Helplessness & The Shaking of the Body

Samburu men in the unmarried warrior age-group of fifteen to thirty years called morans, readily fall into trance in particular circumstances.

These ‘odd men out’, suspended between boyhood and adulthood in an uncomfortably prolonged adolescence, regularly go into trance, shaking with extreme bodily agitation, in frustrating situations.

Typical precipitating circumstances are those where one group of morans is out-danced by a rival group in front of girls...Samburu soldiers may get the shakes on parade, or when ambushed.

All the evidence here shows conclusively that this is a culturally conditioned response to tension and danger which is not interpreted mystically, and is indeed viewed by the Samburu as a sign of manliness and self-assertion.