Intimate life in the original culture of the Mursi tribe. Africa: non-traditional traditions. Mursi tribe

Faktrum publishes the answer to this question of a historian and professional traveler Inna Metelskaya-Sheremetyeva.

“When going to Ethiopia for the first time, we, of course, read heartbreaking information about the sinister Mursi tribe in all kinds of geographical magazines. What they just do not attribute: and witchcraft, and increased aggressiveness, and cannibalism, and other wild customs with self-mutilation. And as an argument, the authors of these articles always present the women of the tribe with their plates inserted into the lower lip and the men whose bodies are covered with scars - notches in honor of the killed enemies. I will disappoint you right now. Modern Mursi are people who are quite adapted to commodity-market relations, which live, in fact, thanks to the legends and the visits of numerous tourists.

Photo source: Moya-planeta.ru

Although some of the old traditions and rituals remained. First of all, the very notorious debi plate (the diameter of our dessert plate), which to this day is inserted into the lower lip of some women. It looks weird and scary. But I tried to get to the bottom of the tradition and I think I found the answer. This self-mutilation is an attempt to save oneself from slavery, which has nothing to do with spirits or rituals. The fact that this has become a fashion and a hallmark of the Mursi at some stage in the historical process is a whim and an irony of fate.

A long time ago, parents, so that their daughter would not be sold into slavery, tried to disfigure her as much as possible. They shaved her hair, scarred her, pierced her lip (among the Mursi) or her ears (among the Maasai). Wooden plugs were inserted into the holes, the diameter of which was constantly increased. The girl eventually turned into a scarecrow with a bald head, removed upper and lower incisors and a tray over her chin.

But even today, the Mursi (those who pose for tourists for money) manage to insert a plate of unbaked clay into their lips, and the Masai and Maasai shove a cola bottle or even a saucer into their ear.

How do they eat, you ask? Of course, taking out a plate. At the same time, the lip hangs with a grayish-brown unpleasant flagellum, a skin, therefore women eat only when no one sees them, laying maize porridge and other simple food with their fingers deep into the bowels of a toothless mouth ... "

The Mursi tribe is a people living in southern Ethiopia in the Omo Valley. They gained their fame, first of all, because of the appearance of their women, who wear large clay plates in their lower lip. Mursi men are vicious warriors. They constantly walk around with machine guns, and those who did not get weapons carry long sticks with them. They do this for self-defense, if suddenly someone wants to encroach on their honor or leadership, slaughtering the enemy half to death.

The tribe of the Mursi people is one of the richest in their area. Their wealth is measured by the number of cattle. Livestock is used as a means of payment. For example, in order to marry a woman, a man must pay a ransom of 30-40 heads of cattle. The men are in charge of grazing the animals. This is their second most important occupation, after guarding and protecting the village. Women's responsibilities include childcare, cooking, home improvement and fetching water from nearby sources.

Mursi are distinguished, first of all, by their appearance. The custom of women wearing clay plates in their lower lip seems very unusual and even strange. The roots of this ritual go back to slave-owning times, when the most beautiful and strong were taken into slavery. Inventive Mursi deliberately began to disfigure women so that they would remain in their native lands. Now women wearing plates in the lower lip are given a completely different meaning. The beauty of a woman is measured by the size of the plate she wears. At the age of 15-16, young girls make a small incision in the lip, where gradually larger and larger round plates are inserted, thereby stretching the lip. Before the wedding itself, an earthenware plate is inserted into the resulting hole. The larger the plate, the larger the ransom paid to parents for such a bride.

Another unusual ritual is scarification. Patterns of scars cover the chest, abdomen, shoulders. To do this, the larvae of various African insects are placed in the skin incision. The body, in response to this, creates capsules of coarse scar tissue, in which the dead larvae remain sealed. This is a kind of complex of vaccinations against all tropical diseases. Among other things, women wear rather creepy jewelry around their necks. They are something like beads made from the nail phalanges of human fingers. It takes four to six hands to make them. They are made from the hands of men, which the High Priestess of the tribe has the right to chop off for the slightest offense.

Confessing paganism, Mursi worship the God of Death. All women are considered Death Priestesses. Such a ritual is known, during which women poison their men with a narcotic substance. After that, they gather in the hut of the High Priestess for a secret ceremony. The ritual ends with the fact that the High Priestess goes around all the huts of the tribe and puts the antidote in the mouth of the men, which is stored in her necklace. Which of the men of the tribe would survive, during this ritual, was known only to her and the God of Death.

The inhabitants of the Mursi tribe are considered the most cruel on the planet. Their customs and rituals surprise and sometimes shock human minds. Thus, attracting a huge number of tourists and scientists. Thanks to such strange peoples, the population of our planet does not lose its contrast and color.
After all, everything is known in comparison!

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 the unusual decoration of the body. The fact is that even very 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 the 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.

One of the most unusual tribes in the world, the Mursi, lives in Ethiopia. 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 they will give 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.
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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 greasy and emit a cloying rancid smell - they daily rub every 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.
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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 little reel-shaped contraption is called a brkuta and is made from the wood of a secret plant that has never been shown to us. 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.
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The sinister ritual ends with an act 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.



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 - 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.
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It's no secret that Africa is a treasury of ancient civilization and keeps many secrets, attracting the attention of numerous tourists and historians. Today, there are many tribes on the African continent that adhere to unusual ancient traditions that shock modern man. So, the most aggressive Mursi, which inspires fear in tourists and local tribes, is still the most mysterious ethnic group.

Mursi live in southern Ethiopia and live according to the canons of the primitive system. They preserve the millennial customs of their ancestors, they do not care about the problems of the civilized world, they do not know how to read and write. Representatives of this tribe are short in stature and have practically no hair on their heads, while women create a variety of headdresses and unusual decorations from improvised materials, such as branches, dead insects, mollusks, and even parts of carrion that emit an appropriate smell. The Mursi tribe is distinguished by its particular aggressiveness and hostility, which are manifested both in appearance and in behavior.

Most men of the tribe are required to carry machine guns obtained illegally across the border, and those who do not own such weapons are equipped with long sticks, the size of which determines the leadership of a man. Usually they kill with a machine gun, and with the help of sticks they beat the enemy to a pulp to prove their superiority. Men are prone to alcoholism and have a violent temper, so they are afraid of travelers going to Ethiopia. The Mursi tribe, whose photos amaze modern people with their unique and at the same time awesome way of life, is the most unusual tribe in the world.

Both men and women paint their bodies with unusual symbols. Their main feature is the original rather creepy decoration of the women's faces. From a very early age, girls cut through the lower lip, insert wooden plates there, the size of which increases every year. Later, during marriage, the wooden plate is replaced by a clay one, which is called "debi". This decoration is considered the main advantage of girls. The size of the plate can reach 30 centimeters. The Mursi tribe allows women to take out a plate only in the absence of men. There is an opinion that women deliberately mutilated themselves in such a way as to become unattractive and not fall into the property of slave owners. However, today the presence of such jewelry in girls is a symbol of beauty, the price for the bride depends on their size.

In general, many African tribes are colorful. Mursi stand out against their background not only because of the decorations. No less creepy and unusual addition to the image are tattoos. They are created with the help of incisions into which the larvae of various insects are pushed. Since the body is completely unable to cope with the larvae, it is fenced off by scar tissue, creating bizarre patterns. In addition, the women of the tribe create strange and terrible necklaces made from the phalanges of human fingers.