Who Are the Mursi?
The Mursi are a Nilotic agro-pastoralist people living in the lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia, near the borders with South Sudan and Kenya. Numbering approximately **11,500 people**, they are perhaps best known internationally for their striking tradition of **lip plates** (dhebĂnya tugĂłĂn)—large clay discs worn by women in their lower lips, achieved through gradual stretching beginning in adolescence. Beyond this famous practice, the Mursi maintain a complex society organized around cattle pastoralism, flood-retreat cultivation along the Omo River, and an age-grade system that structures male advancement and political participation. Their homeland lies within **Omo National Park**, creating ongoing conflicts between conservation policies and Mursi land rights.
Lip Plates and Body Art
The Mursi lip plate tradition represents one of the world's most striking forms of body modification. Around age 15-16, a girl's lower lip is cut by her mother or another female relative, and a small wooden plug is inserted. Over months and years, progressively larger clay plates are worn, stretching the lip to accommodate discs up to 12-15 centimeters in diameter. The practice is entirely voluntary; many Mursi women choose not to wear plates. Traditionally, larger plates indicated higher bride-price, though this correlation has weakened. Mursi men are famous for their **scarification** patterns—intricate designs cut into the skin using thorns and ash to create raised scars marking achievements in battle or cattle raiding. Both men and women practice elaborate **body painting** using white chalk and red ochre, transforming themselves into living artworks for ceremonies.
Cattle Culture and Economy
Like neighboring Nilotic peoples, the Mursi center their culture on **cattle**. Cattle represent wealth, prestige, and social connection—paid as bride-price, sacrificed at important ceremonies, and essential for male identity. Boys compose songs praising their favorite ox, whose color and horn shape inspire personal names. However, the Mursi are not solely pastoralists; they practice **flood-retreat agriculture** along the Omo River, planting sorghum as floodwaters recede to exploit naturally fertilized soils. This dual economy—cattle and cultivation—provides resilience against the unpredictable droughts and floods of the lower Omo Valley. Women maintain kitchen gardens; men manage cattle camps that may be distant from settlements. Trade and occasional raiding supplement subsistence, though conflict with neighboring groups has intensified as resources become scarcer.
Age Grades and Donga Dueling
Mursi men advance through an **age-grade system** that structures social life and political authority. Young men must prove themselves through the famous **donga** (ceremonial dueling)—ritual combat using long poles, fought between unmarried men from different villages. Contestants battle naked or nearly so, striking opponents until one yields or is knocked unconscious. Injuries are common, deaths occasional. Success in donga enhances a man's reputation and attractiveness to potential wives. The age-grade system also organizes military action, labor mobilization, and political decision-making. Elders hold authority, but debates in open assemblies allow male voices across age grades. Women, while excluded from formal political structures, exercise considerable influence through domestic authority and control of cultivation.
Threats and Adaptation
The Mursi face existential threats from Ethiopian state development projects. The **Gibe III Dam** on the Omo River (completed 2016) ended the natural flood cycles essential to Mursi cultivation, devastating their agricultural economy. Sugar plantations have seized vast areas of Mursi land. The government resettlement program, called "villagization," aims to move Mursi from traditional territories into permanent villages—policy presented as development but experienced as dispossession. Tourism brings income but also exploitation and cultural commodification, with visitors paying to photograph "authentic" lip-plated women. Yet the Mursi adapt and resist: some embrace tourism entrepreneurship; activists document rights violations; lip plate traditions persist despite missionary pressure. The Mursi's future depends on whether Ethiopian policies accommodate indigenous land rights or continue displacing one of Africa's last agro-pastoralist societies.
References
- Turton, D. (2004). "Lip-plates and 'the people who take photographs': Uneasy encounters between Mursi and tourists in southern Ethiopia." Anthropology Today, 20(3), 3-8.
- LaTosky, S. (2006). Reflections on the Lip-plates of Mursi Women as a Source of Stigma and Self-esteem. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
- Turton, D. (2011). "Wilderness, wasteland or home? Three ways of imagining the Lower Omo Valley." Journal of Eastern African Studies, 5(1), 158-176.
- Stevenson, E. G., & Buffavand, L. (2018). "'Do our bodies know their ways?' Villagization, food insecurity, and ill-being in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley." African Studies Review, 61(1), 109-133.