Singing and Dancing occurs in myriad contexts in Samburu culture but the most highly visible and vocal are at special ceremonies associated with life's major events. Circumcision, marraige and birth are all significant events whose triumphant completion is cause to celebrate with dancing and singing. The dialectical wordplay in song that goes back and forth between warriors and the young women is flirtatious and sexual in nature. Warriors may sing of the beauty of a woman's neck or her beads or of their own bravery and courage through singing of raiding songs. The girls sing praise of the warriors for their strength, their handsomeness and the number and color of the cattle the men have raided from neighboring tribes. Dancing occurs often in conjunction with the singing. Dancing may be in seperate dichotomous styles (the warriors jumping and singing while the women shake and undulate their neck and head, sending their necklaces shaking) or together, hand in hand.

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Warriorhood