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Abstract
This article analyses how cultural patterns and social organization shape the meaning-making of human mobility and technology, and vice versa. We extend the definition of mobile technologies from engineered devices with portable quality to tools supporting peoples’ customary mobile practices. Specifically, we analyse the embodiment of contemporary mobile technologies into Maasai culture. Mobile practices have socio-cultural, economic and political meanings. The very fabric of the culture through which mobile practices are negotiated here is cattle. In focus are the mobilities shaping Maasailand. We argue that, rather than causing radical cultural change, novel mobile technologies are embedded, rationalized and re-purposed. Furthermore, a local-to-global cooperation on indigenous rights is facilitated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Material mobility refers here to visible, physical mobilities such as moving cattle to a market place with the purpose of selling them, whereas intangible mobility refers to immaterial mobilities such as receiving money on one’s phone when trading cattle.
2. No collectively acknowledged map exists of Maasailand, yet it is constantly referred to by both Maasai and non-Maasai alike. Maasailand was never an isolated area; rather, it comprises a network of economic and cultural exchanges, of mobilities and nodes being both recipients and donors to the broader East African society. Maasailand was historically constructed by ‘displacing and assimilating’ (Sutton in Spear and Waller, eds. Citation1993) earlier populations, involving several stages spread out over hundreds of years, including the making of ‘confederations’ and other alliances.
3. Homes are scattered across a plot, typically not fenced, whilst the cattle kraal is in the very centre, shielded from wild animals and human theft by the buildings and fencing (usually acacia thorn branches).
4. This relationship is comparable to that of seafarers and the sea. Seafarers move through deterritorialised hyperspaces (Sampson Citation2011). Their home is in continuous movement, place and space bearing meaning and purpose if their territory has no steadiness.
5. As a World Heritage site and Man and Biosphere reserve, the NCA falls under special protection and sponsorship from UNESCO. In order to keep this status, the Tanzanian governing regime implements guidelines that often have a radical impact on Maasai livelihood.
6. The NCA was ‘given’ by British rule to Maasai people as ‘consolidation’ for their 1959 eviction from the nearby Serengeti plains.
7. Since the 2005 liberalization of the Tanzanian cellular data network, a large number of actors including Tigo, Celtel and Vodacom compete for market dominance. Vodacom is the largest provider. However, many Tanzanians carry multiple cell phones and SIM cards to ensure coverage, battery life and being able to call someone at the best rate.
8. The Pastoralist Council (PC) represents the Maasai (and minority Datoga) at the Ngorongoro authorities. The PC was created to further promote the goal of human development and for the Maasai to take agency over this goal.
9. All names have been changed to respect the privacy of research participants.
11. Traditional leaders are in charge of affairs regarding religion and traditions. With the demise of the original Maasai religion, the appointment has symbolic power.
12. Lion Lights, now adopted by various community organizations and NGO’s throughout East Africa, were first invented by a young Maasai boy. https://www.ted.com/speakers/richard_turere
13. See http://mpoverello.com/2013/06/09/chinese-president-has-sealed-tanzanias-bagamoyo-mega-port-project/ and http://www.tzrealestate.co.tz/Listing/Houses_for_Sale/2076.html.
14. No land is under private land ownership in Tanzania, instead it is leased out by the state for up to 99 years. The NCA is an exception to this as it is recognized as indigenous land.
15. Maasai driven news outlet: http://www.shomonews.com.
16. Race biologists and turn-of-the-century ethnologists popularized beliefs regarding ‘Hamitic people’ being ‘nomadic Caucasians’. These understandings may have been adopted by the Maasai. See Seligman (1930) Races of Africa and Maasai stories such as: http://maasaimedia.com/2014/11/22/why-all-cattle-are-a-gift-from-god-to-the-maasai/.