The Eunoto celebration is a “rite of passage” ritual, which Arnold van Gennep referred to in his 1909 publication Les Rites de Passage as “rituals that accompany transitions from one situation to another” (Gennep 1909:13). The central objective of Eunoto is the transitioning of the Maasai junior warriors into senior warriors. The process of this “rite of passage” can be separated into three phases: separation, margin , and reaggregation (Gennep 1909). The separation phase entails “the detachment of an individual or group from an earlier fixed point in the social structure” (Gennep 1909). This occurs when the junior warriors leave their existing homes in order to live in a separate village ( emanyatta ) with their age-set in order to prepare for Eunoto. During this time as junior warriors, the Moran are subjected to a life of both privilege and restriction. They receive admiration and attention from society, while at the same time they are “submitted to a strict social, sexual and dietary discipline which enhances their prestige” (Galaty 1983:368). This period can be characterized as the margin phase, or the stage of “limnality” (Gennep 1909). “In limnality the novice enters a ritual time and space that are betwixt and between those ordered by the categories of past and future mundane social existence” (Turner 1982:203). After initiation into senior warriorhood, the social taboo on eating or drinking in the presence of women is lifted, and the Moran are permitted to have sexual relations with circumcised women. When Maasai junior warriors are initiated, they enter the reaggragation phase in which they are reintroduced into their communities, now bearing the title of senior warrior.

 

On the surface of the ritual it is a social transition, however the process of evoking divine presence plays the most culturally significant role. The cosmic and divine worlds are fundamental in Maasai culture and thus have great importance when performing ritual ceremonies. Eunoto utilizes three predominant symbolic elements that represent core values of the Maasai people: oxen, charms and the post. The oxen represent God's presence on earth, the charms possess divine powers of herbal magic, and the post is made from the most sacred of trees, the olive tree. “The three ritual objects and domains are the primary means by which divinity is conceived and represented and they serve as symbolic mediators between heaven ( enkai ) and earth ( enkop )” (Galaty 1983:379). The use of these symbols as means for conjuring up sacred powers, demonstrates the spiritual core of this social ritual, and thus reveals the importance of spiritual values to the Maasai people.

 

The Eunoto ritual, although mainly focused on a certain age-set, expresses values that unite all Maasai people. The Strap Carver and the Planter represent the ideals of their age-set as well as Maasai society as a whole by possessing purity and by being “morally and physically whole and symmetrical” (Galaty 1983:369). Consequently, when one age-set goes through initiation, the sacred aura that is achieved by Eunoto is felt by the whole community. The Planter, who is named after the ceremony (Eunoto meaning ‘erecting' or ‘planting') has supremacy over the Strap Carver (Galaty 1983). He has a large role in the application of the three sacred symbols of the ceremony. The Planter has the job of erecting the sacred post in the ritual village, which establishes or “plants” the age-set. The new name given to the age-set after initiation “is also the name of the Planter's ox, which has just been sacrificed and consumed by the group” (Galaty 1983:378). The Planter also functions as a representative of the age-set and can be thought of as a ‘charm' of the ritual himself.

 

Several months before the actual ceremony, junior warriors from across many villages assemble to construct a single ritual village ( emyatta ) for which Eunoto is to be carried out. The ritual village is constructed in accordance with cosmic alignment and symmetry. Traditionally there are 48 houses arranged in a circular fashion around the circumference of the village; the sacred post “surrounded by protective herbs and charms” is located in the center of the village along with a burning fire (Galaty 1983:372). The homes of the Strap Carver and the Planter are oriented on the east side of the village due to its cosmic symbolism of newness and birth. The symmetry and circularity of the ritual village represents the unity and camaraderie of the age-set (Saitoti 1980). Achieving this unity is reinforced throughout junior warriorhood when the whole age-set is living under the same social restrictions. The group is required to sleep together (even while engaging in sexual activity with women), share all possessions with each other and, according to tradition, a warrior must never eat alone to ensure that the whole group would receive equal amounts of food (Hodgson 1999). Some tribes also forbid a warrior from drinking his own cattle's milk in an attempt “to encourage sharing rather than a selfish monopoly” within the group (Saitoti 1980:45). Within the group, there is not to be any individual desires expressed, only those of communal interest (Hodgson 1999). These restrictions that the junior warriors have placed on them aid in fostering a sense of “communitas” within the age-set (Turner 1982).

 

The performance aspects of the ritual take on symbolic meaning, and bring a divine presence to earth physically. The sacrifice ( empolosata ) of the sacred oxen is the primary act in the Eunoto ceremony. The slaughter itself is done with great respect for the animal. The body of the ox is a symbol of God in Maasai culture and its blood and meat are holy sacraments. When sacrificing the ox its right side must be facing east and its left side facing west. This represents the sun as it moves from east to west in the sky, and the correlation with life and death. The ox symbolizes the Maasai “who move in their journeys between life and death, metaphorically from east to west” (Galaty 1983:368). The cosmic alignment of the sacrificial oxen is a way to bring about the spirits, which are vital to the Eunoto ritual. The sacrificial ritual is conducted in a sanctuary to show respect for the oxen slaughtered. Once the ox is slaughtered and cooked, its sacred blood is mixed with milk and mead, and presented to the Moran to drink. The Moran are arranged in a circular fashion to show their unity as an age-set and a tribe while the elders move counterclockwise around them to present them with the blood, muscles and organ sacraments (Galaty 1983:377). The oxen's body represents life and strength, thus by consuming it, the divine strength is embodied in the warriors of the Maasai community.