The Mursi people
Presentation
The Mursi people of Ethiopia are a semi-nomadic people from the south of the country, living on the western outskirts of Mago National Park, along the Omo River.
The Mursi have little contact with other tribes. The men, fierce warriors, never leave their old Kalashnikovs.
They are one of the last people in Africa where women still wear lip and ear ornaments in the shape of flat discs, hence their name “platter negresses”.
Mursi, ethnic group of the Omo Valley
The installation of the lower labial ornament (called dhébé) occurs before the age of 10: after extraction of the lower incisors, the lip is perforated and a wooden dowel placed; the orifice is enlarged from year to year by the introduction of increasingly larger cylinders, until a large clay disc decorated with engravings is placed.
Some anthropologists claim that this lip mutilation was intended to make women unsightly in order to protect them from slave raids. Nowadays, the function would only be symbolic since only high caste women are allowed to wear them. The size of the tray is commensurate with the dowry demanded by the family of young girls to marry, a dowry consisting of cattle and goats and a firearm.
This is not the only adornment worn by women, who also wear necklaces made of shells or pearls and shave their heads. Furthermore, men and women pierce their ears where similar discs (or wooden slices) are inserted and wear scarifications on the arms, stomach or chest. Among men, these figurative scarifications commemorate an act of bravery and inspire respect among members of the group. Women wear scarifications on their shoulders which constitute their tribal “identity card” while necklaces, bracelets, mischievous smiles, naughty looks and breast paintings betray a desire to please
