Construcción de microarrays de proteínas mediante la tecnología Nucleic

The intasati her-stories consisted of qualitative data about the life histories of older women (all widows) from the time they were young uncircumcised girls to the present day. According to Hodgson (2001:11), “Social changes in gender relations… only become visible in greater time depths, such as decades or generations.” Having passed their child-bearing years when Maasai women hold subservient status in their culture, widows can become powerful authority figures (Hodgson 2001; Little 1987; Talle 1988) with deeply nuanced perspectives. Grand tour questions addressed the research questions (Table 3.9) and mini-tour questions were individualized for each interview depending on their personal experiences and knowledge.

With the her-story approach of feminist historians, women become visible “as a focus of inquiry, a subject of the story, an agent of the narrative.” (Scott 1999:17) The interviews followed the benchmarks in their lives -- as children (intoyie), wives and mothers with young children (isiankikin), and post-menopausal women with circumcised children (intasati). These benchmarks roughly paralleled the temporal span of forest change under analysis.

For specific timing of events, Maasai use a system based on culturally defined phases of male maturation and male age groups.69 The formal progression in all men’s lives is from boys (ilayiok) to morans70 (ilmurran) to elders (ilpayiani). Characteristics of male age groups and celebrations differ depending on periods in history, localities, and Maasai sections (Kronenberg Garcia 2015; Spencer 1988 and 1993; Talle 1988).71 All Maasai women do not progress through age groups and traditionally never attain a social status with power over livestock or their own bodies (Talle 1988). Older women often define themselves in relationship to male age groups either as their daughters, lovers, wives, or mothers and they structure time accordingly (e.g., My father was Ilterito or I sang to Ilkiseyia moran.) References that helped intasati place their life events even more precisely in time were the event calendar, age group ceremonies, and

69 _{Age group is a general term for a man’s age set (olaji) or circumcision group (olporror). (See Table} 2.1)

70 _{Moran is an anglicized version of the Maa word for warrior (singular olmurrani, plural ilmurrani). It is} used throughout to mean circumcised unmarried men.

71 _{For example, most Kenyan Maasai sections divide the moran generation into right- and left-hand} circumcision groups. Tanzanian Maasai, such as Kisonko do not (Spencer 1988).

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approximate ages of children in the homestead (enkang) during interviews (e.g., “Were you this child’s age at that time?”).

Maasai widows can be a heterogenous group based on personal circumstances (Coast 2001). The lives of intasati in this study were similar and different in many ways. Their life experiences with livelihood roles, forest use, and power relations with men were generally the same. They were also all intoyie and isiankikin before 1976, their fathers were Ilterito, they never attended school, they gave birth to roughly the same number of children by 1995, and they were all widows living with sons and grandchildren (Table 4.1).

Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of intasatiª

Year born

Her approximate

age in Circumcised Age set of her father

Age set of moran she sang

for (circumcision

group, year group established)

Age set she married (year married- year widowed) Child- ren Grand- children 1976 1995 2014 Year Age

1955 21 40 59 1968 13 Ilterito Ilkitoip (Right hand Ilkiseyia, 1968)

Ilkitoip (1969–2014)

8 30

1931 45 64 83 1949 18 Ilterito Ilnyangusi (Left hand Ilkamaniki, 1946)

Ilnyangusi (1949–1985)

7 20

1937 39 58 77 1957 20 Ilterito Iseuri (Right hand Ilterekeyiani, 1952) Iltareto (1958–1970) 7 16

ªYears were generated using the event calendar and corroborated with family members when possible

The ways they were dissimilar were mostly demographic such as age, age of circumcision72, age group of men they sang for and married, number of co-wives, places they migrated, decades they were widowed, and whether they bore children as widows.73 _{The youngest was recently}

widowed, had cows, and fetched her own water and firewood. The eldest was completely dependent on her sons due to ill health and lack of cows when she was widowed. Widows have different challenges depending on wealth and family circumstance:

72 _{In the 1950s, the age of girl circumcisions among Matapato Maasai started to become lower because of} decline in traditional moranhood and increasing pregnancies among uncircumcised girls (Spencer 1988). This trend has continued in Maasailand (Coast 2001; Archambault 2011).

73_{Although it is uncommon for widows to re-marry because of practical complications with property and} milking rights (Coast 2001), widows bearing children with lovers is socially accepted. The children belong to the late husband’s patriline. In the case of one entastat, five of her seven children were born during widowhood and she refused to identify the father(s) for the interviewer.

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My husband started drinking alcohol and became stupid. Before it was a woman without a husband who had problems. Today it is a woman without a husband who has no problems. They have a chance to go around and have a small business. FKI-NFE-59

A widow who has riches is not oppressed. Today there are widows in this area who don’t have owners and they don’t have a shamba and maize. A man will come and tell her “I will buy your ox with this heifer.” She gives him that ox but when she goes to look for that heifer it becomes a fight. She is told “Go remove the bones of your dead husband and then I will give you the heifer!” FKI-NFE-77

I had challenges because he died without cows. I was the one to circumcise the children. I cultivated shamba for them. I also went borrowing. The whole burden was on me. People take care of a widow if she wakes up and cries for help. MKI-NFE-83

Interviews for each entasat ranged 3-12 hours long over several days. Interviews were flexible in time and locations and continued during household, childcare and livestock duties such as searching for lost cows weakened from drought, suckling a crying grandchild, making meals for children, tending a girl who had given birth, checking calves, counting cows at sunset, and collecting firewood and water. Only the investigator, the informant, and a female research assistant (who verbally translated questions and answers) were within earshot during interviews. A total of 26 hours of conversation were audio-recorded and transcribed into 88 pages of typed text. Data was loaded into Nvivo software to conduct queries of coded content.

This chapter addresses questions emerging from the intersection of culture, environment, and livelihood (Figure 1.1):

• How did the land change between 1975, 1996 and 2014? How did elderly women perceive it? How do their perceptions align with geospatial findings?

• When did changes in land use, livelihood, and gender relations occur? How do they align with geospatial findings?