| The Mursi |
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Perhaps the best known of the Omo peoples are the Mursi, thought to number around 6500, are mainly pastoralists who move according to the seasons between the lower Tama Steppe and the Mursi Hills in Mago National Park. Some Mursi practice flood retreat cultivation, particularly in the areas where the tse tse fly prohibits cattle rearing. Honey is collected from beehives made with bark and dung. The Mursi language is Nilo-Saharan in origin. The most famous Mursi traditions include the fierce stick fighting between the men, and the lip plate worn by the women which is made of clay and often quite large, the plates are inserted into slits in their lower lips. Anthropologists offer several theories to explain the practice: to deter slavers looking for unblemished girls; to prevent evil from entering the body by way of the mouth; or to indicate social status by showing the number of cattle required by the wearer’s family for her hand in marriage.
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