ABSTRACT
With only a few qualifications, the formal structure of the Arusha age-set system and that of the Kisongo Masai seem to be the same. And although there are important differences in the operation and significances of the two systems, the general principles of the social processes are clearly similar. Almost certainly the Arusha first-settlers brought their system with them as a result of their Masai-like origins; but their general dependence on and admiration for the Kisongo, and their acceptance of Kisongo leadership in the major rituals, must have been responsible for the close conformity between the two systems during the last few generations. 1 That structural similarity should be accompanied by functional differences is not unexpected, for the wider social contexts within which the systems operate are so strikingly dissimilar: the Arusha—a primarily sedentary, agricultural people, living at a very high density in a small country; the Kisongo—a mobile, pastoral people, living thinly dispersed over an extensive territory. Despite a number of accounts of the Masai system, none are sociologically satisfactory and therefore I do not rely on any of them directly. 2
