The Epistemology and Ontology of the Chamus in Kenya: The Human Body as Nature

Abstract

This paper explores the way the Chamus of northern Kenya, belonging to the Maa group of the Eastern-Nilotic language family, speak extremely physically of the facts pertaining to the bodies and bodily phenomena. The Chamus view the body as a shared anatomical construct and physiological mechanism, and these properties as a mechanism of their culture and society. They treat physical disorders with their ethnomedicine, and have an indigenous reproductive theory. The human cycle of birth, life and death is an attribute of their bodily existence. The biological basis for human life resides in the body. This paper discusses the indispensable bodily interaction with others, and the biological property of the body as the basis for confirming life, citing the Chamus as an example.