Suri woman with labret - Omo Ethiopia
Eric Lafforgue posted a photo: Piercing and lip plates are a strong part of the Suri culture. These traditional adornments are worn by almost all the adult Suri women. Ear labrets are worn by women, but also men. When a Suri woman is about to be married, usually in her teens (around 14 or 15), she disappears from village life to live in her family hut. The gap between her front lip and the flesh below is pierced and gradually stretched. In the beginning a hole is made in the lip with a wooden stick. The strecth continues as successively bigger discs of clay or wood are accomodated by the disfigured lip. Generally the two lower front teeth are pulled (or knocked) out to aid the process. The final size of the plates determines how many cattle the woman will receive as a dowry, so the more stretched her lip the better, and the more the more cattle the woman is worth. Some women have stretched their lips so as to allow plates up to 20 cm in diameter. Having a lip plate is considered a s...
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