The Effects of Trade on Traditional Subsistence Patterns in Eastern Tanzania: The Case of the Masaai

This paper analyzes the many questions about the nature of the indigenous Masaai tribes, specifically of subsistence practices today, because only scattered accounts remain from colonial explorers from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The Masaai are groups of people that reside in villages scattered throughout eastern Tanzania. The following interview questions are the research focus questions of this study: What ways are the Masaai obtaining their food today? What are traditional ways of obtaining food in the past? What ways are Tanzanians living on the Zanzibar Islands obtaining their food today? What are traditional ways of obtaining food and other goods for the people of the Zanzibar Islands in the past? What government policies today impact the ways you are allowed to process, to gather, or to trade food and goods? The responses will be processed, interpreted, and analyzed as well as the field notes and tape recordings taken during my observations and interviews conducted with

Published as part of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Journal of Undergraduate Research, Volume 12 (2009)