Once Intrepid Warriors: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Cultural Politics of Maasai Development [Paperback]

Once Intrepid Warriors advances a brilliantly persuasive critique of development among the Maasai. . . . This historical ethnography is a tour de force, counter-balancing the analysis of cultural, political, and socio-economic transformation over the longue duree with intimate and memorable portraits of representative individuals. Richard Werbner

In a series of chapters on the interrelationships of ethnicity, gender, and 'modernity,' Hodgson concludes that it is not the Maasai who have remained static, but rather the external images of them. Choice

. . . meticulous and well-documented . . . a valuable resource. . . . Africa

A rich and complex view of the Maasai today.

Dorothy L. Hodgson teaches anthropology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she is affiliated with the Center for African Studies and the Women's Studies Department.

[T]his is a well-researched and innovative account. The 'intrepid women' of the French army have found their historian.42 2012

Introduction: Seeing Maasai
1. Gender, Generation, and Ethnicity: Being Maasai Men and Women
Maasai Portrait 1: Koko
2. Modernist Orders: Colonialism and the Production of Marginality
Maasai Portrait 2: Wanga
3. Why Are You in Such a Hurry? Development and Decolonization
Maasai Portrait 3: Thomas
4. Politics of the Postcolonial Periphery: Gender, Ethnicity, and Citizenship
Maasai Portrait 4: Edward Moringe Sokoine
5. Poverty and Progress: Gender, Ethnicity, and Pastoralist Development
Maasai Portrait 5: Mary
6. The Gendered Contradictions of Modernity and Marginality
Conclusion: Maasai Pasts, Maasai Futures
Epilogue: The Last of the Maasai?