Anthropologie à Nanterre
Mardi 12 Décembre 2017 16:00 - 18:00
East African pastoralists like the Samburu are well known for their participation in coalitional lethal violence specifically framed in the terms of “cattle raiding.” Moreover, Samburu have often been quintessentially depicted in postcards, coffee table books, and the popular media either as generously adorned girls or else as glamorous bachelor warriors roaming the countryside engaging in livestock theft against their neighbors. While the portrayal is often oversimplified, the accuracy of certain aspects of this stereotype cannot be denied for contemporary Samburu in the lowlands particularly. After a prolonged initiation rite with circumcision at its center, the Samburu age system prescribes 7-14 years (ideally) of bachelor warriorhood during which Samburu lmurran (warriors) are expected to engage in hazardous long-distance cattle herding and protection of the community and its livestock, which can involve some theft or raiding of neighbors’ livestock. As in other East African raiding has historically been an important component of the construction of lmurran masculine identity.