book chapter
Through Masai land: a journey of exploration among the snowclad volcanic mountains and the strange tribes of eastern equatorial Africa
Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington • London • Published In 1885 • Pages:
By: Thomson, Joseph.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Mr. J. Thomson, an explorer, was sent by the Royal Geographic Society in 1883 to investigate the possibility of a direct route from the sea to the southern end of Victoria Nyanza. His journey took him through hostile Maasai land. Thomson's book is a colorful personal account of his adventures. The sections on the Maasai contain valuable early information on their apparel, war leaders and raids, decorations, topography, care of cattle and weapons. Thomson describes the life cycle of a hypothetical Maasai man and woman to illustrate many aspects of the culture. Despite the outdated theories used occasionally to account for racial and linguistic affinities of the Maasai and the subjective approach to 'strange' customs, the book is valuable for the glimpses it offers into Maasai culture prior to intensive contact with European cultures.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Culture summary
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Maasai
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1996
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- book chapter
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Traveler
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Amal Vinogradov ; 1965
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1883
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1883
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Kenya and Tanzania
- NotesAdditional notes
- by Joseph Thomson, F.R.G.S.
- Note by Sir John Kirk
- Only pp. 75-86 and 234-266 are included here.
- Pp. 75-86 contain data on the Chagga that have been indexed for that collection.
- Includes index
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Masai (African people)