This is the third and final installment of The Masai Part I: A Glimpse of Gender, Sexuality, and Spirituality in the Loita Masai over at Mother Nature Obeyed:
In this installment, we see a historical example where a contingent of women organizing a fertility ceremony stood up to the men in the counsel of elders and ultimately made them recant their initial decision to cancel the ceremony because of an open case of repayment for a murder. The event shows that, although there is a sex-based authority structure in Masai society, the women are far from powerless.
I also describe the Masai fertility ritual itself, which is seen as a symbolic and in a sense very real, perhaps mystical, process of insemination. It involves anointment with ox fat, which is tied to fertility and childbearing in Masai customs.