Mursi women, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia (Click to enlarge)The Mursi (Mun, sg. Muni) live in the Lowe
Mursi women, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia (Click to enlarge)The Mursi (Mun, sg. Muni) live in the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia and number less than 10,000. The Mursi see themselves as the product of a series of migrations, all of which were part of a continuing effort to find and occupy a “cool place” (bha lalini), a place with riverside forest for cultivation and well watered grassland for cattle herding. Cattle continue to make a vital contribution to their diet. But although often described as ‘nomads’ by government officials, they lead a relatively settled life and depend heavily upon cultivation. During the dry season they live mainly along the banks of the Omo. When the rains come they return to the grasslands, east of the river, to live close to their cattle and enjoy the fresh milk.Life for the Mursi is often arduous and sometimes dangerous. But they have learnt to live well and there is much time for relaxation, chatting, music and gossip. They have a rich oral tradition through which they preserve and transmit their history, philosophical knowledge and moral stories. They have a keen aesthetic life that centres on their awareness of colour, cattle and body painting. Two distinctive features of their society by which they have become known to outsiders, are ceremonial duelling (sagine) and the large pottery discs or 'plates’ (debhinya) which are worn by women in their lower lips. The lip-plate is an expression of female social adulthood. A girl will have her lip pierced by her mother, or another woman of her local community, when she reaches the age of around fifteen. Today, the process of state-building in the lower Omo appears to have reached a new level of intensity, with the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam in its middle basin. This will eliminate the annual flood upon which the downstream population has always depended for cultivation and pastoralism and make possible large-scale commercial irrigation schemes.’ These will require the forced displacement and resettlement of thousands of people and irrevocably transform their environment and way life. (Source) -- source link
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