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Maasai Women
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Filmmaker Name:
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Melanie Wallace, Sanford Low, Michael Ambrosino
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Film Length:
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59 min
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Film Year:
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1980
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Duration:
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46-75 min
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Decade:
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1980s
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Series:
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Odyssey series
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Color:
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color
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The Maasai, a prosperous society of animal herders whose sustenence and wealth is their cattle, live primarily in the Rift Valley between Kenya and Tanzania. Women tend the cattle, bring up the children, clean mud from the village when it rains, and belong to a man's estate.
This film highlights the Maasai female's rights of passage from childhood to old age, and her lot in life as she is tied to the fortunes of not only husbands but sons as well. Since they alone can give birth, the women see themselves as important contributors to their husband's wealth and develop close supportive relationships with the co-wives. In this society, if a man is rich, "it's his wives who made him so."
Description from Science, Technology, & Human Values Vol. 5, No. 32 (Summer, 1980)
In an attempt to cut the often esoteric ice of anthropology, PBS released in 1980 the first season of ODYSSEY, a newly-created series of anthropological documentaries, with a second season in 1981. The entire series was produced by Public Broadcasting Associates of Boston, with major funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Polaroid. Michael Ambrosino is the Executive Producer of the series.
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