Shaved Surma woman with lip plate - Ethiopia

She looked like a Sci Fi woman!
A Surma / Suri girl will be beautiful if she has a big lip plate, and if her body, is covered of scarifications. They do it with accacia spine and razor blades. Razor blades are the worst thing to use as it may spread diseases thru blood. The local population are no more isolated and, as some surma men start to travel in big ethiopian cities, they also can meet prostitutes...
Piercing and lip plates are a strong part of the Surma -Suri culture. These traditional adornments are worn by almost all the adult Suri women. When a Surma woman becomes engaged to be married, usually in her teens (around 14 or 15), she disappears from village life to live in her family hut. The gap between her front lip and the flesh below is pierced and gradually stretched. In the beginning a hole is made in the lip with a wooden stick. The strecth continues as successively bigger discs of clay or wood are accomodated by the disfigured lip. Generally the two lower front teeth are pulled (or knocked) out to aid the process. The final size of the plates determines how many cattle the woman will receive as a dowry, so the more stretched her lip the better, and the more the more cattle the woman is worth. Some women have stretched their lips so as to allow plates up to 20 centimeters in diameter. Having a lip plate is considered a sign of beauty. The origins of this tradition are unknown. Sometimes the lip is broken by the pressure of the lip plate. This is a very big problem for girl because men will consider her as ugly, she won't be able to marry anyone in the tribe apart from old men or ill people.
Although it is seen as a sign of beauty nowadays, it is said that the disfigurement began as a way to prevent slavers from seizing Suri women. Over the last few years, a growing number of young Surma women refuse to have their lip pierced. The increasing exposure and opening of the Suri to other cultures is the main reason of this trend. Indeed, some Suri teenagers have the opportunity to study in Addis Abeba, and once back in their village, they tend to try to change customs and traditions.
Mursi have also the same tradition.

© Eric Lafforgue
www.ericlafforgue.com

Taken in: Ethiopia / Southern Nations Nationalities and People's Region / Kibish (show map)

Taken on: July 5, 2010

Tags:

3784

etiópia

Αιθιοπία

эфиопия

埃塞俄比亚

埃塞俄比亞

이디오피아

エチオピア

Äthiopien

Etiopía

種族

Ethiopië

Etiopia

에티오피아

Etiopien

Etiopija

Етиопија

Etiyopya

אתיופיה

衣索匹亚

衣索匹亞

ethiopie

suri

surma

lip plug

lip disc

lip plate

body modification

clay

pierced hole

labret

pierced-lip ornament

tribe

tribal

tribu

tribes

ethnic

ethnology

ethnie

culture

tradition

woman

beauty

light

head

portrait

face

اتیوپی

Peoples of the Omo Valley

nomadic people

artistic

pigments

rite

body painting

adornment

East Africa

ornament « less

Sets appears in: • Omo Valley Ethiopia • Ethiopia more » • Lip plates « less

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