Most of Mursi territory lies within Mago National Park, where they are no longer allowed to hunt. They also live and cultivate along the Mago River and the Omo River. They care for livestock and plant some crops.The men practice light scarification on their shoulders after killing an enemy and shave geometric patterns on their head. During dances and ceremonies they adorn literally every part of their body with white chalk paint. Young unmarried men practice group stick fights. The winner is...
more »Most of Mursi territory lies within Mago National Park, where they are no longer allowed to hunt. They also live and cultivate along the Mago River and the Omo River. They care for livestock and plant some crops.The men practice light scarification on their shoulders after killing an enemy and shave geometric patterns on their head. During dances and ceremonies they adorn literally every part of their body with white chalk paint. Young unmarried men practice group stick fights. The winner is carried on top of poles to girls waiting beside the arena to shake their hands.
The Mursi, Chai and Tirma are probably the last groups in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear large pottery or wooden discs or plates in their lower lips. The lip-plate dhebi a tugoin has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the Mursi and made them a prime attraction for tourists. A girls lower lip is cut, by her mother or by another woman of her settlement, when she reaches the age of fifteen or sixteen. The cut is held open by a wooden plug until the wound heals. It appears to be up to the individual girl to decide how far to stretch the lip, by inserting progressively larger plugs over a period of several months. Some, but by no means all, girls persevere until their lips can take plates of twelve centimetres or more in diameter.
It is often claimed that the size of the lip plate is correlated with the size of a woman's bridewealth. This is not born out by the fact that the marriages of many girls have already been arranged, and the amount of bridewealth to be paid by their husbands' families has already been decided, before their lips are cut.
« less
