The Maasai are a Nilotic people numbering about 900 000, split almost equally between northern Tanzania and Kenya. Due to their nomadic ways, they are the only people not obliged to carry passports when crossing between the two countries. The Maasai culture is strongly male-dominated with the women holding a very lowly status in society. Maasai life and wealth centres around cattle and children, although calves are recognised as wealth at birth, whereas babies, due to the high mortality rate, are not recognised as existing until they have seen three moons. In death, the Maasai are equally pragmatic, leaving the corpses of the deceased out for scavengers in the belief that burial is harmful to the soil. The dead body is often smeared with cow’s blood to lure the hyenas as there is no greater disgrace than having your remains spurned in death by wild animals.