Everything and I mean everything revolves around COWS!!!

Everything and I mean everything revolves around COWS!!!, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

Every aspect of Maassai culture is influenced by cattle. The entire social structure is based on the herding, milking, protection and management of cattle. A Maasai man will have cattle, goats and donkeys. Donkeys are viewed as a "car" as they carry water and sick people, goats are just viewed as meat, and cows are the currency. They do not invest in land, houses, banks, any kind of exchange market or even businesses. If they need money they sell a cow and any extra money goes back into buying more cows. The number of cows represents the man's status within society and his wealth. If a man has 50 cows but a very nice house he is considered poorer than a man with a 100 cows and no house. This is based solely on the number of cattle he owns.
To be considered successful in Maasai culture you must own as many cows as possible. The more cows you have then the more wives you can afford and need. The Maasai are polygamists have usually as many wives as they can afford. The man needs more wives in order to milk all of the cows that he owns because that is a “woman’s job”. A major problem arises because each wife must have many children as it is custom. Most wives will have between 6 to 10 children. The “richest” man in Longido that I have heard of has about 1,000 cows, ??? goats, 10 wives and 80 children. The “richest” man I have heard of in Maasailand has 6,000 cows, 10,000 goats, 15 wives and over a 1,000 children. They are both living the “Maasai Dream.”
All marriages are arranged traditionally with a dowry being paid by the groom-to–be to the bride’s father, of course, in cows. There is no set number of cows paid as the amount is negotiated. Let us say for now the men negotiate 10 cows to be paid as a dowry. There will be a down payment of the negotiated amount of cows. In this case, let use say 5 cows as a down payment. After the bride produces the agreed number of children, the remaining portion of the dowry will be paid. If she does not produce the set number of children, then the remaining cows are not paid or it is again negotiated. The system perpetuates itself with there always being too many children that cannot be supported. So, they run around with a single piece of cloth wrapped around their bodies.
Things are changing slowly with the next generation moving away from some of the traditional beliefs and customs but many still want to be the grandest cattle herder of all with the most wives and children to go along with it.