The Serengeti is historically home to the Maasai people, considered the most influential tribe in Tanzania. Although the Maasai have been relocated to the nearby Ngorongoro highlands, tourists usually visit them as a side trip to a safari in the park.
A semi-nomadic people, the Maasai are among the most well-known of African ethnic groups because of their unique customs, clothing, and usual residence beside East Africa's famous game parks. They speak their own dialect called Maa, but because of constant contact with other Tanzanians and tourists, Swahili and English have also become part of everyday language.
The Maasai are a patriarchal society with elderly men serving as leaders. They wear shukas or usually red robes tied in one shoulder embellished with large beaded ornamentations on ears and necks. To signify status, the men customarily pierce and stretch their earlobes while the women are usually circumcised. Their lives center on their primary food, cattle, which also serves as their currency and sign of wealth, along with number of children.
Warriors, who are responsible for tending livestock, are famous for their dance called Adumu or jumping dance. Hunting lions was traditionally a part of their coming-of-age ceremonies, until preservation efforts have prohibited them from continuing this custom. Apart from these, myths and songs also play a big role in the Maasai culture.
A monotheistic people, the Maasai worship a god called Enkai or Engai. The laibons or shamans serve as their priests, and they are usually involved in faith healing, divination and prophecy. There are, however, a good number of Maasais who have converted to Catholicism or Islam through the years.
No matter what their religion is, the Maasais, nevertheless, practice time-honored norms such as not performing funeral ceremonies. Only great chiefs deserve a burial. They just leave their dead out in the plain to be devoured by scavengers.