ABSTRACT
The ways in which societies organise space within a settlement can be heavily reflective of sociocultural, political and ritual structures. This chapter explores how ethnographic information can be used to interpret isotopic data from faunal dental enamel, and how patterns of isotopic compositions might be associated with particular forms of pastoralist settlement. At Maili Sita, this provides an additional lens through which to interpret the distribution of anthropogenic deposits and forge conclusions regarding settlement layout. The work, however, is ongoing, and the following will serve as an introduction to the method being applied and the rationale behind linking isotopic analyses of faunal assemblages with geoarchaeology, rather than a forum for the presentation of results. Maili Sita has been tentatively associated with the emergence of the Maasai in central Kenya and it seems worthwhile, therefore, to begin with some discussion of the dynamics of Maasai settlements in their various forms, in order to establish an ethnoarchaeological foundation.
