Age grading and ethnicity in the style of Loikop (Samburu) spears

Abstract

Abstract Social relationships among cattle pastoralists of northern Kenya are often expressed in the style of their material culture. Most obviously, the size and shape of weapons carried by herding males mark ethnic distance among several groups. However, the stylistic traits of ethnicity also seem to differentiate social categories based on age within ethnic groups. This paper examines how the age grading of successive generations of male Loikop (Samburu) herders both draws from, and helps to create, the fast‐changing ethnic style expressed in their hand‐forged iron spears. It also shows how imported formal traits, when recombined into a generational style, help to solidify age‐based relationships within this ethnic group.