Materiality and Hunt among the Ogiek of Mariashoni (Kenya)

Abstract

This paper, whose first aim is the ethnolinguistic documentation of the hunting tradition of the Ogiek of Mariashoni, also represents an opportunity for a thorough reflection about the concept of materiality and its multifaceted implications. In the first part of the article I present a detailed description of the currently used cultural lexicon, hunting methods (alone or in group), weapons (bow, arrows, knives spears and traps) and materials used by the hunters of the region. I also describe apprenticeship, the mechanisms regulating the transmission of knowledge and those regulating the education of dogs inside the community, before passing to the second part of the paper, where I discuss how the concept of materiality is central and multifaceted in the gathering and interpretations of the ethnolinguistic data collected in the field. To understand this last point the theories of signification-emanation-circulation by Silverstein (cf Silverstein 2013) and of metaform by Danesi (cf Danesi 2013) will be particularly useful.