Object Details
- Local Numbers
- A 4 MSI 1.1 EE 59
- General
- Title is provided by EEPA staff based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- Frame value is 0.
- Slide No. A 4 MSI 1.1 EE 59
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Kenya
- Topic
- Portraits
- Body arts
- Beadwork
- Decoration and ornament
- Clothing and dress -- Africa
- Hairstyles -- Africa
- Weapons
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Maasai (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Kenya
- Extent
- 1 Slides (photographs) (col.)
- Date
- 1959
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EECL 783
- Type
- Archival materials
- Slides (photographs)
- Color slides
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Color slides
- Scope and Contents
- "At about the age of 7 Maasai (Masai) girls and boys diverge sharply in the wearing of ornaments. By the age of twelve, girls, who have been learning to make their own ornaments, begin to accumulate their wedding trousseau either by making the ornaments from scratch, recycling the ornaments of older sisters or by receiving hand me downs. Girls ears are pierced on top at about the age of four. The lobes of girls are stretched out at about ten to the time when breasts starts to appear, age twelve, and wooden earplugs are inserted to prepare the ears for beaded wrappings and also inkonito onkiyiaa (ear flaps), the leather ear flap that can only be worn after marriage. Girls pass boys in life development because they marry earlier, so the relative timing of boys' and girls' ear modification may vary. Boys have the uppers done at about 6. Their lower ears are stretched when they ask for it between ages 10 and 14. Girls by about twelve may make ornaments for their brothers or other male relatives but not their fathers." [Klumpp D., 1987: Maasai Art and Society:Age and Sex, Time and Space, Cash and Cattle. U.M.I Dissertation Service]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536870822481-1536871014483-3
