transformations will arise from the meeting of civilizations in progress!