Cultural Changes In American Culture Essay

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There are many ways the Masai have changed due to the ever changing world around them. There are positive and negative aspects of their culture change and many advocates for both sides. The biggest differences can be seen in the areas of marriage, education, economics and religion, to name a few.
The first change that I will discuss is marriage. The Masai used to have many wives and have large numbers of children. With the drought and low supply of resources, they evolved into what we would now consider a “household” lifestyle with one wife and up to three children. The government of Kenya does not recognize marriages that are not documented and the Masai do not document their marriages. However, this practice is changing because in many situations, the man would die and the wife would be left with nothing because technically, there was no record that anything belonged to them. Now many Masai are signing documents to make their marriage official in the eyes of the government. Furthermore, the video showed a wedding where the guests and bride and groom wore traditional Masai garb, but the children all wore western European clothes, and the couple even had a wedding cake. The changes involving marriage may seem minor when compared to the changes surrounding education. …show more content…
With the world is changing and their grazing lands and valuable resources getting smaller, they realize they can no longer truly rely on those narrow skill sets. The school where the Masai children now attend do not allow them to wear traditional garb or even speak their native language, or else they would have to go chop wood. They learn history and other general subjects, and while many elders think the school is useless, the younger generation sees a future that is

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