One of the most unusual tribes of the world — Mursi lives in Ethiopia. They are considered the most aggressive ethnic group. All men of this tribe have Kalashnikov’s automatons which are illegally transferred for them through the border. Besides they start to drink since the early morning, and become uncontrollable till the evening.
Those soldiers of the tribe who has not automatons or who has simply left them in the dwelling carry sticks with themselves. With the help of these sticks they prove their leadership. A man who pretends it should hammer the competitors to semi death.
This tribe, probably, belongs to mutants of the Negroid race, because it differs considerably from the usual standards of beauty by its appearance. Both men and women are cobby, big-boned and bandy-leg. Low foreheads, flat noses, short necks. Bodies are flabby with the flubbed bellies and the humped backs. There is almost no hair on their heads. That is why all women-mursi generally wear the intricate headdresses of a difficult design made of branches, rough skin, marsh mollusks, dried up fruits, dead insects, someone’s tails and some smelly carrion. Their wrinkled masticated faces with small eyes have extremely malignant and wary appearance.
One more interesting fact is their very specific smell. It is possible to think that they simply wash themselves seldom, but then you find out that they rub themselves especially as the protection against all parasites.
The unique “ornament” of the face which they use, is absolutely unusual, even for wild people. The matter is that the lower lip of this tribe’s girls is cut in an early age. They begin to put into the lip the billets of wood, every time with the bigger and bigger diameter.
The hole in a lip gradually increases during years. The “plate” of the burnt clay is put into the hole on the women’s wedding-day. This plate is named daby. The functions of this daby we’ll explain later. The diameter of such daby in a lip can reach 30 centimeters, exceeding diameter of the head! However, the tradition to wear plates has appeared not because of beauty, rather vice-versa.
When Ethiopians were captured and taken into bondage, they violently had crippled themselves, and nobody wanted to take them after that. Now the size of a plate is a beauty criterion. The more is plate, the more cattle will be given for the bride. Girls-mursi always have a choice to do the hole in a lip or not. But for the girl without the stretched lip a very small repayment is given.
If such a plate is pulled out, the external edge of a lip under the hole will be 10-15 centimeters flabbied in the form of peculiar round plait. Many mursis do not have frontal teeth for the plate doesn’t knock the teeth. And all the time bleeding chapped tip of tongue sticks out like a rotten sting.
Besides women-mursi have the other ornaments hanging on their short necks. These ornaments are not less strange and terrible than daby. It is neck-lace made of bones and human nail phalanxes. It’s named a nak. Normally the usual man has about 28 such a stones. Nom less than four or six hands were used for making such a nak. Besides, some “ladies” have several such terrifying necklaces hanging on the neck. They fatly shine and exude a luscious fetid smell — every day they rub each bone of neck-lace with the melted human fat.
Their blown up bellies look exotically. The original ritual tattoos in the form of the symmetric lines consisting of separate hems are written on their skin. These «hillock» have various sizes and forms: round, oval, linear. They are “laid on” in rather peculiar and terrible way. The larvas of various land and water African insects-parasites are pushed under the skin through the notches on it.
They start to develop there. But starting struggle against the newcomers an organism encysts “strangers” by means of its connective tissue. Eventually these larvas die leaving their various tombs under the skin. Knowing it, mursi alternate the places of their introduction specially, depending on definitive “pattern” on the skin which they wish to receive. Practically for any offence a priestess of a tribe cuts off hands of a man who has broken laws (here naks are recollected at once).
A ccording to traditions of this mystical tribe, all its women are Priestesses of Death. First in the evening they prepare some rather easy narcotic potion in their huts by pounding the dried fruits of a special marsh nut in a powder. Then the woman put the prepared potion on the plateau-debi and approaches the narcotic mix to the lips of her husband. Both of them start to pinch it simultaneously (thus the wife puts out tongue through the hole between teeth). This part of a ritual ceremony is called «the kiss of death». By the way, the way of usual for us kiss is unknown for them.
Then the bunch of some stupefying grass which starts to let out the streams of yellowish smoke is rushed to the smoulder. The man rises by the pole of “mezzanines” and lays down over the hearth so that the sweet streams go directly to his face. He doesn’t just lay down, but he places his head on deepening of a
special small stand-pillow. This small thingummy reminds the form of the coil. It is called brkuta and it is made of wood of a secret plant which wasn’t shown us. There are bout two tens of such surprising adaptations for dream in the hut of the Supreme Priestess of a tribe called — Srek.
Srek rubs each of them with one of the numerous potions and slanders a special individual spell. As a result, every brkuta becomes the carrier of some absolutely concrete dream! It can be “film” about successful hunting, or night of love, about a tasty gluttony, or victorious fight with enemies, etc. Every evening at the instance of husband the wife brings him a wooden headrest with that vision which he wishes to see before possible death. This part of a ceremony is called «the death dream». And this name is not so casual. While the man is dreaming sweet in a dope smoke, the wife is going to give him a poison.
The Supreme Priestess of tribe prepares this deadly powder of those bottom teeth which have been pulled out from women’s mouth, drawing them on the difficult potion made of nine herbs which grow on hummocks of dead Lotagipi marshes. After a while, the woman-mursi rises to the sleeping husband and blows the deadly powder into his mouth. This part of a mystical ceremony is called «the death sting». But the passions are not finished here. Having poisoned the husbands all Priestesses of death gather in a hut of Srek and carry out the mysterious ceremony there.
The ominous ritual finishes with the action which we have named «the death roulette. Mursi called it «the death gift». The Supreme Priestess passed by all the huts of village rising to the poisoned men and putting into their mouths the saving antidote. This mix is in her necklace which decorates her difficult “hairdress”. And no one except her and God of Death, Jamda, knows: who of men of the tribe is permitted to continue life and who is not. It happened that Srek did not give someone the antidote. In such case she left the hut and drawn white cross on the plate of his wife. Such woman remained the widow during the rest of life and had the respect in a tribe as the priestess who has done her duty for all-powerful Jamda.
The bodies of such widows are located in stumps of a hollow trunk and are suspended on branches of the special trees after their natural death. Bodies of all other fellow tribesmen, both men and women, boil down. Soft tissues and broth become the meals, potions and amulets. Skeletons of fellow tribesmen serve like stones for secret ways in dangerous bogs for not to fail.
However, something that seems wild for us, it is something blessing for this tribe. Mursi — is the servant of God of Death. Their belief says that bodies of men-mursi are some kind of ritual “prison” of God Jamda in which he concludes Souls of his assistants — Death Demons in case of their disobedience. And white strips on the bodies symbolize the fetters of a flesh temporarily constraining rebellious Spirit.
The woman-priestess destroyed these physical terrestrial fetters by methodically killing flesh of men with the narcotic poison. In this way they approached an hour of clearing for higher spiritual entity pining in them. These women are the simple Spirits of Darkness who was sent here for performance of mystical ritual ceremonies and who has the right to return to their Lord — only after natural death of the received body. Kindness doesn’t excide without harm, light — without darkness, and life — without death. And each person serves one of opposite forces, executing the mission which was given him by the Creator. And we have not to judge whose way and belief is more correct. The ancient tribe mursi simply executes the duty.
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Horaayy..there are 40 comment(s) for me so far ;)
Brilliant respectfull view of these poepl. I would love to see them and meet these people.wonderful.
wonderful photos – very good food for the brain and if you ever go again l would love to come along
that is sooo gross but i cant see how someone could do that
Respectful?
“Mutants of the negroid race” and “Their wrinkled masticated faces with small eyes have extremely malignant and wary appearance”. What is the terrible truth of the tribe? That they have lip plates? You must be kidding, this is none other than DISrespectful and insulting. You should be careful of writing in English as a second language…seems you don’t realize exactly what you are implying here.
disgusting!! why would they do this?? do they also know that when they die they go 2 hell? they believe wrong a missionary needs 2 go there! i would be terrafied if i saw these people!they need shirts on and they need to take those plates off of there lips. its not healthy. i feel sorry for them because they have been taught wrong and have had a horrible life. i just think they should live a normal life and more satisfying. has any of them ran away before? because they dot feel like they fit in? i would if i were them.
For God sake them leave this tribe alone – having looked at them they look far HEALTHIER than the majority of us “civilized” westerners!!!!
healthier?? no they dont!! you have to be an idiot to think that! and yes im happy the way i live and im also glad my fingers and bones dont go on people for jewelry and meals when i die or am sacrificed.
Alright this is ridiculous. Staceey, these people do not need to become “civilized” they are living the way that they have been for hundreds possibly even tens of thousands of years (except for the AK’s). I agree with Jez, these people are far healthier than us. We westerners live artificial lives. Our values are skewed, and these people are living to the best of their ability. Their religious and cultural systems come from time immemorial, who are we to interfere with them. These people are also not in need of a missionary. I personally do not believe in a God. They will not necessarily go to hell if they die, and even if you are correct in your assumption that there is a God, why would they be sent to hell? For simply not knowing that your God exists? That seems a little bit unreasonable. But i digress, I am not trying to pick a fight about religion. These people do not need to be “civilized” it is not our right to impose our systems of belief onto them. AS a response to your previous question about whether any of them ever run away i seriously doubt it. They have lived with very minimal contact with our world. They would not run away because they have never known anything different, to quote from your bible, in Ecclesiastes you see that ignorance is bliss. I would also like to take this opportunity to agree with Natasha, the way these people are described is offensive, and you need to be more careful in the future. I assume that English is not your mother tongue so it is forgivable, but please, your language implies that you are almost insulting these people.
ya’ll dont realize that we aren’t canables and I Thank God for that because, whenever they starve they will eat the weakiest of them all…now if our “civilization” is so wrong why not when we get hungry, we feast on the weakeist? but yes you are right about some of our civilization, some of it is just, well not good. i also do agree with Natasha too but soon i hope that people will help them.It appears they also take the deads larvas ,is what i think they call them and somehow put it in there bodies! not good! i just dont like thinking or talking about those things! i never liked science with all the body parts and stuff it just doesnt fit in with me. im not accusing them of doing wrong but may God come! when God, himsself comes again i sure hope they do too. i hope everyone does because even though we are all worthless sinners, he still loves us enough to take us with him! may that day come in my life! i hope all accept Jesus! folks one day he is coming! ill be waiting till then. if i die tonight, i will know it was for a good purpose! its all in his plans…..im not dis-liking these people nor am i disliking any of you, i know i have done things in my life that well, are terrible things but jesus forgave me. i hope you know he will forgive you no matter what!
“i feel sorry for them because they have been taught wrong and have had a horrible life.”
do you know how dumb you sound?
You idiots, can you shut up and live your own lives?This people have their own beliefs and values that none of you guys have. They have a different view of the world and a different way of living it. I have been to the Mursi tribe more than ten times and I know that they sound aggressive. But nothing is like you made it sound like. It is you the westerners who came to their places, invaded their territories, stole their privacy and aimed your greedy tele zoom lenses in front of their faces disrespectfully. It is you westerners who gave them money for the pictures you took and made them beggars. They don’t want any missionary or a teacher neither do they want to know your personal perception of the world and civilization. They have something they believe in and that is perfectly fine with them. Who the hell are we to judge them. Is it killing people on the streets or raping women on a broad sunny day that you call civilization? Have you thought for a second about the evil things we do every day in our lives? If this people are wrongly thought, then they are only hurting themselves but our evil deeds are hurting the world and the entire human race at large. So please shut up and live your own lives before you judge someone’s!
You sir are an ignorant and silly man. Study the language before you try and use it, because English isn’t something you should try and write a pseudo-scientific article in if you cant clearly explain yourself. Second you’re an idiot. You clearly know nothing of these people, and anyone with half a brain could prove you false with one click of the mouse….you really shouldn’t make up stories like this.
this is not respectful in the sense, that it refers to them as mutants,and the title is terrible truth. It’s different and unusual, that doesn’t make it terrible. It also gives us no right to insult them and decide whether or not they are civilized. I find it quite interesting, but I can’t say this article was very helpful. The only thing I don’t understand, is how do women eat with the plate in their mouth?
How to eat these womens with mouth plate.
what is concept of mouth plate.i don’t understand.this is too much painfull working.she is wearing havey key ring and how to staisfy with plate in lips and hole and plate in key and hole.
what the hill there is a curse on these people its impossible and they are totally naked
well it seems that many people in the world are incapable of thinking for themselves. hello this message board.
perhaps those who seem to believe in a christian god have been taught something that is not true. it is not my place to say. however it seems ignorant to call other people ignorant. it also seems ignorant to disregard what others say without any apparent attempt at understanding: melinda, stacey. have you ever thought of making up some of your own rules?
i envy the simplicity of life that i assume the Mursi have. it is also gratifying to see a society where the women seem to have a large amount of power – melinda, stacey, i don’t know what god says about this but women in the ‘civilised’ world only got the vote in the 1900s: thats a long time as a piece of furniture.
however there are things in the Mursi society which appear to be negative: some of the bodily decoration must make certain tasks difficult, like eating, and there is a chance that the half-mentioned cannibalism may contribute to the ‘violent nature’ of the people.
however, there are many things wrong with western ‘civilised’ culture too.
melinda – stacey – can you guys think of any?
ash’s message is the most lucid and fair statement on this page, including this one. judge not, lest ye be judged. (obviously, i have no fear of being judged. but thats because you judge yourself.)
that B6a6r6n guy cannot spell the word ”civilized” and cant spell staceey’s name the right way. there are many forms to spell it and me her name does’nt sound like the name stacy, so just dont assume and be respectful to spell their names the right way… I do agree w/ staceey and I especially agree w/ Melinda, but the B6a6r6n has it extremely wrong.So since he does’nt care of being judged than well, that is his problem.
Hey guys,
Last time it was all about the mursi and how right their traditions are. Now it seems to me that it is turning into an English teaching class.
Melinda,by the way you are one of the most stupid and nonsense people I have ever met,can you focus on the points being conveyed in the comments than the spelling of individual words? do you think being unable to use the English language is “UNCIVILIZED”? Can you see how narrow your mind and your scope of thinking is? Can you sit down for a second and think of the homosexual dramas, the mass killings and the drug abuse in the nooks of California? Why do we fail to see the dirt in our eyes as we see others? What does your religion tell you about that? Melinda, please don’t just look at the glasses you wear, look through them to see the world and read a lot to broaden your scope of thinking. Do you think you know the mursi better than I do? Yeah the problem begins with believing everything you read on the web and please know that not every click can give you the right info about anything. I know the mursi in person not from Google, I ate and drunk with them, slept in their hut and enjoyed their hospitality. They did not eat me as some tried to put them as Cannibals. So stop clicking for the Mursi and click to know how to maximize a global thinking and develop yourself into a better being who thinks fair and balance!
Thanks!
‘
It is extremely a bad cultural practice and this should be automatically stop!!
pence que yo era el feo
graveh… so terrible ngah… what kind of culture is that..? hu..!!! kuletzzz…
WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE? (I mean certain people who commented, not the mursi)
… this is what I get for trying to look up info on tribal groups… a bunch of crap.
And they’re not ugly. The lip plate looks strange the first few times u see it, but u get used to it. They look way better/healthier than a lot of people in the U.S.
So, yeah, their culture’s not perfect, and neither are all the other African tribes, and ours sucks in so many ways. why westernize the whole world and make it one boring, artificial place without different cultures?
Oh, yeah one more thing… about what Stacey said… they do NOT need shirts! like wtf? It’s Africa. it’s hot over there. And what the heck is healthy about being so ashamed of your own body that you go around your entire life with a piece of fabric over it.
i hate christian
anna i agree wit u. its great tat we can actually see these kind of tribes still here.we all came from these kind of people its all our history get over it.its great its just like goin back in time. these people compared to us would be more happy and satisfied in their life. in comparisin how many of thme would be sucicidal not like our society how many of them are prostitutes,serial killers.corupte polliticians.create people like hilter,the poe,mass control tru lies in religion wat we eat all full of chemicals pollutin and destroyin our own world because of development tryin to constatnly have more and more till we destroy ourselves and go back to basics.i admire these people and wish we still had the knowledge to live and be happy like these people.i dont care if my spellings arent great i typed it so fast if u have any worldly knowledge u would understand and agree wit me. theres no such thing as the good ol’ days but far back as when we lived like this these were the great ol’ days.fair play to them they should be left alone because when we die cause we cant cope wit life after watever destruction we cause them people will still be here.
what is the reason the people puting something in their mouth
staceey sounds like a dumbass
When Mursi girls reaches puberty age , she will have her lip cut and a small wooden stick inserted, giving her new identify, she becomes a (bansanai) an age set Mursi that indicates a girls passage from girlhood to woman hood.
Mursi Tribe Ethiopia
I hope no one takes this blog entry seriously. Why are you telling lies? To boost your ego? If you have been to the Omo valley yourself, you should know better. I work as a guide and tour leader and will be happy to return to the area with European groups in September.
Please show some respect to the Mursi, to your readers and yourself.
This article is absolutely insulting and should be banned from view. It is a sad day when I am in lament of being a westerner. All commentator’s who have shown complete lack of respect and humanity should crawl back into the filthy hole they came from!
my name is Jomoloko, and i am right from the Mursi tribe, living in Jinka,please you all have got no idea about what the tribe is all about. Me i was born, in Hailewuha, in Mursi, and let me try to give you some highlights that will probably shape your dirty mind.
The reason why they put DABY ( THE LIP PLATE)
As per the trdtional tale teaching program, which is given by the old people where they got lesson with the same trend as we got it, we call this program GAFFI,
hERE YOU HAVE THE REAL REASON,
500 years before there was a fight b/n the south Sudaneese tribes and the Mursi and Surma, and when the Sudaneese tribes win the war , the Surma young men and young women were taken as slaves. And the old people of the then time noticed that there will not be any one who is going to take care of the children and the old ones and told for the woman to put a little hole and a normal stick in the lower part of their mouth and ear , and after some time they put a little circular plate like but made with wood, and it has got five to six stages , and finally they put a clay made and burned with butter plate in their mouth. So that the girls who had such a plate were not taken as slaves due to their Ugly appearance , no one will buy them, which inturn was very helpfull for the old people and the small children to be taken care.
You call us aggressive, not civilised, wild, whatever you might call us, but we are who we are , and it is not your problem , there are so many secret things that am not allowed to tell you here,even if you come and live with us for years you can’t understand it. And please leave us, But for further corrections you can contact me rawnboy2@gmail.com
i am confused and i can believe this is real. what!!!! are these people doing? are they normall human beings like ourselfs?
I found your blog the most unresearched, lay man’s blog ever!! I regret the mins i spend going through this trash. If anybody want to know about the Mursi/Hamar(endangered ancient residents of the omovalley) You have to research and read an anthropologist’s or well read traveller’s blog.
p.s. I am an ethiopian & i can tell you your blog(except the deliberate selected pics) is misleading and disrespectful. They do smell much better than you do and they believe that souls reside not only in humanbeings but also on animals, mountains, tress…and they do have much respect to nature than you do!
This article is disgustingly inaccurate. I won’t even address the inaccurate subject matter, I.E. the claims of their beady eyes and bad smell, because seriously, it’s all just crazy racist stuff you made up or exaggerated upon. You aren’t a qualified anthropologist and you have no idea what you are talking about. There is no NEGROID RACE. There is only one race, and that is the HUMAN RACE. All colors of people are members of the HUMAN RACE.
Next time you write something, do some legitimate research and then run it through a spell check before you post it. Your terrible grammar and spelling made it difficult to take this article seriously even without taking into consideration the ignorance of the content.
Stupid stupid stupid.
Also, the people commenting who believe this article is true are just as ignorant. You should have your hateful tongues ripped out.
to tara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negroid
what a piece of art display
eeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…they should die or move somewhere and be taught correct
Oh!!!!!Can any body define “civilization” and modernization for me? Is it living in the capitalist society??? this is the way they chose to leave. They did no harm to anybody. why can’t you live with that? And regarding English grammar, English is not our first language and it’s okay if we make mistakes. but you perfectly understand what we’re trying to say. You are just victims of Superiority complex. And English is the most pain in the ass language ever.
@admin
Wikipedia is not a valid source. Do some real research. There is only one race, and that is the HUMAN race. Every color of people are included in the human race.
@hanna
This article is fake, ignorant and, No I do NOT understand what the author is trying to say. I value and respect other languages, and I do know how hard it is to make yourself understood in a language that is not your own, but this poorly written article is full of hate. The hatred and hurtfulness of this article are what I was truly criticizing. All those people in the pictures aren’t even from the same tribe.
It is inexcusable.
They must be close relatives of the apes.
The person who wrote this is incredibly rascist and ignorant. This artical is full of incorrect steriotypes. I thought in this day and age our generation was broadminded and accepting, but obviously not. And apart from the fury i feel that this article was written, i feel a bigger sense of pity for the person who wrote it. The author of this article is filled with hatred for things he/she does not understand.