© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
"To possess the world in the form of images is, precisely, to re-experience the unreality and remoteness of the the real." Susan Sontag, On Photography
Adorned with a wild boar's tusk, facial chalk markings, decorated goat-skin clothing and an ornamental clay lip-plate. Shot at a communal dance in a Mursi semi-nomadic pastoral settlement on the bank of the Mago River, a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in a remote corner of southwestern Ethiopia.
On the meaning of lip-plates in Mursi culture and society
The Mursi are one of the last groups in Africa where women still wear large wooden or clay plates in their lower lips. Most Mursi women wear lip-plates as an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, signifying passage to womanhood/adulthood. They are more frequently worn by unmarried or newly wed women and are generally worn when serving men food or during important ritual events (weddings, men's duelling competitions, communal dances, safari photo-ops).
Debunking popular myths
Contrary to popular opinion among travellers and other passing strangers, ethnographers found little or no connection between the size of a woman’s lip-plate and the size of her bridewealth (cattle, guns).
Anthropologists and ethnographers have debunked another popular myth surrounding the lip-plate in this region. They found no evidence that the labret originated as a deliberate attempt to disfigure and make women less attractive to slave traders, yet this myth seems to surface regularly in accounts by professional and amateur photographers, tourists, and bloggers alike.
The Mursi and Mursiland
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today.
Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwestern Ethiopia, near the border with South Sudan and northern Kenya.
The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands and thorny bushland thickets. The climate is harsh and unstable with low rainfall and daily temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade during the dry season.
Cogent ethnographic accounts on the meaning of lip-plates in Mursi culture and society include:
• David Turton, "Lip plates and the people who take photographs: uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in southern Ethiopia", Anthropology Today, 20:3, 3-8, 2004.
• Shauna Latosky, "Reflections on the lip-plates of Mursi women as a source of stigma and self-esteem", in Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall (eds.) The perils of face: Essays on cultural contact, respect and self-esteem in southern Ethiopia, Mainzer Beiträge zur Afrika-Forschung, Lit Verlag, Berlin, 2006, pp. 371-386.
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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© All Rights Reserved
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
Mursi mother with ornamental clay lip-plate. Semi-nomadic pastoral settlement on the bank of the Mago River - a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in a remote corner of southwestern Ethiopia.
On the meaning of lip-plates in Mursi culture and society
The Mursi are one of the last groups in Africa where women still wear large wooden or clay plates in their lower lips. Most Mursi women wear lip-plates as an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, signifying passage to womanhood/adulthood. They are more frequently worn by unmarried or newly wed women and are generally worn when serving men food or during important ritual events (weddings, men's duelling competitions, communal dances, safari photo-ops).
Cow-horn designs are engraved along the borders of this labret, signifying Mursi dependance on cattle herding for their livelihood.
Debunking popular myths
Contrary to popular opinion among travellers and other passing strangers, ethnographers found little or no connection between the size of a woman’s lip-plate and the size of her bridewealth (cattle, guns).
Anthropologists and ethnographers have debunked another popular myth surrounding the lip-plate in this region. They found no evidence that the labret originated as a deliberate attempt to disfigure and make women less attractive to slave traders, yet this myth seems to surface regularly in accounts by professional and amateur photographers, tourists, and bloggers alike.
The Mursi and Mursiland
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today.
Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwestern Ethiopia, near the border with South Sudan and northern Kenya.
The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands and thorny bushland thickets. The climate is harsh and unstable with low rainfall and daily temperatures regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade during the dry season.
~~~
Cogent ethnographic accounts on the meaning of lip-plates in Mursi culture and society include:
* David Turton, "Lip plates and the people who take photographs: uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in southern Ethiopia", Anthropology Today, 20:3, 3-8, 2004.
* Shauna Latosky, "Reflections on the lip-plates of Mursi women as a source of stigma and self-esteem", in Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall (eds.) The perils of face: Essays on cultural contact, respect and self-esteem in southern Ethiopia, Mainzer Beiträge zur Afrika-Forschung, Lit Verlag, Berlin, 2006, pp. 371-386.
Tags: Mursi Mursiland Omo tribe peoplei indigenous ethnic ethiopie mother LipDisc Lip Plug afrique africa portrait labret BodyModification aesthetics piercing BodyArt culture tradition pastoral nomadic face EthnicJewelry lip-plate DavidSchweitzer DocumentaryPhotography StreetPhotography HumanInterest VisualAnthropology PhotoJournalism DocumentaryPortrait StreetPortrait VanishingCultures Ethiopia People black&white monochrome bw
© All Rights Reserved
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved and protected by international copyright laws. Any use of this work requires my prior written permission.
Adorned with a wild boar's tusk, facial chalk markings, decorated goat-skin clothing and an ornamental clay lip-plate - Mursi semi-nomadic pastoral settlement situated near the banks of the Mago River, a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in a remote corner of southwestern Ethiopia.
On the meaning of lip-plates
The Mursi are one of the last groups in Africa where women still wear large wooden or clay plates in their lower lips. Most Mursi women wear lip-plates as an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, signifying passage to womanhood/adulthood. The labrets are more frequently worn by unmarried or newly wed women and are generally worn when serving men food or during important ritual events (weddings, men's duelling competitions, communal dances, safari photo-ops).
Debunking popular myths
Contrary to popular opinion among travellers and other passing strangers, ethnographers found little or no connection between the size of a woman’s lip-plate and the size of her bridewealth (cattle, guns).
Anthropologists have debunked another popular myth surrounding the lip-plate in this region. They found no evidence that the labret originated as a deliberate attempt to disfigure and make women less attractive to slave traders, yet this myth seems to surface regularly in accounts by professional and amateur photographers, tourists, and bloggers alike.
The Mursi and Mursiland
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today.
Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwestern Ethiopia, near the border with South Sudan and northern Kenya. The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands and thorny bushland thickets.
Cogent ethnographic accounts on the meaning of lip-plates in Mursi culture and society include:
• David Turton, "Lip plates and the people who take photographs: uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in southern Ethiopia", Anthropology Today, 20:3, 3-8, 2004,.
• Shauna Latosky, "Reflections on the lip-plates of Mursi women as a source of stigma and self-esteem", in Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall (eds.) The perils of face: Essays on cultural contact, respect and self-esteem in southern Ethiopia, Mainzer Beiträge zur Afrika-Forschung, Lit Verlag, Berlin, 2006, pp. 371-386.
Documentary Portraiture | National Geographic | BodyArt
Peoples of the Omo Valley
Tags: Bodypainting Mursi mother labret lip-plate lip-disc lip-plug BodyArt body piercing modification Ethiopia Omo Faces Africa indigenous ethnic tribe people Afrique African jewellery davidschweitzer aesthetics portrait documentary VanishingCultures human interest DocumentaryPhotography StreetPhotography VisualAnthropology PhotoJournalism DocumentaryPortrait StreetPortrait square HumanInterest 500x500 art
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Ostrich feather and curved scars on right shoulder indicate tribal respect and possibly the killing of an enemy from another tribe. Other adornments include Warthog (wild boar) ivory tusks. Mursi settlement near Mago River in Ethiopia's lower Omo Valley.
The Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across a territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwest Ethiopia. The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to riverine forest, thorny bushland thicket and wooded grassland. The climate is harsh and instable with low rainfall and daily temperatures often exceeding 40°C during the dry season. They depend on a traditional mix of subsistence activities for their livelihood: hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum but also some maize, beans and chick-peas) and cattle herding. Today, the Mursi number less than ten thousand.
Tags: feather indigenous man mursi people ostrichfeathers ostrich warrior tusk tribe stick scarification facesofafrica ethnic ethiopie ethiopia eastafrica decoration boarstusk duelling stick fighting afrique africa african omovalley omo portrait portraits Horn of Africa ethnic jewellery david schweitzer torso iron jewellery headdress bodypiercing bodymodification bodyart body warthogivorytusks warthog scarificaiton pastoral markings fighter face etnico etnias etnia ethnologhy ethnie culture cultura competition bracelets bodylanguage boar VanishingCultures DocumentaryPhotography StreetPhotography VisualAnthropology PhotoJournalism HumanInterest
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A conspicuous show of tribal power by Mursi boys with Kalashnikovs. The Kalashnikov symbolizes wealth, status, and power. Above all, the Kalashnikov provides protection during cattle drives and fire-power in armed conflicts with neighbouring tribes.
The value of a Kalashnikov can range from five to thirty-five cows and often figures into the bride-wealth or payment made by the husband’s family to the bride's family.
This semi-nomadic pastoral Mursi settlement is situated high on the bank of the Mago River, a tributary that joins the essential Omo River in the remote southwestern corner of Ethiopia. Shot under the noonday sun near the end of a long hot dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade.
Spears and other traditional weapons in the region were replaced with automatic assault rifles in the 1980s when they became more accessible during the decades-long civil war in neighbouring South Sudan. A surplus of automatic weapons circulating in the larger Horn of Africa is also accessible through other channels, including the flow of small arms and ammunition from longstanding wars across the border in Somalia and nearby northern Uganda. SKS and AK-47 assault rifles were easily available, relatively cheap, and easy to use.
Large numbers of automatic weapons were also imported from the USSR to Communist allies around the world during the Cold War, including Ethiopia. SKS semi-automatic Russian-made rifles were a precursor to the AK-47 and were widely available after the fall of the Derg, the Communist military junta that ruled Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam from 1974 to 1987. The consequent disbanding of the Ethiopian army and police force produced a flood of automatic weapons on the market. They became accessible, in part, through established tribal links with arms dealers in the Ethiopian highlands further to the east of the Omo Basin and elsewhere.
The Mursi are semi-nomadic farmers and herders who depend on shifting hoe-cultivation (mostly drought-resistant varieties of sorghum) and cattle herding for their livelihood. They number less than ten thousand today. Most Mursi live in small settlements dispersed across Mursiland, a remote territory of about thirty by eighty kilometres between the Omo and Mago Rivers in southwest Ethiopia near the border with South Sudan and northern Kenya. The terrain varies from a volcanic plain dominated by a range of hills and a major watershed to a riverine forest, wooded grasslands, and thorny bushland thickets. expl#33
Peoples of the Omo Valley
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