THE MAASAI ORNITHORIUM - TROPIC FLIGHTS OF AVIAN IMAGINATION IN AFRICA

During the transition following ritual circumcision, Maasai boys kill, stuff, and mount decorative birds and wear the pelt rack as a headpie ce. Recalling Evans-Pritchard's question of why Nuer equate twins and birds, this article asks why Maasai initiates kill birds; moreover, de corative birds, not birds of character with adult personality. The for mer index the liminality of initiates, in contrast to the lion-mane an d ostrich-feather headdresses worn by warriors. But in the form of bir ds skinned and mounted, we also see an iconic replica of the initiates ' symbolic death and rebirth in the experience of circumcision.