mursi woman's by plancarpin

Mago National Park - Ethiopia the Mursi people is the last in Africa to wear the labial plate. At the age of 12, the girls have their lower incisor teeth pulled out (without anaesthesy) and a small plate is inserted in the lower lip; the plate is incresed every year; the larger the plate, the most expensive the girl is to marry. Some plates (made of clay or wood) are much bigger than a CD.

Uploaded: Jan, 27 2009 | Taken: Jan, 09 2009| Viewed: 102 times  | 4 votes Camera: Panasonic | Model: DMC-FZ50 | Exposure 10/6400s, ISO 100 | FLength: 8mm | SW: ACD Systems Digital Imaging

krisek - Jan, 27 2009 03:01pm JP, this plate looks really elaborate. What was it made of? plancarpin - Jan, 31 2009 07:01am Krys: this plate is made of black clay; the hole in the middle is just done to make the stuff lighter. Girls at the beginning are wearing wooden plates which are even lighter than clay. Sometimes it happens that the extended lower lip just cracks. The woman then looks like a cat-fish and will be abandonned by her husband...