When a Maasai boy reaches the age of four or five, his two lower incisors are removed. Around this age, the child major important chore is to look after the family’s lambs and young calves. At the age of around seven, the top of the child’s right earlobe is pierced. At this time, the child also starts looking after much older calves and also would accompany an older family member in herding cattle. Around this age, the children would participate in children’s games such as cow-dung fights and high jumping. They are also taught from stories and proverbs.
At the age of sixteen or seventeen, the boys’ lower lobes of both ears are pierced. Around this time, boys start to take more responsibilities such as moving sheep or cattle to new pasture grounds. The girls on the other hand start to tackle tasks reserved for women such as drawing water, hewing wood and plastering houses. Before a boy is circumcised (the age when a boy is circumcised varies with maturity of a boy and may be anywhere between ages seventeen to twenty plus) he is not allowed to put ornaments in his pierced ears and may not carry a steel-white spear. However, he may decorate himself with olive branches and carry a quiver. The young Maasai girls also follow a pattern similar to the boys. For unmarried girls, they are dressed in robes of black with a decorous chain and small shells as well as a beaded, leather decoration put in her pierced ear lobe. Shortly before they are married, girls have their heads shaved clean.
