[Stoves] Cultural dynamism and stoves

[Alex English]

Bob,
Are you suggesting that the Maasai people are not burdened, as are most 
cultures, by nostalgia. Or is that the property of men.
Alex

On 23/01/2013 8:23 AM, rbtvl at aol.com wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
> Cultures are dynamic not static.Ours stoves become a part of that 
> dynamic world.I work with the Maasai of Tanzania.All the women have 
> mobile phones, changing the way they can plan and cooperate.More and 
> more girls are resisting leaving school to enter the marriages their 
> fathers have arranged for them.There are national laws against Female 
> Genital Mutilation that communities must either comply with or 
> resist.There are more motor cycles, more young men finding jobs in the 
> city.  Weather patterns seems less predictable to them, and they are 
> concerned about their livestock and are doing more farming.
> Our stove is produced locally. The women helped us design it over a 
> year and a half.  The brick work for the chimney, the hole in the 
> roof, the installation are done by teams of women who love the new 
> work that the thought "only men could do". Work like this was never in 
> their culture before. The ten to fifteen hours per week they now don't 
> have to spend gathering wood are spent on their small farms or other 
> activities which change the balance of activity in their culture.No 
> smoke in the house means kids sick less, more peace and time for mom. 
> With the soot gone, they get light colored mud and redecorate their 
> interiors.With the solar systems they buy from us, they have light at 
> night without having to light a smoky fire in the middle of the 
> room.They welcome these pressures on their culture that are occurring 
> alongside all the other pressures.They never would have thought to get 
> better stoves.That was our idea. They jumped at it.
> Bob Lange
> the Maasai Stoves and Solar Project
>
>
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