From Dorobo to Maasai: Contested Ethnicity in Kenya

[Nomadite]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4153019?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

The plains nilotes of Kenya and their history are probably my favorite amongst the nilotes as their cultures are more sophisticated and history more entertaining.

Now this isnt the first time assimilation such as this has happened either, a lot of cushitic speaking hunters(and hunters as a whole) were seen as inferior by their Maa speaking clients, plenty have in the past embraced Maa culture and ways along with tradition and added their own elements and loans to it as well resulting in the fairly cushitic influenced culture of the Massai.

Interesting historical dynamic the many groups around the Maa steppe and arid lands of Kenya, it also might explain how the Y dna of the massai are cushitic? as from what ive read very few of te recent maa speaking assimiliates are considered true massai by the massai themselves.

 

[Som]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4153019?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

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The plains nilotes of Kenya and their history are probably my favorite amongst the nilotes as their cultures are more sophisticated and history more entertaining.

Now this isnt the first time assimilation such as this has happened either, a lot of cushitic speaking hunters(and hunters as a whole) were seen as inferior by their Maa speaking clients, plenty have in the past embraced Maa culture and ways along with tradition and added their own elements and loans to it as well resulting in the fairly cushitic influenced culture of the Massai.

Interesting historical dynamic the many groups around the Maa steppe and arid lands of Kenya, it also might explain how the Y dna of the massai are cushitic? as from what ive read very few of te recent maa speaking assimiliates are considered true massai by the massai themselves.

Arab documents mentioning Zeila talk about the native somali population doing things like drinking cow's blood which is also a masai cultural practice. We are definitely related with them. Masais descend from cushitic like peoples from the horn who migrated to kenya and tanzania, they mixed with local nilotic people's. Some masai look very somali, while others less. They also have some nilotic groups they assimilated but "pure" masai also have singificant nilotic ancestry.

 

[Diaspora ambassador]

Arab documents mentioning Zeila talk about the native somali population doing things like drinking cow's blood which is also a masai cultural practice. We are definitely related with them. Masais descend from cushitic like peoples from the horn who migrated to kenya and tanzania, they mixed with local nilotic people's. Some masai look very somali, while others less. They also have some nilotic groups they assimilated but "pure" masai also have singificant nilotic ancestry.

Somali clans did drink cow blood we would have shuned them until this day.

I remember a story about a clan that allegedly has eaten human flesh and no somali clan marries them. They are even shunned by the .5 minorities

 

[Nomadite]

Arab documents mentioning Zeila talk about the native somali population doing things like drinking cow's blood which is also a masai cultural practice. We are definitely related with them. Masais descend from cushitic like peoples from the horn who migrated to kenya and tanzania, they mixed with local nilotic people's. Some masai look very somali, while others less. They also have some nilotic groups they assimilated but "pure" masai also have singificant nilotic ancestry.

South Sudani nilots and Omo valley Surmic tribes(Ethiopian nilots) drink cows blood as well, that is likely something that Cushites taught nilots how to do when cattle was introduced to the continent back in Pre-History(a custom nilots kept but cushitics did not).


True Massai still look somewhat South Sudani, albeit a clear Cushitic component now. The Massai that people often see today aren't "true" Massai(as shown here, assimilates that adopted maa culture) some are even straight-up assimilated Cushites, with the Y dna not having changed at all(which is likely why half the Y dna of the massai is cushitic markers).

As you said however the ones that look more nilotic are the "purer" ones id think, also the more south you go and deeper from Kenya into northern Tanzania the more Cushitic it gets.