The culture and traditions of each tribe are peculiar and unique in their own way. Take, for example, the Korowai tribe of New Guinea, whose inhabitants build their dwellings in trees, at a height of 20 to 50 m, and also practice cannibalism. In the highlands of Papua - all the same New Guinea, the Baruya tribe lives, which until the 20th century was isolated from the rest of the world. Baruya society is highly patriarchal and is built around the myth that all things are made of sperm. Women in this tribe are considered "defective" people and do not have any rights. Boys, from the age of 8, are separated from their mothers and brought up separately until the age of 20. Tiwi women are married at birth. Also interesting is the wedding custom of a tribe that lives in the rocky regions of the Atlantic coast. A man who wants to get married must stand all night on a cliff, alternately on his left, then on his right foot. And a bright Indian custom obligated the bride on her wedding night to give herself not only to the groom, but also to all guests who wished. It is curious that in one tribe of Indians in North America, the mother-in-law does not have the right to see her son-in-law from the day of her wedding until her last days.

There are a lot of such amazing tribes in their way of life, but the Mursi tribe is of the greatest interest. Let's dwell on it in more detail.

Mursi tribe

One of the most unusual tribes in the world, numbering 6,000 people, lives in Ethiopia - Mursi. They are considered the most aggressive ethnic group. All men walk around with Kalashnikovs, which are illegally passed to them across the border. In addition, they begin to drink in the morning, and, closer to dinner, they become uncontrollable.

Those warriors of the tribe who did not get machine guns, or who simply left them in their dwelling, carry sticks with them. With these sticks they prove their leadership. Whoever claims it must beat his competitors half to death.

This tribe probably belongs to the mutants of the Negroid race, because it differs significantly in its appearance from the usual standards of beauty. Both men and women are short, broad-boned and bow-legged. Low foreheads, flattened noses, short necks. The bodies are flabby and sickly in appearance, with drooping bellies and hunched backs. There is almost no hair on their heads, and therefore all Mursi women constantly wear intricate headdresses of complex design, made from branches, rough skins, marsh mollusks, dried fruits, dead insects, someone's tails and some smelly carrion. Their wrinkled, chewed faces, with small, narrow-set eyes, have an extremely vicious and wary look.

The unique "decoration" of the face they use is quite unusual, even for wild people. The fact is that even at a young age, their girls are cut through the lower lip, and they begin to insert wooden logs there, of an increasingly large diameter.

For several years, the hole in the lip gradually increases more and more. On the day of the wedding, a "plate" of baked clay, called a debi, is inserted into it, the purpose of which will be discussed later. The diameter of such a vessel in the lip can reach 30 centimeters, exceeding the diameter of the head itself! True, the tradition of wearing plates did not come from beauty at all, rather the opposite.

When the Ethiopians were captured, taken into slavery, they forcibly mutilated themselves so that they would not be taken. Now the size of the plate is a measure of beauty. The larger the plate, the more cattle will be given for the bride. Mursi girls always have a choice whether to make a hole in the lip or not. But for a girl without a stretched lip, they give a very small ransom.

If such a plate is pulled out, then the outer edge of the lip under the hole hangs down by 10-15 cm in the form of a kind of round tourniquet. Many Mursi do not have front teeth, so that the plate does not knock on the front teeth, and in this gap, like a rotten sting, the tip of a cracked, bleeding tongue constantly sticks out.

Mursi women also have other, no less strange and creepy jewelry hanging on their flattened necks. These are monists, recruited from the bones of the nail phalanges of human fingers, called neck. Normally, an ordinary person has 28 such bones. At least four or six hands were used for each of them. In addition, some of the "ladies" hang several pieces of similar, terrifying looking necklaces. They shine with a greasy luster and emit a cloying rancid smell - they daily rub each bone of the monist with melted human fat.

They begin to develop there, but the body, entering into a fight with the aliens, encapsulates the "strangers" with its connective tissue, and they, in the end, die, leaving their graves-nodules under the skin, various in size and shape. Knowing this, the Mursi deliberately alternate the places of their introduction with each other, depending on the final “pattern” on the skin that they want to get. For almost any misconduct, the priestess of the tribe cuts off the hands of a man who has violated the laws (neks are immediately remembered here).

According to the traditions of this mystical tribe, all its women are Priestesses of Death. In the evenings, in their hut, they prepare, first, some kind of relatively light narcotic potion, grinding dried fruits of a special bog nut into powder. Having poured it on a plate-debi inserted into her lip, each woman brings the narcotic food closer to her husband's lips and they both begin to lick it off at the same time (while the wife sticks her tongue out through the hole between her teeth). This part of the ritual rite is called the "kiss of death." By the way, they do not use the usual way of kissing for us.

Then, a bundle of some intoxicating grass is thrown into the smoldering hearth, which begins to emit upward streams of yellowish smoke. A man climbs onto the poles of the "mezzanine" and lies down over the hearth in such a way that the streams of the sweet incense rise directly to his face. He lays down not just like that, but placing his head on the recess of a special pad-pillow. This small reel-shaped thing is called brkuta and is made from the wood of a secret plant. About two dozen of these amazing sleeping devices are stored in the hut of the High Priestess of the tribe, called Srek.

Srek rubs each of them with one of his many potions and slanders with a special individual spell. As a result, each brkuta becomes the bearer of some very specific dream! It can be a "movie" about a successful hunt, or a night of love, a delicious gluttony, or a victorious battle with enemies, etc. At the request of the husband, the wife each evening brings him a wooden headrest with the vision that he wants to see before his possible death. This part of the rite is called the "sleep of death" and this name is not at all accidental. While the man is dreaming sweetly in the dope smoke, the wife is preparing to give him poison.

This deadly powder is prepared by the High Priestess of the tribe from the very lower teeth pulled out from women, insisting them on a complex potion of nine herbs growing on the hummocks of the dead swamps of Lotagipi. After some time, the Mursi woman rises to her sleeping husband and blows a deadly powder into his mouth from her lip plate. This part of the mystical rite is called the "bite of death." But the passion doesn't end there. After poisoning their husbands, all the Death Priestesses gather in the Srek hut and perform some kind of mysterious rite there.

The ominous ritual ends with an action that we called the "roulette of death", and the Mursi themselves call it - "the gift of death." The High Priestess went around all the huts of the village, going up to the poisoned men and putting a saving antidote in their mouths, portions of which are in her necklace that adorns her complex "hairstyle". And no one except her and the God of Death Yamda, whose will the High Priestess carried out, knows: all the men of the tribe are ordered to live on, or not all. There were times when Srack would not give one of them an antidote. Then she, leaving the hut, draws a white cross on his wife's mouth plate. Such a woman remained a widow for the rest of her life and had great respect in the tribe, as a priestess who fulfilled her duty to the almighty Yamda.

After a natural death, the bodies of such widows are placed in the stump of a hollow trunk and hung from the branches of special trees. The bodies of all other tribesmen, both men and women, are boiled down. Soft tissues and broth are used for food, all kinds of potions and amulets. Skeletons of fellow tribesmen, Mursi lay out their secret paths in dangerous swamps, so as not to fall through.

However, what may seem wild to us is good for the natives. The Mursi tribe are servants of the God of Death. Their belief says that the bodies of male Mursi (earthly flesh) are a kind of ritual "prison" of God Yamda, in which he imprisons the Souls of his assistants - the Demons of Death, in case of any disobedience. And the white stripes with which the body is painted symbolize the fetters of the flesh that temporarily restrain the rebellious Spirit.

Methodically killing the flesh of men by systematically giving them narcotic poison, female priestesses seem to destroy these physical earthly fetters, bringing closer the hour of liberation for the higher spiritual Essences languishing in them. They themselves are simple Spirits of Darkness, sent here to perform mystical ritual rites and having the right to return to their Lord - only after the natural death of the received body. Good does not exist without evil, light without darkness, and life without death. And each person in his earthly life serves one of the opposite forces, fulfilling the destiny given to him by the Creator. And it is not for us to judge whose path and faith is more correct. The ancient Mursi tribe is simply doing their duty.

Most likely you will call their customs savagery.
It is understandable, some things happen at the level of the Middle Ages, some hardly fit into the head, and some even make the hair move.
And the plates in the lips are quite harmless ... They also circumcise women at birth, decorate the body with scars, creating whole pictures, mercilessly chop with sticks in a dispute for the bride, without a twinge of conscience they are ready to kill any of the hostile tribe, and the bride is ransomed for 20 cows and machine...

Welcome to the Mursi tribe, one of the most colorful and famous African pagan tribes, which one day may not be...

2. ... and the reason for this is the advance of civilization and ... tse-tse fly.
Some 10-15 years ago, only a few travelers could boast of having seen women with a plate in their lips from the Mursi tribe with their own eyes. The thing is that the Mursi, along with a dozen other tribes, live in remote areas in the Omo River Valley and zealously guard the borders of their territories from neighbors and newcomers.
Even in our time, on travel forums, you can often see information warning about the dangers of visiting tribes in the Omo Valley and categorical recommendations not to try to get to Mursi on your own. Joking aside, if you poke your nose at them without escort and guards, you can never return home ...
Today, the area between the Mago and Omo rivers, inhabited by tribes, is the territory of the Mago National Park, the visit to which is strictly regulated. You can legally get here only accompanied by organized groups or with the help of an accredited travel company that provides a jeep with a driver and an obligatory guide who is well acquainted with the tribal leaders. In addition, at the entrance to the park, an armed ranger will be put into your car, whose task is to ensure both the safety of visitors and control over them in order to avoid all sorts of conflicts.

3. The territory of the national park is a green savanna with virtually no traces of civilization.
Only this dirt road reminds us of what is left behind ... There is no mobile communication, no electricity, or anything else that we are used to in everyday life.
Before there was no road. Behind last years it was dashed off by jeeps of non-standard tourism enthusiasts and ... construction trucks that carry everything necessary for the construction of a sugar cane processing plant. The plant is being built outside the park, but the only road passes through it.

4. The Mursi tribe lives on a territory with a total area of ​​​​about 2 thousand square kilometers, quite tightly guarding its borders and not allowing outsiders, except for the quota of tourists and construction trucks agreed with the government of Ethiopia.
On the seemingly deserted road here and there you can see men with spears or Kalashnikovs. Sometimes there are unarmed people going about their business.

5. Mursi live in small villages with a population of several dozen to several hundred inhabitants. In total, there are about 7.5 thousand people in the tribe.
The village is a chaotically arranged hut built of straw or branches, the main "square" where the elders of the tribe and cattle pens spend their time.
Mursi are pastoralists, and quite successful. This tribe is considered one of the richest tribes in the region, just due to the amount of livestock. By and large, every important social act is carried out here with the help of livestock, for example, in order to take a girl as a wife, the groom's family pays the bride's father "dauri" - as a rule, this is 20-40 cows and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. This tradition is typical for all Omo tribes, and that is why girls born here are considered a good guarantee of family well-being.

6. And it was girls, and later women, who became the hallmark of the tribe thanks to their famous huge plates in their lower lip. I talked more about the tradition of inserting a plate into the lip in yesterday's post. More on other traditions below.
One of them is a weapon. Almost everyone here has a weapon, at least the men.
This is how it happened historically. In order to survive, to protect their territories from the claims of neighbors, to protect livestock from theft and wild animals, the Mursi have long been armed to the teeth and, without hesitation, use weapons for their intended purpose. Spears, guns, machine guns - who is rich on what.

7. In the Mursi tribe, women do most of the hard work: they are responsible for building houses, caring for children, cooking and carrying water to the village from the nearest source or river bed. Mursi men are cattle breeders. Their main occupations are grazing cows with goats and guarding the village. The men are also responsible for the protection of the village in case of tribal conflicts. At the same time, girls from an early age help their mothers in the arrangement of life, and boys learn to handle weapons.

8. Mursi women, in addition to the famous plates, wear a lot of jewelry. I must say, with plates, flower arrangements on their heads and even horns, they look very impressive.
Neither men nor women wear hair on their heads, shaving it off completely or doing hairstyles, like the child in the photo.

9. There are two types of Mursi huts: capital made of straw, as in the photo and "summer" ones made of sticks, as in photo No. 5.

10. In stick huts, the roof is very dense so as not to let water through during rain, but the walls are "transparent". This allows daylight to pass through, unlike the "capital" huts, and there is no cold here ...

11. The main food of Mursi is dry porridge made from grated maize or sorghum. Sometimes milk and blood of the animal is added to it, taken fresh directly from the wound on the neck of the cow (the animal is not killed), or already collected earlier and stored in calabash. Mursi meat is practically not eaten, consuming it only on major holidays.

12. Mursi's favorite drink is coffee with spices of a very peculiar taste, from which Antosh
antonapostol almost threw up and turned up until the evening.
But the locals drink it, believing that it is very good as a prophylaxis if a tse-tse fly suddenly bites

13. Men "hang out", as a rule, separately from women. And also for a cup of coffee.

14. Many sleep right under open sky, providing the opportunity to spend the night in a hut for his wife and children.
The tribes do not have pillows, instead they use unusual toilet seats called borkoto. Men carry them everywhere with them, as we carry a mobile phone. During the day they sit on them, at night they put them under the head ...

15. traditional clothes Mursi have always been goatskins, but lately more and more Mursi is changing into lighter cotton capes, which are bought in the markets. Today, all men tie multi-colored fabrics around their hips, Mursi women can still be found in skin clothes, however, they also prefer to use fabrics more and more.

17. Mursi wedding customs are interesting.
When men reach adulthood, they may try to get the right to marry. How does this happen?
In a fair duel with sticks. These fights are called donga fights, for which young men prepare for quite a long time, mastering the art of fighting with long sticks.
In a duel, they mercilessly beat each other with sticks, because only the winner will get the right to marry this year.
If you lose, all next year you will graze cattle without thinking about warm female breast at your side...

18. Women, in order to be as attractive as possible to men, as I wrote yesterday, wear huge ceramic plates in their lower lip.
Mursi's lower lip piercing is done to young girls who have reached the age of 12-13. First, a small wooden washer is inserted into the lip, the size of which is gradually increased, stretching the woman's lip, and then changed to ceramic saucers. In order to insert it into the girl's lip, her lower teeth are knocked out.

19. But tearing a lip, knocking out teeth and a plate is not the most barbaric thing that women do here.
At birth (and often at a later age), girls undergo the so-called female circumcision. In other words, they remove the clitoris. For what?
To make a woman submissive and not prone to treason.
By the way, these tribal traditions are very much contrary to what is happening in the sexual life of the rest of the mass of Ethiopian women (but more on that another time)

20. So, the phrase "do not be born beautiful, but be born happy" is very well suited to Mursi girls ...

21. By the way, in recent years, not all Mursi girls have cut their lips for a plate. Some abandon this tradition, limiting themselves only to discs in their ears ...

22. In addition to plates in the lip and clitorodectomy, Mursi has another distinguishing feature.
They practice scarification of the body. For men, these are marks for killed enemies or large predatory animals, for women they are just decorations.
Yes, yes, with scars they draw on their body approximately, as in our world with tattoos.

23. Some girls are just amazing with their "decorations"

24. Her lips are whole, but her ears ....

25. ... and skin on the body...

26. Can you imagine how many incisions and scars needed to be made?
And this is in conditions of complete unsanitary conditions and the absence of any, even potential, medical care.

27. "Draw" everywhere - on the shoulders, arms, back, stomach, chest ...

28. Mursi, culturally and linguistically, are related to the Suri tribe and consider themselves one people. The Mursi have good relations with this tribe and even intertribal marriages are allowed. The rest of the tribes see the Mursi as an aggressive people, and relations with them are rather cool. Sometimes even serious conflicts break out, including armed ones. But we know little about it, because there are no reporters, no TV cameras, not even the police ...

29. Despite numerous warnings about the danger of visiting the tribe and some concerns about their reaction to cameras, the Mursi residents turned out to be quite friendly and pleasant to talk to. And this is also an "achievement" of civilization. After all, tourists are money. Each photo is money. Not much, 5 birr per picture. But there were three of us, we photographed many, so all these people gradually earned and said goodbye to us with smiles on their faces, waving their hands for a long time after the SUV dusting on the primer ...

Mursi woman

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Mursi woman

Lifestyle

The Mursi tribe lives in an extremely inaccessible area, between the Mago and Omo rivers. The main occupation of the Mursi is cattle breeding, but gradually they begin to grow more and more useful plants.

Mursi women work

Mursi is considered one of the richest tribes in the region, which is determined by the number of livestock. By and large, every important social act is carried out here with the help of livestock, for example, in order to take a girl as a wife, the groom's family pays the father of the bride "dauri" - as a rule, this is 30-40 heads of cattle and a gun. This tradition is typical for all Omo tribes, and that is why girls born here are considered a good guarantee of family well-being.

Mursi woman

Women bear the bulk of the hard work: they are responsible for building houses, caring for children, preparing food, and carrying water to the village from the nearest spring or river bed. The Mursi men are pastoralists and are busy grazing and guarding the village. The men are also responsible for the protection of the village in case of tribal conflicts.

diet

Mursi's main food is dry porridge made from grated maize or sorghum. Sometimes milk and blood of the animal is added to it, taken fresh directly from the wound on the neck of the cow (the animal is not killed), or already collected earlier and stored in calabash. Mursi meat is practically not eaten, consuming it only on major holidays.

Appearance

Mursi men

The Mursi are tall and thin, with a reputation for being aggressive people who are well versed in the local martial arts.

Mursi women are easily recognizable and are known for the huge ceramic plates that they insert into their lower lip. There is a lot of controversy as to why the Mursi practice this ritual, and apparently its roots go back several centuries, when the tribe was forced to disfigure their women so that they would not be driven to the slave markets. Gradually, this tradition changed its meaning, and today the larger the plate in Mursi's lip, the more beautiful and respected it is by her husband and tribe.

Mursi's lower lip piercing is done to young girls who have reached the age of 12-13. First, a small wooden washer is inserted into the lip, the size of which is gradually increased, stretching the woman's lip, and then changed to ceramic saucers. In order to insert it into the girl's lip, her lower teeth are knocked out.

It is a mistake to believe that Mursi constantly walk with huge plates in their lips - they are too heavy and uncomfortable. The women of the tribe put them in only during important events such as receiving guests, serving food to the husband, holidays, etc. The rest of the time, Mursi takes out a plate from his lips.

Scarification is another common decoration for Mursi. Men wear scars on their left shoulder to show that they have reached the age of marriage and become full-fledged warriors. Women decorate their chests with patterns of scars for beauty.

Women also wear a lot of jewelry, mostly metal bracelets, men can wear bracelets made of tusks and hair of an elephant that lives in the Mago reserve.

Both men and women of the Mursi tribe cut their hair short, shaving their skulls in various patterns and designs.

Mursi traditional clothing has always been goat skins, but recently more and more Mursi change into lighter cotton capes, which are bought in the markets. Today, all men tie multi-colored fabrics around their hips, Mursi women can still be found in skin clothes, however, they also prefer to use fabrics more and more.

In every corner of our planet there are tribes living far from civilization and big cities. A huge variety of nationalities is concentrated on such a continent as Africa.

Different sources indicate the number of African tribes in different ways. Someone claims that there are about five hundred of them. Some take it upon themselves to assert that the figure reaches from one to two thousand. In a word, the variety is so great that it is almost impossible to get acquainted with all the names.

The identity of each nationality is peculiar and sometimes shocking. For example, the African tribe Mursi attracts the attention of many people. What is special about this nation?

First, let's learn more about the Mursi tribe. Its representatives belong to the Negroid race, but have significant differences from the generally accepted standards of beauty.

Distinctive features in appearance: short stature, crooked legs, flattened noses and short necks. Hair is very rare, so women make unusual headdresses for themselves from branches, mollusks, insects, and even carrion.

The first impression may not be the best, because both men and women have a wary and unfriendly look.

Traditions of the Mursi tribe

It is the location of this nation. The Mursi tribe gained its fame primarily due to unusual traditions.

Even among savages, Mursi stand out in a special way because of unusual decoration body. The point is that it is still young girls make a hole in the lower lip and insert a wooden circle there. Over time, its diameter increases, the lip stretches more and more.

Before wedding celebration an earthenware plate is inserted into the hole. The diameter of such a product can even reach thirty centimeters!

Decorations of the Mursi tribe amaze and even horrify the townsfolk. The bones of the phalanges of the nails can be strung on the monists. Their number can reach 30 bones. Each element is daily rubbed with human fat, which gives such a “necklace” a shine and an unpleasant smell.

As you know, Ethiopia used to be a country of the slave trade. In order not to fall into bondage, people deliberately inflicted injuries on themselves. Now such actions are the standard of beauty. The larger the plate in the lower lip, the more dowry the bride will receive. A girl without such a hole receives a small ransom.

Women are deprived of their lower teeth so that such a procedure can be carried out. If the plate is pulled out of the lip, then sagging skin can be terrifying. It hangs down by 15-20 centimeters.

They brought with them the traditions of painting bodies with patterns. The Mursi tribe decorates the body, applying a variety of things to the skin that carry a semantic load. Warriors do this in order to protect themselves from injury and death.

Mursi lives using magical rituals. The tribe is known for its death cult. An oracle and a healer rolled into one, he can read the future of the entire tribe from the stars. Magic spells are used to heal wounds, diseases and other ailments.

If the well-being of the tribe is in danger, then a sacrifice is made - a white goat. The priest burns her at the stake.

• The local sport is stick fighting.
• Each participant tries to prove his advantage over his opponent, to demonstrate dexterity and courage.
• During the fight, the participant must knock down the opponent, but not kill him.
• Before the match, wrestlers are on a diet. Their diet consists of the milk and blood of young cows.

According to the traditions of the Mursi tribe, the Priestesses of the tribe punish the guilty tribesmen. They cut off their hands.

All women of the tribe are Death Priestesses. They prepare a special narcotic potion to give to their husband and try it for herself. This is done as follows: the powder is poured onto a plate in the lip. Further, both husband and wife begin to lick the poison. This ceremony is called the "kiss of death."

The continuation of the ritual involves the preparation of a deadly poison. All Priestesses slay their own husbands. At the end of the ritual, the High Priestess gives each man an antidote serum. If someone does not awaken, then the widow of such a man is considered to have done her duty.

The Mursi man is a warrior to the bone. Without a machine gun, he will not take a step outside the village, although he is under the influence of psychotropic drugs around the clock and, it would seem, could relax.

Mursi worship the demon of death, which, according to their ideas, lies in each of them.

Mursi live in South Omo in Ethiopia. Neighbors consider them the most bloodthirsty killers in all of Africa. Their neighbors are also not gifts - for example, the athletes of the Surma tribe beat each other with sticks to death - but against the backdrop of the Mursi, they are peaceful.

The head of a woman from the Mursi tribe resembles a medieval fortress. The mouth is like a fortress gate with a palisade of teeth, a folding bridge of the lower lip, a tongue alert at the entrance and gate services. The slit eyes seem to look rather unkind.

Stretching the lips of a Murcian woman is part of the marriage ritual. Naturally, its meaning is not obvious to outsiders.

Mursi piercing is voluntary. If the lip is not pierced, it means that it is too early to get married.

A woman has the right to live until her old age without a hole in her lip, without a family, prosperity and respect from others.

When a girl reaches maturity, her lower lip is pierced and a small twig is inserted into the hole. Then the twig is changed to a cork and so on - the technology for making "tunnels" is also known to us. When the turn of a real labial disc comes, the four lower front teeth are removed for the beauty.

When the lip cracks and bleeds, it is coated with special healing potions. Stronger muscle fibers and connective tissue grow at the site of the rupture.

As she approaches perfection, a Mursi woman significantly loses her ability to speak and facial expressions.

Mursi does not have antiseptics, but since childhood they have had the strongest immunity against any infection. The bumps on the skin are the healed larvae of various insects. They are gradually, one at a time, introduced under the skin, they live and develop there for some time, until the body of the Murcian in a fierce struggle seals them forever.

This is the Murcian analogue of the Mantoux reaction. Each scar is a conquered tropical disease. A pattern of such scars - a certificate of completion of the course of vaccinations and a diploma elementary school survival, giving a ticket to adulthood, that is, a referral to piercing.

The price of the bride is determined based on the length of her lower lip, thickness, density and mobility. The most persistent young ladies train to the champion diameters of the labial ring, inflating their cost to the sky.

It is important for a girl not to overdo it so as not to get into that segment of the market where only the wealthiest Murcian warriors operate, and not to narrow the circle of buyers too much.

A warrior is supposed to choose such an important commodity as a wife meticulously.

A luxury wife is one who has both lips stretched. Even the most ambitious Murcian woman will rarely dare such a trick, because it will be difficult to eat.

A disk in the lip indicates that the woman is busy, and a married Murcian never goes out without a disk. A free Mursi woman can walk without him. A disk often taken out in public indicates that at the moment a woman can be bought out.

A good wife can cost 10 cows, and wealthy people can have ten wives. For each of them, the Mursian builds a separate hut and indulges in traditions with them in turn.

For the past few decades, conflicts have continued between the Dutch organization African Parks Network, Ethiopia and local tribes. In 2008, the Mursi warriors arbitrarily declared their land a nature reserve and a tourist area. They liked showing women to photographers for money, and they want to do it officially.

The Dutch said that in the conditions of “the irresponsible way of life of some ethnic groups” they could not work, and left.

There are few tribes left in Africa that practice body plastics, but nothing threatens the ancient Mursi tradition of stretching women's lips.