The Maasai and Their Neighbors: Variables of Interaction

land cultivated by Bantu-speaking peoples. In each of these cases the dominant forms of economic activity are sometimes mistaken for the only ones, and groups are falsely characterized as purely pastoral or agricultural. According to some myths and legends of the Maasai, a sharp distinction between pastoralists, agriculturalists, and hunters-gatherers has existed since the beginning of time. According to one legend, an elder instructed his two sons to choose the things they wished to inherit. The elder son chose and received a few cattle, a few sheep, and agricultural foods; he became the father of the it meeki (Maasai word for agriculturalists). The second son chose only his father's fly whisk and received wealth, cattle; he became the father of the Maasai. According to another version, one son chose a digging stick and became the father of the agriculturalists; the second son chose a bow and became the father of the hunter-gatherers; and the third chose a herding stick and became the father of the Maasai.2 The Maasai did perceive themselves only as pastoralists and they perceived their involvement in hunting and gathering or agriculture as being incompatible with their pastoral ideal. This ideal was shared by almost all Maa-speakers but in a strict sense no Maasai was a pure pastoralist in that he could follow a completely pastoral diet of meat, milk, and other pastoral products. Pastoralists have probably always been forced to rely upon agricultural produce for part of their subsistence during every dry season. In addition, pastoralism in the Rift Valley was precariously balanced in its environmental setting and no amount of knowledge or work by an individual could prevent the destruction or loss of his herd of cattle through disease, drought, or raids. The relations between the pastoralists, farmers, and hunters was not static but dynamic; individuals moved between these three modes of subsistence according to their economic status at a given time. An agriculturalist or hunter who obtained several cattle found it an advantage, and in some cases a necessity,