Why I Taught the Sources

A number of societies in Eastern Africa, including the Maasai, divide the male life-cycle into distinct stages: childhood; murranhood (or "warrior"); and elderhood. Age-set societies like the Maasai are perhaps unusually explicit in the way that they divide up the life cycle whereas other societies find different ways of socialising the young and managing generational tension. Among the Maasai, the stages are marked by a series of graduation and retirement ceremonies that emphasize the growing cohesion of the generational group and its changing relation to others.

I use three texts on the Massai murran with upper level or seminar classes dealing with youth, either in a specifically African context or more generally in world history. The first is a travel account entitled Through Masai Land by Joseph Thompson. The second is an official report written by Clarence Buxton, District Commissioner, Narok, to the Officer in Charge on the Masai Reserve in July 1935 after a murran riot. The third contains field notes from interviews with elders about events under colonization. The interviews were conducted by historian Richard Waller and took place in 1973.

Since the texts are, essentially, about the way that social maturation is controlled and contested, there are comparative possibilities. I ask students to consider the contrasting natures of the types of sources and to think about how they might be contextualized and assessed. The variety of sources and their separation in time—from 1880 to 1973—offer a number of critical perspectives about processes of change.

How I Introduce the Sources

I generally introduce primary materials towards the middle of a course. Students need to acquire a degree of familiarity with the subject matter before they can make full use of unfamiliar materials. As they gain confidence, their grasp improves and they begin to understand the importance of primary sources for historians and become engaged in the process of interpretation. They learn how to "listen" to a text – for what it is not saying as well as what it is saying. In the process, they learn how to identify and analyze bias and subtexts.

Students read the texts before class discussion. I generally divide a class into a number of small working groups. Each is given either one text or one theme to explore in depth. Because all group members have read the three different texts, we are able to discuss how primary sources, like the secondary literature, have an internal logic that only appears if the entire text is examined.

Reading the Sources

I provide background material and present some of the ideas leading to the major theme of youth culture and its context through an interrogation of its construction. I also pose preliminary questions for students to think about when reading these sources. For example, I ask students why Thomson places young men center-stage in his travel account, with only a few dismissive paragraphs about middle-aged men. Were these young men, the murran, simply more visible, assertive, and flamboyant? Why the long descriptions of dress? Does this reflect readers' expectations of the exotic or the essence of murranhood as experienced by the Massai? Was Thomson more confident in describing what he saw than what he was told (through interpreters)?

I then ask for comparisons with the second document, the 1935 report written by Clarence Buxton, the British official who served as District Commissioner in Narok after a murranriot. Murran are still central, but does he see them in quite the same romantic way? Have they become archaic obstacles to progress? Has Buxton, any more than Thomson, sufficient understanding of language and culture to understand what he is seeing and being told? Comparing this report with Thompson's reminiscences, I ask whether they are really talking about the same thing.

In the third source, the interview field notes, is the elders' understanding of events and their significance different from Buxton's? What were the elders trying to convey to the interviewer about generational relations? I also ask students to consider what shifts occurred over time between these two narratives. Did the aggressive and self-confident warriors of 1880 become the defensive and hostile teenagers of the 1930s? Or did two different authors in two different times interpret the actions of the murran in different ways? What other factors, including external changes as well as the different narrators and kinds of documents, might be involved in these different perceptions?

Reflections

Although anthropologists and historians have not generally done so, it is possible to see murran as youth gangs: Maasai elders and British administrators would not have disagreed. Like gang members elsewhere, Maasai murran create a world and a group identity for themselves apart from "the mainstream."

In some respects, the murran whom Thomson met were not dissimilar from those that Buxton dealt with. In the 1880s, the Maasai had been at the height of their power yet much had changed in the intervening fifty years. Over time, the Maasai lost much of their grazing lands and were confined within a Reserve under colonial rule. Raiding had been outlawed, and the martial virtue of the murran, useful to the British during their conquest of what became Kenya, seemed both archaic and threatening in a time of colonial law and order. The balance of power between murran and elders had also shifted in favour of the latter. Defiant before, angry young men now saw their world threatened and themselves marginalised. They were more obviously subservient to and dependent upon their elders than before.

The Maasai struck back to maintain their honour and their way of life in a series of risings, against a background of calculated disobedience and refusal. After the risings in 1918 and 1922, the British administration decided, in effect, to abolish murranhood, but the attempt failed. By the early 1930s, the administration began to experiment with a modified form of "managed murranhood," allowing young men to be murran for a limited period with supervision.

Sympathetic administrators like Buxton saw that youth must have a space and hoped that its energies and competitiveness might be channelled and controlled by working for the community and perhaps by organised sport. Experience showed, however, that murran could be suppressed but not tamed, and young men, uncertain about their future, continued to "give trouble" to the end of the colonial period and beyond.

Petitioner, then a 17 1/2-year-old male, was charged with violating California's "statutory rape" law, which defines unlawful sexual intercourse as "an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female not the wife of the perpetrator, where the female is under the age of 18 years." Prior to trial, petitioner sought to set aside the information on both state and federal constitutional grounds, asserting that the statute unlawfully discriminated on the basis of gender since men alone were criminally liable thereunder.

JUSTICE REHNQUIST, joined by CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER, JUSTICE STEWART, and JUSTICE POWELL, concluded that the statute does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

(a) Gender-based classifications are not "inherently suspect" so as to be subject to so-called "strict scrutiny," but will be upheld if they bear a "fair and substantial relationship" to legitimate state ends. Because the Equal Protection Clause does not "demand that a statute necessarily apply equally to all persons" or require "things which are different in fact . . . to be treated in law as though they were the same," a statute will be upheld where the gender classification is not invidious, but rather realistically reflects the fact that the sexes are not similarly situated in certain circumstances.

(b) One of the purposes of the California statute in which the State has a strong interest is the prevention of illegitimate teenage pregnancies. The statute protects women from sexual intercourse and pregnancy at an age when the physical, emotional, and psychological consequences are particularly severe. Because virtually all of the significant harmful and identifiable consequences of teenage pregnancy fall on the female, a legislature acts well within its authority when it elects to punish only the participant who, by nature, suffers few of the consequences of his conduct.

(c). . . a gender-neutral statute would frustrate the State's interest in effective enforcement, since a female would be less likely to report violations of the statute if she herself would be subject to prosecution. The Equal Protection Clause does not require a legislature to enact a statute so broad that it may well be incapable of enforcement.

Why I Taught the Source

National and state level world history curricula include study of 20th-century political and economic regimes, namely communism and capitalism. As students learn about these political ideologies and economic systems, they often embrace black and white thinking. They are easily persuaded that communist societies were (are) totalitarian and unjust while capitalist societies were (are) democratic and just. This thinking may be supported by learning about the activities of state security agencies, secret police, and other arms of the state that sustained communist regimes through intimidation and terror.

Under these circumstances, though, how can students explain the trauma and confusion many people of central and eastern Europe experienced after the collapse of communism in 1989? How can they make sense of the continuing appeal of communist parties and ideals in many central and eastern European societies? By examining a source that focuses on youth organizations in East Germany, students can develop a more nuanced view of communist society. It helps students see that communist organizations offered positive experiences that supported values they share. This helps students develop empathy for individuals who lived under communism, and paves the way for understanding the enthusiasm with which some individuals lived in communism, and the ambivalence many experienced at its end.

How I Introduce the Source

To introduce this topic, I ask students to identify the youth groups that exist in our democratic society (Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H, community-based organizations, etc.). We talk about why young people participate in the organizations (have fun, be with friends). We talk about the symbols and rituals of the organizations (uniforms, pledges, moving up ceremonies, bronze/silver/gold awards in Girl Scouts, Eagle Scout award in Boy Scouts) and their social meanings. We also talk about the kinds of activities young people participate in through the groups.

I explain that communist societies had similar organizations in addition to the official organizations of the communist party with which students are already somewhat familiar. I explain that in the German Democratic Republic, elementary and middle school students (using American terminology) belonged to a group called the Ernst Thälmann Pioneers, while students in high school and older (again, using American terminology) belonged to a group called the Young Pioneers. Children generally joined the organizations through school. They received uniforms, met regularly, and participated in activities including recreation, community service, day trips, camping and other excursions.

Reading the Source

The source is set up almost like a catechism, in a "call and response" format. I have one or more students take turns reading the statements in bold type, while the other students in the class respond out loud with the statements in regular type. After reading the source out loud, the students work in groups to summarize its main ideas and to discuss questions such as: What are the values conveyed by the source (pride, respect, discipline, cleanliness)? Who or what should Thälmann Pioneers love, respect, or honor (their parents, the Soviet Union, their bodies, health)? What is the main symbol of the Thälmann Pioneers, and what does it stand for (the red scarf, the working class). What other themes or main ideas can the students find here (opposing imperialists, loving peace, study and learning, etc). I have students chart or list their observations, then comment on them. What, if anything, do they agree with? What, if anything, do they disagree with?

Reflections

To reflect, I ask students to return to the conversation we had prior to our study of the source, and think again about youth groups in the United States. I ask, rhetorically, who wouldn't want to be a part of an organization that all your friends were a part of, that conveyed such positive values, and offered fun activities and service? Students overwhelmingly embrace the idea of the Thälman Pioneers. Then we discuss some of the differences between American youth groups and comparable organizations in communist societies.

The first divergence is the intense social and political pressure to join, as well as disadvantages experienced by those who did not participate (being left out, ostracism, pressures felt by parents at work, limits placed on educational and professional opportunities later in life). Second, youth groups in communist societies had a strong political dimension (refer to the students' analysis for examples). Third, for these reasons, communist youth groups served to coordinate and indoctrinate youth in values and ideals that supported the state regime.

Students begin to see that the picture is no longer black and white—even among East German youth. The youth groups offered fun, social experiences for young people—yet participation was almost compulsory. In addition, it was very hard for many people to experience the problems of daily life in communist society and at the same time embrace the positive beliefs included in propaganda such as this. Many young people participated in communist youth groups with a high degree of cynicism, which, in the long run, served to undermine the state.

I find students are very responsive to the source and the conversations we have about it. They appreciate the insight into the daily life of young people in a communist society. Many become curious about this and other youth organizations. They may make comparisons to youth groups under National Socialism, if they learned about them previously. This is a rich, interesting activity for high school students that sharpens critical thinking by drawing upon an already familiar aspect of youth culture.

The Pledge of the Thälmann Pioneers:

"Ernst Thälmann is my model. I promise to learn to work and to fight as Ernst Thälmann teaches. I will follow the rules of the Thälmann Pioneers. True to our greeting, I am always ready to support peace and socialism."

We Thälmann Pioneers love our socialist fatherland, the German Democratic Republic.

In word and deed, we will always defend our workers' and farmers' state, which is a firm part of the socialist community of nations.

We Thälmann Pioneers carry with pride a red scarf and wear it with honor.

Our red scarf is a part of the flag of the working class. It is a great honor for us Thälmann Pioneers to wear the red scarf as an outward symbol of our devotion to the cause of the working class and its party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

We Thälmann Pioneers love and respect our parents.

We know that we have much to thank our parents for.

We follow their advice and help them. We want to become conscious builders of the socialist society.

We Thälmann Pioneers are friends of the Soviet Union, and protect peace while hating the warmongers.

By working hard to learn and through good deeds, we help socialism and the forces of peace throughout the world. We always and everywhere oppose the incitement and lies of the imperialists.

We Thälmann Pioneers are friends of the Soviet Union and all socialist brother nations, and want friendship with all the children of the world.

Friendship with the Soviet Union is a matter of the heart for us. The Lenin Pioneers are our best friends. We work closely with the pioneers of the socialist nations and with all progressive children's organizations in the world. We express active solidarity with all peoples struggling for their freedom and national independence.

We Thälmann Pioneers study diligently, are orderly and disciplined.

We gain basic knowledge and abilities, and work everywhere for order, discipline and cleanliness.

We work to help everyone to earn honestly, to use his knowledge, and to make word and deed be the same.

We thus prepare for life and work in socialist society.

We Thälmann Pioneers love work, and respect every form of work and all working people.

We learn from the workers, farmers and other working people and join in wherever we can be helpful. We respect the people's property.

We Thälmann Pioneers love truth and are reliable and friendly to each other.

We always seek to know the truth and work for socialism. We fulfill the tasks we take on and stand by our word as pioneers. We strive to make our group a strong community and give friendly assistance to other pupils.

We Thälmann Pioneers learn technology, learn the laws of nature and become familiar with the treasures of culture.

We are interested in the latest in science and technology. We participate in scientific activities, join in artistic activities, develop our talents and demonstrate our abilities.

We Thälmann Pioneers keep our bodies clean and healthy, participate in sports, and are cheerful.

We strengthen our bodies by sports, games and tourism. We are interested in the beauties of our homeland and hike with pleasure. We do not smoke or drink alcohol.

We Thälmann Pioneers prepare ourselves to be good members of the Free German Youth.

We are interested in the history of the socialist youth group and in the deeds of Free German Youth members. Their splendid achievements are our model and spur. We work together with them.