ABSTRACT
Merker’s early study of the Kisonko Maasai identified the competition between successive age-sets of moran as a dynamic feature of their age system. Following this, nearly six decades lapsed before Philip Gulliver established the continuation of this rivalry into elderhood.The differences in their data reflects more than half a century of change and also the development of anthropology as a discipline, with a finer regard for internal politics and illustration. However, the similarities in their approaches are unmistakable. Both authors maintained a pragmatic view of the tenuous rule of law and custom in situations governed by self-interest. Gulliver’s book, Social Control in an African Society (1963) was concerned with dispute resolution among the Arusha, and it provided the first full account of the jostling on the age grade ladder, with heightened rivalry every fifteen years or so, as the whole spectrum of age-sets matured and aged, and power shifted between firestick alliances.
